hoosierdaddy

The previous owners had tried for about 3 years to solve the torque bind problem... various mechanics had suggested and done various things, but the ATF hadn't been changed for almost 100K km (60K miles). I guess it never occurred to them that the ATF might be the problem, cuz they sold it to me thinking that it needed CV joints. After I checked the CV joints and found nothing apparently wrong I figured changing the ATF was worth a try, and it sure did make a huge difference. Hopefully the problem that you mention about the Duty-C solenoid won't be an issue, although it seems the car had been run for quite a while with the torque-bind problem and dirty ATF. Other than that, it seems the car was regularly serviced and repaired. I just drained and refilled, adding Lubegard... and plan to do it again in a couple of weeks. Thanks for the confirmation that this is a common issue with the 4EAT transaxles.

Thanks lekmedm, LongHiway and eVoMotion... I'll check out those links. I did the change of fluids today and the new ATF made a HUGE difference in how the car drives... no more binding on low speed turns, and the shifts are so much smoother. Feels like a different car. I'm starting to appreciate the elegant and rugged simplicity of Subaru engineering and design. I'm guessing this old '96 OB has a few years (decades?) of life left in it yet! Cheers!

I just picked up a 96 OB for use as a "winter beater"... although now that I've cleaned it up a bit it looks like new. It has 178K km (about 110K miles) and came with a complete service history. I'm going to change all the driveline fluids this week as it's been a while since the tranny (4EAT) and diffs were drained. I'm feeling a bit of binding/ jerking in low speed turns so I'm hoping the new fluids will smooth things out a bit. My summer car is a Porsche Cayman, and this Subie is my first ever Japanese car (well, a US built Japanese car). I guess I'm building a collection of boxer-engined cars! This forum has already been a useful source of info... looking forward to participating. And my user name refers to the car... being from Indiana and all...