Fuse to disable rear wheel drive!

[JRK]

I'm a new owner of a 2004 Subaru Legacy. I'd like to hear from owners who
have added the fuse to disable the rear wheel drive and if they have had any
problems by doing so.
Any comments.......................................

Joe

 

[Charles Perry]

I'm a new owner of a 2004 Subaru Legacy. I'd like to hear from owners who
have added the fuse to disable the rear wheel drive and if they have had any
problems by doing so.
Any comments.......................................

Joe

Why on earth would you do that?

Charles

 

[alex3324]

I second Charles' comment. Why would you spend 25000+ on a new AWD car,
only to disable the greatest feature of the car? Why not buy a FWD Hundai
for half the price?

 

[Patrick Fisher]

I'm a new owner of a 2004 Subaru Legacy. I'd like to hear from owners who
have added the fuse to disable the rear wheel drive and if they have had any
problems by doing so.
Any comments.......................................

Joe

The "FWD" Fuse just prevents the Duty Solenoid C from allowing the clutch
plates to send power to the rear. It only works on automatic cars. It's
there solely to allow you to drive the car under power with a spare or other
tire that's not the same size as the rest, without burning up the clutch
packs.

Other than that, there's never a good reason to put the fuse in.

 

[Ralph E Lindberg]

The "FWD" Fuse just prevents the Duty Solenoid C from allowing the clutch
plates to send power to the rear. It only works on automatic cars. It's
there solely to allow you to drive the car under power with a spare or other
tire that's not the same size as the rest, without burning up the clutch
packs.

Then could you explain why my Legacy, with a manual clutch has one?

Other than that, there's never a good reason to put the fuse in.

Wrong again, they are there to allow a safe tow, with a tow truck. But
other then towing, there really is no reason to ever place the fuse in
place.

--

 

[Alan]

"> Wrong again, they are there to allow a safe tow, with a tow truck. But

other then towing, there really is no reason to ever place the fuse in
place.

Big time wrong! You should NEVER tow an AT with any wheels on the ground no
matter what. It is there for flats, as the other poster explained. Look it
up if you think we are wrong.

 

[Cam Penner]

"> Wrong again, they are there to allow a safe tow, with a tow truck. But

Big time wrong! You should NEVER tow an AT with any wheels on the ground no
matter what. It is there for flats, as the other poster explained. Look it
up if you think we are wrong.

DEFINATELY check the manual. The fuse has NOTHING to do
with towing. It is there PURELY for using the temp spare
with a flat.

 

[Nicolas Dore]

Then could you explain why my Legacy, with a manual clutch has one?

Wrong again, they are there to allow a safe tow, with a tow truck. But
other then towing, there really is no reason to ever place the fuse in
place.

Hum, have to fall in on Patrick's side on this one: Manuals have
mechanicals center diffs, as far as I know, so putting a fuse in would
have no effect. The fuse holder may be there but it's not used. Try it
and see if you get the "FWD" sign in the dash. As to using the fuse
and towing, the manual for my automatic 2000 Legacy states that a)
towing should always, ALWAYS be done with all 4 wheels off the ground
for automatics and b) the FWD fuse is to be used when the spare tire
is used.

The automatic's clutch pack has both thick fluid and electronically
controlled clutch plates to manage the transfer of power to the back.
Putting the fuse in disables the electronic part, which moves the
clutch plates, but some power is still getting to the rear so towing
with 2 wheels on the ground would still cause the clutch to heat up
and possibly cause problems. When using the spare with the FWD fuse
the difference in rotational speed between front and rear is probably
not enough to cause problems over the short term.

Scoobymods has info on how this happens for the VDC cars (
http://www.scoobymods.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3047 ), in the first
thumbnail.

Nicolas

P.s. The car behaves like crap when the fuse is in, anyway, no point
in overusing it...

 

[L. Kreh]

For towing!

 

[Guest]

DEFINATELY check the manual. The fuse has NOTHING to do
with towing. It is there PURELY for using the temp spare
with a flat.

I got interesting in this thread so just got off the horn with my service mgr. He said, "Yeah some people put the fuse IN when they have the space saver spare on, but it's not necessary."

I repeated "IN?"

He replied, "Yes, IN!; there's a spare just for that purpose. Read your manual."

Don
Username munged by FixNews

 

[Patrick Fisher]

For towing!

Why on earth would people believe that an electrical fuse would do anything
while the car is off, being towed?

Come on people, it doesn't even make sense!

The fuse is there so that while you're driving an automatic-transmission
car, the clutchpacks aren't constantly trying to overcome the perceived slip
that occurs when one wheel is smaller than the others.

 

[Tha Ghee]

For towing!

make the tow company send out a flatbed.

 

[ismlv]

Actually, the only reason I could ever see to disable the AWD (since you should be towing on a flatbed) is if you have to get emissions
inspections (like in parts of PA) and you can't find a place with a 4 wheel dynamometer. If they have to spin only two wheels, you don't
want it in AWD mode.

 

[Patrick Fisher]

Actually, the only reason I could ever see to disable the AWD (since you

should be towing on a flatbed) is if you have to get emissions

inspections (like in parts of PA) and you can't find a place with a 4

wheel dynamometer. If they have to spin only two wheels, you don't

want it in AWD mode.

Check your manual. The fuse does NOT allow you to use a 4 wheel dyno. As
posted previously, there are two components to the transfer case on the
4EAT - fluid as well as clutchpacks. You'll overheat the fluid if you try
to run on a 4WD dyno. Subies (and all AWD/4WD vehicles) are exempt from dyno
emissions testing if your state doesn't provide 4WD dynos. Don't let the guy
at the station tell you otherwise.

 

[Jkpoulos7]

Actually, the only reason I could ever see to disable the AWD (since you

should be towing on a flatbed) is if you have to get emissions
inspections (like in parts of PA) and you can't find a place with a 4 wheel
dynamometer. If they have to spin only two wheels, you don't
want it in AWD mode.

Even in NJ they use the tailpipe monitoring as they only have two wheel dynos.
Who would let the inspection station monkeys run an AWD on a 2 wheel dyno?

 

[CrazyDave]

I'd expect to get better gas milage with the car in FWD. The tachometer
seems to read about the same either way though. Maybe I'm confused, but
it seems like the car works harder going up the mountains in 2wd... so I'd
think that it'd do better on the highway than it does in AWD. Anyone?

P.S. I have a 2000 stick leg. outback. The manual implies that the fuse
does the same for my car but there's no indicator light. Also, I don't
know what this magic "under the spare" fuse is... I've used my pare before
and saw no fuse - I just used the spare 30 fuse that's in the engine fuse
box.

 

[Nicolas Dore]

Using the fuse on a manual should have no effect as the manual's AWD system
is totally mechanical, there is no electrical connection on it.

As to how cars behave when they are in FWD: Like crap. They understeer like
nuts and the rear axle causes a lot of friction which makes the car seems
like the rear is very loaded. Would be OK for a while on dry roads but was
scary when I tried it on snow roads. And I don't see how it would affect MPG
as the friction from the axle and such is still there. On older 4WD systems
you had to disconnect the wheels hubs to get better MPG.

And I've never heard of a spare fuse under the spare... :-/

Nicolas

 

[Dan Duncan]

And I've never heard of a spare fuse under the spare... :-/

Taping one on top of the spare might not be a bad idea as
a reminder to pop it in when you change the tire.

-DanD

 

[taylor04]

ggg

My car when u put the fuse in saids fwd but its in and when u take it out its in fwd

 

[jesse108]

thanks for sharing