viscous coupling in center diff

Can the VC in the center diff be removbed and make the car 2wd.? I live in TX now not much in the way of snow.

Reply to
Dave_Frumkin
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Just put the FWD fuse in.

Reply to
Alan

If you could, it would be a minimum of four hours, to drop the transmission and pull the transfer case off.

BTW, you wouldn't have a 2wd car, but an AWD car with an open center differential. Normally power would be applied to all four wheels, however if one wheel spins free, no torque is transmitted to the other axle anymore.

Don't you have mud and wet grass in TX?

Reply to
Dominic Richens

Or wet roads or bumpy roads or normal roads? AWD is superior in all ways regardless of conditions!!

Why would you Buy a Subaru with a main selling feature of AWD then try to turn it off, buy a Kia or something.

Admittedly fuel economy suffers but the advantages are worth it... especially on those country B roads ;o) with that flat four screaming at

7000rpm and those Brembos biting off huge chunks of speed as you blip the throttle on the down change setting yourself up for the perfect balance round the next corner before unleashing over 250bhp of mechanical harmony.... Bliss!!!

Maybe AWD isnt the only selling point for Subaru ;o)

R
Reply to
Ross

I notice the AWD kicking in all the time. Especially if I'm making a sharp turn from a stop. I can hear a wheel or two slip a little then the traction control takes over and things never get out of control. I also notice the AWD when it rains really hard. And I really notice it when running through the mountain twisties. I wouldn't think you would not gain that much mileage by only running to two wheels. And you would loose all the advantage of AWD. BlueSTi "Scary-Fast"

Reply to
BlueSTi

Just pull the damn rear drive shaft and get machined plugs for the rear end of the transmission and for the front end of the rear differential so oil is retained.

Reply to
Edward Hayes

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that only works with the H4 auto. You can't just put the fuse in with manual transmission cars or cars with VDC.

Reply to
Losiho

Better off saving money by selling the car to someone that values AWD, and getting something cheap-er. Some of the cost of the Subarus, relative to their class, is the AWD.

Kia, and Hyundai, produce comparably sized vehicles for much less, that should produce much better MPG.

Or, you could spring for an SRT-4, after all, they are teh fastAr.

Reply to
CompUser

Correct!

Barry

Reply to
Bonehenge

See Dave_Frumkin's other thread where he describes how his VCD unit is busted causing binding during low-speed turns.

Reply to
Dominic Richens

Reply to
Onne

Replace the Diff, Im sure the cost difference would not be much as opposed to disabling the rear drive and the car would be running as designed, would have higher resale value, no insurance implications and be less likely to fail as a result of untested stresses etc. The car would arguably be more dangerous as the suspension and weight distribution is set up for AWD not

2WD. The 2wd fuse is there for towing the AT box Subarus not for driving them.

If you are spending all that labour time in about the drivetrain why not just replace the diff at a few extra notes and be rest assured that the mechanics are carrying out a normal routine job not a custom botch that they will never have had any experience doing.

R
Reply to
Ross

How so? If you put a fuse in to enable fwd only, then the car would have to be running in order for it to take effect. I believe that feature is present to allow driving with a mimi-spare, or in case of problems with the center/rear diff. It would allow the car to be driven short distances for repair.

It is NOT there to permantly convert the car to fwd, but the "only for towing" thingy has become something of an urban legend.

George Adams

"All good fishermen stay young until they die, for fishing is the only dream of youth that doth not grow stale with age." ---- J.W Muller

Reply to
George Adams

I stand Corrected, I knew it was something to do with not driving 2WD permanantly. The space saver wheel is smaller than the others and the 2WD mode is to take the LSD's offline and leave the fron OPEN diff running.

Running a smaller wheel with the AWD would damage the center diff and the rear LSD due to the constant difference in rotation speed of the wheels.

Now that i think about it it makes sense.

;o)

R
Reply to
Ross

george wrote: (clip) It is NOT there to permantly convert the car to fwd, but the "only for towing" thingy has become something of an urban legend. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ You are right. Having just bought a used Outback automatic, I have been reading the owners manual religiously. It says under no circumstances to tow the car with wheels on the ground. It says to insert the fuse in case the temporary spare is installed.

Reply to
Leo Lichtman

Are you talking about turning diff from viscous-coupled LSD to an open diff? That won't make the car 2WD. If you gutted the diff to make the car

2WD, it wouldn't be an improvement. If it worked, any change in fuel economy would be slight, as you're still turning all the driveshafts. And it would hurt handling: Understeer would increase, especially when powering through a turn.

Oh, and last time I had trouble in the snow (light RWD car w/summer tires, couldn't make it up a snowy hill) was in Austin. Texas is also where I did my most flooded-road driving. I think AWD would be great there.

Reply to
David

I was quoted 900$ the for VC only. To just remove the old one was 300$.

Removing the VC does not make the car 2WD as you are not removing the differential, just the VC unit that connects the two drive axles through two disks and some silicon fluid. In winter conditions you still have the advantage that the force transmitted through all four wheels is 1/2 that of the front wheels of a FWD.

The disadvantage is when you are stuck with one wheel off the ground or on ice. Normally the silicon in the VC unit heats up and becomes thick, so some torque gets applied to the axle that is not slipping. Without the VC this doesn't happen and no torque gets to the other axle. Note if it is a rear wheel spinning you can get torque to the front wheels by applying the hand brake!

Reply to
Dominic Richens

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