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View Full Version : Need info's regarding AWD...


IluvSubie
12-13-2010, 01:54 AM
So i brought my car to a smog shop. You know how they test smog and stuff like that right? The guy only used both front wheels running on the test. Now is that normal that both rear wheels won't run while both front wheels are running during the test? My main question: is my car running on front wheels only instead of AWD? I've got a Legacy Sedan 2.5 GT 1997.
Kiwi GT
12-13-2010, 03:18 AM
Auto or manual? Auto will run ok-ish like that for short periods. Manual should have tried to climb off the machine.
Huffer
12-13-2010, 01:10 PM
They should never run the AWD cars on a dynamometer for smog tests unless all four wheels are on rollers.
Zedhead
12-13-2010, 01:18 PM
Prolly lagging the engine. Can't be very accurate conducting a test like that? Not to mention, hard on Your car.
IluvSubie
12-13-2010, 02:06 PM
It's manual transmission. So if that's the case, you think my rear wheels got condemned from previous owners and i'm just running on front wheels? I just wanna make sure because i might get straggled in the snow...
mike-tracy
12-13-2010, 02:40 PM
What they did was destroy your transmission's viscous couplings. While on the smog dyno, the center diff was still trying to normalize the difference in speed between the front wheels and the rear, overheating itself and killing your cars AWD. And you paid them to do it. :-(

What state are you in?
aznguy0087
12-13-2010, 02:43 PM
wait if it 96 or higher doesnt that mean they hook a scan tool and read the system that way?
IluvSubie
12-13-2010, 06:11 PM
I'm in California. Well it wasn't a long test at the dyno coz it didn't pass smog anyways. I'm hoping it didn't ruin it's AWD :-(
ShadowGT
12-13-2010, 07:08 PM
Get a lawyer and go after the smog check place. They fucked your car up by gross negligence and must pay to fix your car.
Everybody especially people who are trusted to work on cars and supposedly have experience in the automotive industry that Subarus are all wheel drive only cars. That the all wheel drive emblem is in plain sight on the car and by not acknowledging that your car was all wheel drive and made no provisions to test your car properly in accordance with state law.. they had no intentions on running a proper test to begin with, therefore running an illegal business.

Bottom line, they should have asked you. There should have been a dialogue somewhere whether written or spoken about the configuration of the car. If for no other reasons than for safety for putting your car on a rolling dynometer.
They neglected all over the above and now your center differential and vicious couplings within are damaged by their actions.

For as far you know, the car worked properly before that. Read that again: Your car worked fine before that.
You're not seeking emotional losses and such, just proper reimbursement for vehicle damage.
Zedhead
12-14-2010, 12:34 PM
Wut He Said!^

The government lackey ruined Your Center Diff. They should replace it!
Huffer
12-14-2010, 02:23 PM
^^ except if there's no obvious damage (I'm assuming that since the original post was Monday, he's driven it since then) then in order to prove there was damage he'll have to have a 3rd party dismantle the diff and show evidence of damage.
ouch1011
12-27-2010, 02:59 AM
Jack all 4 wheels off the ground, start car, put in gear, release clutch. If all 4 wheels turn, pull on the e-brake a bit and see if it drags down the engine. If it does, and there are no unusual noises, all is OK for now. If the rear wheels stop without dragging down the engine at all, the center diff is bad.

I would have to think that a person who gets paid to perform emissions testing would have at least 1/4 brain, just enough to know that most of the Subarus out there are AWD.
ShadowGT
12-27-2010, 04:46 AM
Jack all 4 wheels off the ground, start car, put in gear, release clutch. If all 4 wheels turn, pull on the e-brake a bit and see if it drags down the engine. If it does, and there are no unusual noises, all is OK for now. If the rear wheels stop without dragging down the engine at all, the center diff is bad.

I would have to think that a person who gets paid to perform emissions testing would have at least 1/4 brain, just enough to know that most of the Subarus out there are AWD.

Not really, a billion years ago I lived in Long Beach CA and I had to have my crappity Dodge Shadow smogged. They failed it and at the time the car was 3 years old. (1997... thats a billion years to me)
They failed it because they forgot that the car had a mother fucking air conditioner and didn't set the sniffer thing for it.
They had to rerun the test and redo the paperwork because they forgot.

The guy was like.. duh.. your car failed. Why? I don't know. Let me see the sheet.
<- looks at specs.. it says here I don't have an air conditioner.
<- Points at mother fucking air conditioner.
I have a mother fucking air conditioner.

Oh...
Pass!