This is what has been going on in the past few weeks..:(
 

3 weeks ago, I lost 3rd gear. I took it to a mechanic, he said a rebuild is needed. A week later, I lost it completely, tranny died. I managed to find an impreza auto tranny and rear diff. Just when I thought my problems were over, i was wrong. The impreza was the brighton model so it had a smaller rear diff. I then went on to find a legacy rear diff and found one. After I bought it, I was instructed to check if it was 4.11 because that is what i needed but to my bad luck, I had a 3.90. Later that week, I found a 4.11. I took out the ring and pinion out of the 4.11 and did the swap. The tranny was installed a week after that and today I got the car back but tranny oil was leaking as i had a bad dipstick pipe. I was able to change that but I was driving and it was fine for a while and then it just would not shift. And when I pulled over, there was smoke coming from under. I called Subaru earlier this week to ask them if all auto imprezas had the 4.11 ratio and they said no, it depended on the VIN. So basically i think that my tranny is 3.96 and i got 4.11 gear in the rear. $1400 later, I am still in the damn hole with no car and now i am forced to sell it. I can't all this stuff that's happeneing. Would the 4.11 gears in the rear cause smoke in the front?

oh yea, i am running it in FWD mode but all 4 wheels still get power. Don't understand why.

I feel bad for your situation. :( I dont think selling it would be a viable option at this point. You would be lucky to get $1400 for the car if the transmission isnt working, especially in that it is an Impreza transmission. So breaking even would be somewhat difficult. I would recommend you search your local salvage yards for a SVX transmission and get everything back to the way it should be. You'll be better off in the long run IMO. :)

Best,

Mike

That sounds horrible. Where exactly is the smoke coming from?

It doesn't sound as though the tranny was installed correctly. Perhaps it's oil leaking on the exhaust? It sounds as though the tranny is locked in 50/50 mode. Did they miss a connection between the tranny and the TCU? Perhaps the AWD solenoid is stuck?

when i take out the fuse and it is in AWD mode. I feel like a shudder from the back, feels like it's coming fromt the rear diff. I think the back diff has 4.11 and the front is 3.96, would that cause these probs?

Won't shift and smoke sounds like a tranny fluid leak to me, if the gears don't match up it would cause binding right away, and you said it was fine for a while, so I say a line is leaking and once enough fluid is gone it doesn't shift any more.
Get under it and check all the lines, everywhere there is a rubber line and where they bolt to the transmission.
I bet that is the problem.

one question, did the brighton model impreza's come with the 3.96 ratio or 4.11?

good news is maybe i won't have to sell it if i get this prob resolved. I dropped the car off at a tranny shop.

Anyone here work for subaru or can obtian info about the car if i gave a vin?

I got the vin of a 93 auto impreza, i need to know the gear ratio it had. I called subaru and they said call back monday as they are closed. the 93's were made in 3.9, 4,1 and 4.44. I got 2 of the three diff's with me. I just hope it's not the 4.44.

well i decided to garage my svx. I will prolly sell my svx later on.But for now I am gonna buy an 85 supra for $900 cdn which is like $700 US. I went to see the car, it is beautiful. RWD!!!! It has 281,000 kms on it, 2nd tranny. Oh yea, it's auto. The guy is selling it to me with all the spare parts and by the end of summer, i hope to have a lex gs400 300HP engine in there :)

I take it that it isn't a turbo? Isn't that going to cost you more than getting your tranny working... or swapping to a manual? C'mon... you can't give up on an SVX.:( :cool:

i am sorry to say but with my svx, the problems seems endless.