5 speed automatic in my Legacy?

I am willing to et that you have what is called a lock up torque converter. This is a step the removes the hydraulic coupling in the torque converter and goes to direct drive.

It gives the appearance of another gear but is not.

Hope this helps

I agree with Jeff, it is the lockup torque converter. The lockup is done in

No need to bet, Subarus of that vintage (such as my '95) do indeed have lock-up torque converters.

Mechanically, of course, it is not actually another gear, but in every way that counts it effectively is. You get lower RPM at cruise which makes the car feel more relaxed and also improves fuel economy. Energy is not being wasted in slip in the torque converter which gives an additional improvement in fuel economy. And when locked up the car acts just like a manual car in top gear (except that the top gear on automatics is usually taller than the top gear on manuals) -- you get direct and immediate response to small changes in accelerator setting, including getting engine braking that you wouldn't normally get on an automatic. And my '95 2.5l Legacy wagon will go up all but the steepest hills on the open road here in NZ while still locked up in 5th, as long as you don't have to slow down for other reasons (e.g. corners). The fast you're going, the harder you ahve to press to unlock the torque converter -- at 60 km/h (1500 rpm on mine) it takes only a very small press, but at 120 kmh (3000 rpm) you have to press the pedal probably a third to half way down. This is somethign I like very much about the Subaru's automatic -- it knows that there's a torquey engine there and it will let you make use of the torque almost like you can in a manual car where many automatics will change down a few gears and rev the crap out of the engine as soon as you hint at pressing the pedal.

And, as the original poster notes, the extra 500 rpm you get when you press hard enough to unlock the torque converter will very often provide all the extra power you need, and is very very similar in effect to changing down from 5th to 4th in a manual car.

Very interesting discussion. No matter how old one is, or how knowledgeable, there is always so much new stuff to learn.

Alt.autos.subaru is one hell of a newsgroup! Thanks guys

MN

I'll second that!

Bruce, do you happen to know how the lock-up effect is achieved? Is it inherent to the design of the impellers within the TC, or is there an electrical signal to increase the pressure (or whatever) of the fluid being delivered to the unit?

Whatever, it works great. Kudos to Subaru for a very drivable AT car! I take back at least _some_ of the bad things I've said about automatics over the years ;-)

Thanx for the insight, guys!

ByeBye! S.

Steve Jernigan KG0MB Laboratory Manager Microelectronics Research University of Colorado (719) 262-3101

Yeah, almost makes me wish I bought an automatic!

But I haven't owned one yet.

Tom

No, not precisely. Just what I've learned from driving one for nearly

I found some interesting web pages:

I agree. I hate automatics in general, but Subaru's is really quite pleasant. I would imagine that they're all getting better but I've driven cars owned by friends/family that are newer than mine and *hated* the automatics -- especially the Nissan and Mitsubishi ones. Another friend's Mazda Capella seemed quite good though, as was a brand new Ford Territory that I was driving eight hours a day for a few weeks for work recently (much much nicer than older Ford Falcon's I've driven).