What do you N/A 2.5L drivers get for MPG???

Absolutely positively NOT.

The tire says right on it: "MAX inflation" That's a maximum (for safety), not a recommendation!!

I can use the same wheels&tires on the front of an Impala (V8, weighs a ton.. or two), or the front of a dune buggy (which is light enough for two guys to LIFT, since it's rear-engined), but the PSI needs to be wildly different for them to ride properly and provide adequate traction. Impala: 32-35PSI. Dune buggy: 10-15PSI.

Never driven an Autotranny Suby myself, but yeah, you should feel the lockup, and feel it disengage when you get on the gas pedal a bit.

Compare your RPM:MPH ratio to someone else with the same tranny as a quick sanity check. In my 5MTs, 3000RPM in 5th gear has me going about 67MPH. I'd expect the auto to be in the same neighborhood, but if your lockup wasn't working right, you'd see much higher RPMs (and more gas used!) to maintain that same speed with all the slippage inherent in an auto tranny.
(Since you're still under 3K @70MPH, I'd guess your lockup is workin' just fine)

 

Learn something every day. Thanks for correcting my misconception.

I went with a higher than recommended PSI (though still under max by > 10%) because it felt a bit squishy and I was getting some bad squirm when coming spiritedly down on-ramps with cracks in pavement. Bumping the pressures up made a significantly noticeable improvement to feel and I haven't noticed any crowning or uneven wear since doing it (10k miles ago, maybe).

 

subaru auto trannys are dogboxes though. in dogboxes i mean they really hold back the power. my mom has a 03 legacy with a 2.5 and in auto, i have a stick. her car feels like there are 5 sumo wrestlers in the car with me.

 

PM'd you back, will PM Ej22Tim in a min.

IIRC, going manual changes the front-rear torque split, too, right? something like 90/10 normally w/ the 4EAT and something much closer to 50/50 w/ the 5MT? Rear-wheel torque FTW?

 

Hmm, squishy and squirmy eh? That brings us full circle back to "have your alignment checked".

Yeah, maxing-out the PSI in your tires will compensate a bit for bad alignment, simply because it reduces the amount of rubber touching the road. But, as you can probably guess, having less rubber touching the road has DISadvantages too!

40PSI is good on a car that's being stored for the winter (helps prevent "flat spots"). Not so good for driving on, though. And you're REALLY gonna hate 40PSI trying to drive on snow! 8-o

 

Didn't know that could be an alignment issue. Point taken. Time to search out the Jeff the alignment guy thread and schedule an appt. Thanks a ton, dude.

 

on the autos its a FRONT wheel bias 60/40 FTL lol

 

^^ i heard its only 3 wheels full time too. the two front wheels are full time with some sort of LSD and then the back two wheels have a right or left side LSD so in an early awd subaru automatic there never is 4 wheels putting power to the ground at the same time.

 

There is some serious misinformation in this thread, lol.



First of all, Subarus send power to all four wheels. The only time you don't is if one wheel has too big of traction variance and you spin a wheel. For instance, if you are on a slippery surface, have open front and rear differentials, you can hammer the gas and spin all four tires if each one has the same traction as the other. Now, if one wheel is on gravel and the other is on ice, then yes one will spin. This all assumes you have open differentials. Go read about how differentials work and get back to me.




Putting a fuse into the "FWD" isn't going to save you any gas mileage if your transmission is functioning properly. If your Duty C solenoid has failed, that's a different story. When they fail, you have full lock all the time between the front and rear, so you would get a bit worse mileage than with it functioning properly with the 90/10 front/rear split when open. By open, I mean no line pressure and thus no lock-up of the transfer clutch because you aren't spinning the front wheels relative to the rears.

 

I read that thread and I ended up dozing off at work. Could someone help explain how this works in Lames english for some of us.

Not that I'm encouraging others to do this, but my AWD still works fine w/o issues. I recall someone else on this forum stating he has been driving his Subaru as a FWD for many years, something like 5yrs but I can't recall who it was. Anyway it was a lot of fun driving up a hill on a construction site to the house in pouring rain with bald tires and FWD. Well soon snow will be upon us and the FWD fuse will go bye bye and the snow tires will be going on and it will be time for some winter fun and the mpg will be out the window. Today the gas prices was an all time low $2.59 which is still more than last year according to experts but who cares, its less than 3 buckaroos. Since taking on a Prius, its made me more aware of other ways to conserve fuel on the Forester, except for when I'm in the 240sx.

 

An automatic AWD Subaru acts like the FWD fuse is in until the front wheels slip. Unless the Duty C solenoid fails (which controls the trasfer clutch (AWD)) and you are at full lock between the front and rear, installing the FWD fuse doesn't really save you anything. Even with the fuse in, there is still some dragging of the clutches, so it is never fully FWD, more like 90/10.


So, in short terms, your auto awd acts like fwd untill you slip the front wheels.