So I dropped off my 07 Impreza last night at my local indie to swap a terrible, terrible set of Megan Racing springs that were on the car when I bought it for a set of King springs from Primitive Racing to lift it. Car went from about 1.7" drop to 1.5" lift, so quite a change in attitude. I go this afternoon to pick it up, and the owner goes, "Man, your transmission has some issues." I said yeah it drops into higher gears pretty quick, paid, and went out to leave. (BTW I love the lift, will post pics soon!) I put the car in gear, and WTH? It's like the trans is a stick and the clutch is halfway engaged. I moved the car about 10 feet and still not moving, so I turn around and pull back up to the door to check if maybe they somehow drained half the trans fluid out or something. When I shift the car into park on a slight incline, THE CAR STARTS ROLLING BACKWARDS IN PARK!
So now my slight concern about fluid quickly turns to panic as I take pride in maintaining my cars in like-new condition. I throw the parking brake on, and run in and grab the owner, and ask exactly what they did? I drove the car 85 miles during the day just before I dropped it off and it was fine. He didn't say so, but I am sure he's like, "Yeah right, trans had to be jacked since all we did was change springs." So we check the fluid, and it was on the "Full Cold" mark, so no obvious there, and his first guess is maybe the shifter cable was loose. I remind him that any time he's ever touched my cars has not been from lack of preventive maintenance or even failure, but worn parts- he replaces shocks, struts, halfshafts... and that I KNOW my vehicle. It's not a cable. So he says "Let's pull it on the lift" and I nurse it up on. Lift the car up a little, nothing leaking. Chest high, everything still looking fine. Get it overhead, walk under. Trans pan dry, no red fluid leaks, nothing obviously broken. Then we grab the flashlight and start digging in- rear suspension and halfshafts good, driver halfshaft good, passenger halfshaft... HOLY CRAP. Passenger halfshaft pulled out of front differential far enough I can see splines! So I quickly put it all together... taking front suspension apart, when control arm dropped it pulled the shaft out, and since it's buried and not "normal" it was missed upon reassembling the struts. Then it comes out... owner has had flu and he normally does my work, but still not full strength... so the "helper" did most of the heavy lifting for my job today.
Owner tries to pop halfshaft back in but no joy, and my heart is heavy. Owner asks if he can keep it without causing me issues, that he will make it right; he wants to pull halfshaft and make sure splines aren't damaged on either part. I'm obviously frustrated but trust him, and once it's fixed I will ask if he will cover for a short time in case something pops up say a month from now, and also that I don't want any "helpers" working on my car. If I need stuff done, it can wait until the owner has time to personally do it.
Anyways, one "positive" (gotta find something at this point) is that this confirms to me that Subaru's system actually is a "true" AWD- Subaru's center clutch on these are "full 50/50" power distribution when accelerating from a stop, and this "experiment" removed one halfshaft from what should have been a 4-way 25% power split and essentially transferred 0% to any of the wheels. Obviously the front diff is open and lets front wheel speed vary for turns, but the center diff should still provide rear motive force independent of the front. More to come tomorrow... hopefully good news and pics!
So now my slight concern about fluid quickly turns to panic as I take pride in maintaining my cars in like-new condition. I throw the parking brake on, and run in and grab the owner, and ask exactly what they did? I drove the car 85 miles during the day just before I dropped it off and it was fine. He didn't say so, but I am sure he's like, "Yeah right, trans had to be jacked since all we did was change springs." So we check the fluid, and it was on the "Full Cold" mark, so no obvious there, and his first guess is maybe the shifter cable was loose. I remind him that any time he's ever touched my cars has not been from lack of preventive maintenance or even failure, but worn parts- he replaces shocks, struts, halfshafts... and that I KNOW my vehicle. It's not a cable. So he says "Let's pull it on the lift" and I nurse it up on. Lift the car up a little, nothing leaking. Chest high, everything still looking fine. Get it overhead, walk under. Trans pan dry, no red fluid leaks, nothing obviously broken. Then we grab the flashlight and start digging in- rear suspension and halfshafts good, driver halfshaft good, passenger halfshaft... HOLY CRAP. Passenger halfshaft pulled out of front differential far enough I can see splines! So I quickly put it all together... taking front suspension apart, when control arm dropped it pulled the shaft out, and since it's buried and not "normal" it was missed upon reassembling the struts. Then it comes out... owner has had flu and he normally does my work, but still not full strength... so the "helper" did most of the heavy lifting for my job today.
Owner tries to pop halfshaft back in but no joy, and my heart is heavy. Owner asks if he can keep it without causing me issues, that he will make it right; he wants to pull halfshaft and make sure splines aren't damaged on either part. I'm obviously frustrated but trust him, and once it's fixed I will ask if he will cover for a short time in case something pops up say a month from now, and also that I don't want any "helpers" working on my car. If I need stuff done, it can wait until the owner has time to personally do it.
Anyways, one "positive" (gotta find something at this point) is that this confirms to me that Subaru's system actually is a "true" AWD- Subaru's center clutch on these are "full 50/50" power distribution when accelerating from a stop, and this "experiment" removed one halfshaft from what should have been a 4-way 25% power split and essentially transferred 0% to any of the wheels. Obviously the front diff is open and lets front wheel speed vary for turns, but the center diff should still provide rear motive force independent of the front. More to come tomorrow... hopefully good news and pics!