diagnostic for the Duty C solenoid?

[corn]

is there any sort of diagnostic for the Duty C solenoid aside from taking it
out of the car? my beloved 98 outback (67k miles) shudders on turns, and the
problem is eliminated by putting the FWD fuse in. naturally the local subaru
dealer wants to have me spend $950 to have the transfer clutch rebuilt, their
trouble-checking consisted of driving around the car for a few minutes. they
won't even bother checking the solenoid. if i spend $950 to replace the clutch
and it turns out to be a $250 solenoid instead, i'm going to be pretty upset!

so, i'm taking it to the next-closest subaru dealer, but i am wondering if there
is anything they can do short of taking half the bottom of the car apart to
check the solenoid first. lots of searching newsgroups on dejanews only ended
up with the line "diagnostic for 'Duty C Solenoid' or clutch-pack failure in
transmission" but i can't find what the "diagnostic for 'Duty C Solenoid'" is.

sure, it's probably the clutch, but i want to make sure before i potentially
spend $1k on parts and labor, particularly if there's a chance it won't fix
the problem. though if that turns out to be the clutch rebuild option, i may
end up with a Legacy 2.5i Special Edition Wagon 4EAT-S. finally, subaru
(or any car maker for that matter) once again has the common sense to offer
a sunroof _without_ having to buy $3000 in leather seats at the same time.

 

[Jim Stewart]

is there any sort of diagnostic for the Duty C solenoid aside from
taking it
out of the car? my beloved 98 outback (67k miles) shudders on turns,
and the
problem is eliminated by putting the FWD fuse in. naturally the local
subaru
dealer wants to have me spend $950 to have the transfer clutch rebuilt,
their
trouble-checking consisted of driving around the car for a few minutes.
they
won't even bother checking the solenoid. if i spend $950 to replace the
clutch
and it turns out to be a $250 solenoid instead, i'm going to be pretty
upset!

The fact that the problem goes away when
you pull the fuse pretty much guarantees
that the solenoid is *working*.

If the problem didn't go away, then you
certainly could suspect the solenoid.

 

[djay]

Did you recently have your transmission serviced?
Similar thing happened to me after a Transmission flush on my 98 Legacy
wagon. She would shudder during low speed and tight turns.
A guy in this group recommended a pint of lubeguard highly friction modified
ATF additive.
Sounded like snakeoil to me but the alternative was a $900 job from Subaru.
I bought the $9.90 bottle at a garage (the stuff is an additive that is made
for honda/toyota etc. transmissions) and I put it in the 98 Subaru. In 2
days of driving the shudder was gone and hasn't come back. That was 14K
miles ago.

Snakeoil? I'll take that kind of Snakeoil every time.

Here is a website so you can see the packaging. I googled on "lubeguard
ATF".

http://www.getautohelp.com/automotive_products/61910.html

 

[enthropy8r]

Look into the manual.

 

[corn]

I wasn't able to find the lubeguard ATF mentioned in an earlier post after
some looking around in the immediate area, so i bought an additive that
was oriented towards stopping shudder. i avoided the ones that mostly
talked about fixing leaks, as that wasn't my problem. after adding the
entire bottle, i drove around for two days with the FWD fuse in. then i
pulled it out, and the shuddering problem is completely gone. i did some
tight turns, including a turn at a spot where i thought the front end of
the car was going to fall off, and it's smooth as silk. the shifting has
been a lot smoother the last few days as well.

the car sat for just over 6 months, and it shifted rough for a little while
after that, mostly calming down but still a bit rough in certain situations.
a few months later, just about 2 months ago, the shudder started. i suppose
the moral of the story is to have your transmission fluid changed after the
car sits for months on end. spending $150ish on that will save you the $11.50
on an additive and hose to fit down in the right spot buried under some hoses.

now i can wait until next year, or another, to buy a subaru that comes with
a sunroof you can get without also having to buy leather seats, and with a
hybrid engine that allows you to get 1000 miles a gallon. of course gas
will cost $2000 a gallon then, so it's not that great when you look at it
that way. my goal is to make my 98 last 10 years, just like the 88 GL-10
Turbon wagon FWD did.

 

[djay]

I wasn't able to find the lubeguard ATF mentioned in an earlier post after
some looking around in the immediate area, so i bought an additive that
was oriented towards stopping shudder. i avoided the ones that mostly
talked about fixing leaks, as that wasn't my problem. after adding the
entire bottle, i drove around for two days with the FWD fuse in. then i
pulled it out, and the shuddering problem is completely gone. i did some
tight turns, including a turn at a spot where i thought the front end of
the car was going to fall off, and it's smooth as silk. the shifting has
been a lot smoother the last few days as well.

the car sat for just over 6 months, and it shifted rough for a little
while
after that, mostly calming down but still a bit rough in certain
situations.
a few months later, just about 2 months ago, the shudder started. i
suppose
the moral of the story is to have your transmission fluid changed after
the
car sits for months on end. spending $150ish on that will save you the
$11.50
on an additive and hose to fit down in the right spot buried under some
hoses.

now i can wait until next year, or another, to buy a subaru that comes
with
a sunroof you can get without also having to buy leather seats, and with a
hybrid engine that allows you to get 1000 miles a gallon. of course gas
will cost $2000 a gallon then, so it's not that great when you look at it
that way. my goal is to make my 98 last 10 years, just like the 88 GL-10
Turbon wagon FWD did.

Beats the dogsnot out of the $950 the dealer wanted to charge....