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front end vibrations help


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ok i have a 97 legacyL awd.when i first got the car i noticed it felt like it was in awd all the time.it would buck and bind when turning it sharp,i seen on here to check the fuse(fwd)under the hood and put one it it to make it fwd only.....well there was already one in it.so to help with the binding i removed the rear drive shaft,that fixed the binding,but now i noticed the front end is vibrating under acceleration with all the binding up it had before do you think it has damaged the axels.how can you tell if a axel is bad and would it cause it to vibrate and shimmy in the front or is there a issue with something else.i have replaced tie rods and bottom ball joints.
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Thats becaus you got it in FWD mode.

I drove mine with a bad cv shaft ball joint and front wheel baring so i think personelly you should take

the fuse out and put it in the glovebox and call it a day.

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It sounds like you're not properly doing your research before doing things. Things you should know:

 

1. When the fuse is installed in the FWD holder under the hood, a red 'FWD' light should illuminate on your instrument cluster. You mention that you went to put one in only to discover that one was already there. If the fuse was already there, and it was WORKING (was there no FWD light on before you checked?!) then that should have solved the binding issue, unless perhaps something is causing the center clutch pack to jam on.

 

2. The FWD fuse is not supposed to be installed except under certain situations (towing, diagnostics, or a flat tire.) In other words, there should NOT have been a fuse in there to begin with, unless the previous owner was trying to hide a problem with the AWD system (perhaps he removed the FWD bulb on the dash so that it would not light up?) You should NOT drive the car regularly in this mode. It should be AWD all the time. You need to solve the problem causing the binding and return the vehicle to the mode it is supposed to be in before you damage something... which brings me to:

 

3. Vibration under acceleration could be all sorts of things, but it's definitely not out of the realm of possibility that this is a result of damage to the front differential or axles as a result of the problems you are experiencing. The front end of the vehicle is NOT designed to deal with 100% of the engine's power (when you accelerate, the car splits the power between the front and rear) and while I don't think any immediate damage would result from driving in this mode, at the end of the day, you are putting more stress on the front end than those parts were designed for.

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I will try to take the fuse out,I took the rear drive shaft out and there is no binding now but I think the axels are bad,when the rear shaft was in the axels would pop when turning sharp.i would like to put the awd back in but the binding was very bad.but I'll take the fuse out and try,by the way I've never seen any fwd light on anywhere?
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Update,pulled fwd fuse put the rear drive shaft back in it still binds up when turning and rear wheels pull with fuse in or out so I'm thinking its the clutches locked up?but leaving the rear shaft out does stop the binding up.would still like to find that vibration out.awd is not a big deal.i just use this car to drive to work and back.
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I think maybe the bulb is just out I'm not sure why the fuse was in there it was there when I bought the car and it had a zip tie holding it in.not unless they were trying to fix the binding issue as well and was thinking with it in the rear wheels would not pull?thx for the help guys Iam new to the Subaru world this sucker has 238,000 miles on but still runs good.
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