what're the possibilites cause to lose AWD?

[SSSVX]

Hi All,
kind of sad. i've to believe that my AWD SVX is not having AWD now. i did an experiment at wal-mart tonight. i was waiting for about 3hrs. they said they could help me lift my car up and checked. usually, AWD SVX has the 90/10 split, right? when it needs it'll go to 50/50 split. the result was when the car was lifted up, put to 'D', the rear wheels didn't rotate at all, even the guy pressed the gas, the front wheels just kept spinning faster off the ground. there's no response from rear wheels at all!! this is a FWD to me. where's my 10% spinning at the rear? i did have the feelings that when i floored the gas a lot, the front wheels kept spinning faster on the snow, and, it seemed to me that rear wheels were very hard or not to get engaged to rotate at all. since this is my first AWD, i don't know what it's really supposed to do on the snow. my first impression on the blizzard night was not as incrediable as i always read. therefore my experiement at wal-mart proved to me i'm right, agree?

i've owned this X for 4.5mths. on the dry pavement, i floored my throttle(power mode) and i never had my front wheels spun. i thought that my AWD was okay? until the first snow test after x'mas, i keep having the suspicions. my '92 LS-L just clocked over 58K tonight. sad? no awd?

anyway, i'm not that kind of people want to give up/sell my car like that. i wish by your helps, ideas and experiences could help me tackle my problem. no awd no fun for the winter! i can't believe i drove my fwd awd svx thru so many snow after x'mas.
thanks in advance.

[Beav]

I think your best bet is to take the car to the dealer for an inspection and estimate. You may only need the transfer clutch repaired, whereas another shop may tell you the entire trans needs rebuilt. If you're not comfortable with the estimate, get two or three different estimates.

Don't make the mistake that 90% of the people taking their car in for service make - don't try to diagnose the problem at the service desk. Just tell them the problem you're experiencing. They're the specialists, don't lead them down the wrong path with an uneducated guess.

Make sure that before you have repairs made that the estimate states that the problem will be fixed, not just a list of parts and labor. Afterall, that's why you brought the car in, to have a specific problem repaired.

Beav

The SVX (US Version) is actually 60% front and 40% rear power split at normal. I know that doesn't cure your problem but I figured I'd just let you know.

If it were me, I just redo the whole trans. The dealer I used to work for charges about $2700 for a factory remanufactured trans/differential, including labor and parts and a 2 year/24,000 mile warranty. Just the diff alone will be about half that. Being a 92, I would say the trans is likely to go bad sooner or later. Probably soon since the diff already gave out.

There is a fuse holder under the hood by the passenger side firewall. It has "FWD" printed on it in white letters. Check and make sure there is NO FUSE in it. If it has a fuse pull it out and drive the car a couple of miles and recheck to see if the AWD works again.

Hope this helps.

[svx_commuter]

I have this problem on my car. The torque steer is so bad it will pull the car off the road from a standing start under heavy acceleration. I have done the work myself to find the problem. On my car it is no pressure to the transfer clutch. This is measured at a port on the outside of the transfer case. Check that out first. I have also checked out the solenoid "C" and it is working okay electrically or at least the voltage to "C" is correct. It goes to zero when the accelerator is depressed. Also had all 4 wheels off the ground and the backs do not spin. I also have driven a working AWD and it handles differently. Much better.

I also installed a switch to cut the power to "C" and the RWD worked for awhile, about 5 minutes, but then I thru the switch whle in 'P" or "N" and the clutch went thump and the transfer valve was stuck for good.

I have bought the parts to change the transfer valve and solenoid, Just trying to make time to put it in.

My car has been real good in the snow with just the FWD.

Check the fuse first and maybe you will get lucky.

Stay off the gas unless you want to replace the front differential and axles. It will over load the front drive train. My car will not spin the front wheels when the FWD fuse is in place. The car gets slower in FWD mode.

[SSSVX]

thanks for you guys' inputs. spring semester has started for a week. have been very busy lately.

of course, if i can, i would like to fix/figure out/find out the problem by myself. my awd hasn't got it fixed. i don't drive the ~X very often. it's still 58K on the clock. one tank of premium could last me 3-4weeks. i drove the stick-shift altima more.

if there's not the last choice, i won't go to the dealer. there're a couple of good tranny shops and one pretty good subaru mec i found. i'll try to figure out the problem w/ them. i suspect that could be the transfer clutch. hopefully it'll be a cheap fix to me.

my tranny is pretty new(last year one w/ two cooler up-shifts very smooth) before i bought my SVX on Aug 01. i can't go and re-do the whole trans thing. that's too much.

the four wheels were off the ground. the front wheels were only turning. no awd!! however, even i full throttle(no torque steer to me), i can't never spin the front wheels of my car on dry pavement. there's no binding/chatter on tight turns on my car. i can control and there's no big prob for me driving on the snow. my front wheels did get spinning a lot sometimes - no power transfer to the rear wheels. however, i still can control the car okay on the slippery snow. on the very steep hill, it might get stuck. the FWD fuse is not plugged in! i usually drive the car easily. my both CV-boots and axles are new. one week before i bought my car. it's some $600 work on it one week before i got my car. there's only 3K miles till now.

taking my time to fix it. hopefully i can get it fixed before the winter's over. wanna try the real quality of my AWD on the big snow on steep hill. there're 3 possibilities on my mind so far. transfer clutch, the electronic thing beside the tranny(one subaru mech told the legacy has the prob too), solenoid c(SVX_COMMUTER, where's solenoid C at? is that easy to replace just plug-in and out? )

thanks. i'll updated what my AWD prob is when it gets done.

[svx_commuter]

The solenoid "C" is in the transfer case. Drop the exhaust, drop the drive shaft, remove the transfer case.......

[vkykam]

If my memory serves me correct, the Solenoid C "disengages" the AWD. If it fails, the car should be in full time 50/50 split (been there, one of the two wires to the solenoid broke, don't want to do it again).

Have you check to see if there's any codes stored in the TCU?

I'm kinda stumped as to why you can't spin the front tires if there's no power going to the rear...

With car on hoist, barely lift it off the ground, and use a 2x4 or something to stop both the front tires while not on throttle to see if the power gets transferred to the rear wheels.

My 2 (very devalued Canadian) cents.

VK

Originally posted by svx_commuter
The solenoid "C" is in the transfer case. Drop the exhaust, drop the drive shaft, remove the transfer case.......

[SSSVX]

thanks for you guys' inputs.

my awd is fixed right now(got back last saturday -slept there for 10days - because of waiting for my own fluid and stuff coming in) but it wasn't fixed by myself. too bad, first, i don't have the time and i might not have enough of skills and tools. took it to a good local tranny shop. at the same time, service the tranny and replaced with the RedLind HighTemp now.
the great Beav hit the right thing. they checked all the electronical stuff and connections were good. the problem was just the 'transfer clutch.' w/ everything plus the cost of a case of RedLine I ordered, this fix was $700++. now looking forward to seeing the big snow.

B4: lift the car up, to prove to myself, yes, in "D" the front wheels only spun. that's the way i could think and prove to myself - no awd.

After: can't wait to make sure. lift the car up off the ground. at any gear, 4 wheels were spinning equally. randy said that there's not good to do that. why? won't do that again. just want to make sure all wheels can spin.

have a nice day.