reptexas
New Member
- Joined
- September 21, 2010
- Messages
- 4
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Texas
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2002 xlt 4x4 / 2004 sti
Let me start by saying hi to everyone. Sup peeps!!
I apologize in advance for this will be a long aired explanation due to some awful circumstances.
I have been for years insanely obsessed with Subaru. I by no means am a super mechanic. I do love motorsports and work on my own STI and a couple times a year take her out to the auto cross or rally cross. Through the years i have just learned on my own how to mod, maintain and make sweet sweet love to my subie. Then why am i here?
Three weeks ago my brother in law of 39 years was walking across the street and was struck by a drunk driver. He was killed instantly. he was living in Tennessee as a self contractor helping rebuild after some really bad flood that took place a few months back. Anyways this is still kinda hard so let me get more to the point. I flew into Tennessee to gather his belonings from his hotel and packed them into his truck and drove back straight like 12 hours to Texas in the middle of the night. His next of kin knew my wife and i were in need of a bigger family veichle as the small PT cruiser seems to be getting smaller each year. So it was gifted to us. My wife has made it clear selling it is not an option as it is valued more in her heart than the few thousand we can get for it so with limited income my plan is to make it reliable and safe with as much do it ur self money and thanks to it being a third veichle it seems i have some time as well. Now to the problems. . .
I know about as much about trucks as a Japanese high school driver's ed teacher. Like most forums i spent the last couple days reading through threads looking for answers and the weird thing is i have had answers that lead to questions that lead to answers that lead to questions.
I get in the truck, check the fluids, check the tires fill her up standing at some gas station in small town Tennessee. One thing i notice the rear passanger tire looks recently replaced with a different used brand. I jump in i notice yes a check engine light is on, everything else is go. Oddly NO 4x4 light on the gauge cluster, but the actually LOW 4x4 button is conistatnly flashing. I'm thinking oh wells it seems okay at 30 mph let's hit the highway i want to get home to my wife. All hell breaks loose. The car from 30mph to 60mph has a repetitious banging that i feel under the front floor board it seems. I mean this is loud, hard, i'm thinking something is broken off or stuck or something!!!! The severity is modified by releasing the gas pedal, the more i release the more it clunks, or bangs or kicks or tugs. I think what ever it was doing it was the combination of those noises and followed the speed i was traveling until very faint at 60mph. Also the truck slides back and forth and the one time i slammed on the breaks the entire truck almost spun out of control which then lead to the abs light turning on and staying on till i got home....couple thousand miles later. I made it home...this was 1 week and a half ago...
Yesturday i decided what the hell lets do a simple test i read on here. Let's troubleshoot. I notice it seems the auto and high 4x4 buttons work just fine. Pressing high 4x4 causes the dash light to stay on. pressing auto turns it off. In auto the car does the clunk/bang/tug. In 4x4 high it is there but much less. I pull fuse 17, 18. i still don't know why but hey i saw it on the internet. All 4x4 symptoms completely gone!!!! I drive it around the block no issues. Great i put the fuses back in. Put it in neutral...(also read this here thanks guys) and pressed the LOW 4x4 ..... freaking thing just flashes repeatedly again.... WTF. So now i figure oh i will just poke u a few times...pressing the 4x4 high then Low then high... i depress the break hard and the ABS light turns on again... then the volt gaugue literaly just drops!!!!!! The airbag, seatbelt lights come on,....and finally the battery died. So now i jump it to drive up my long drivie way..... battery seems normal... put it in nuetral,press brake, press low 4x4, battery drains out again. WTF.
So here is what i know, i know i need to get the check engine light coded. I also know now that most likely 4x4 issues wont show up on said test for a reason i don't get yet. Second obviously something is wrong with the ABS system, new brakes rotors and brake fluid should clear something up if not i will continue from there. 3rdly there is alot of speak on here about the drive shaft and joints and such but besides a little shaking which i think is do to the tires, there was no signs of badly damaged suspension. The very scary clunk/tug/bang was 4x4 related. So my most important question.....what is draning my battery and how is it related to my low 4x4 not working? And will simply leaving fuse 17 and 18 out let us drive it safely around dry south texas with out causing major damage? And finally what the hell could be the starting point to fix the low4x4? the transfer case?control module? it doesnt make sense to me yet?
Phew okay that's it sorry for having such a long crazy first post but my mind is just mush it's been a rough few weeks and i want to be able to tell my wife i gots this, if selling it for a couple thou is more of a reality, then it is what it is but i don't want to get her hopes up.....Thanks for having this forum guys and to anyone who puts their 2cents and hopefully this is the beginning of a new 4x4 love. I allways kinda wanted a lifted truck so who knows if it works out i might be around these pages a long while.
I apologize in advance for this will be a long aired explanation due to some awful circumstances.
I have been for years insanely obsessed with Subaru. I by no means am a super mechanic. I do love motorsports and work on my own STI and a couple times a year take her out to the auto cross or rally cross. Through the years i have just learned on my own how to mod, maintain and make sweet sweet love to my subie. Then why am i here?
Three weeks ago my brother in law of 39 years was walking across the street and was struck by a drunk driver. He was killed instantly. he was living in Tennessee as a self contractor helping rebuild after some really bad flood that took place a few months back. Anyways this is still kinda hard so let me get more to the point. I flew into Tennessee to gather his belonings from his hotel and packed them into his truck and drove back straight like 12 hours to Texas in the middle of the night. His next of kin knew my wife and i were in need of a bigger family veichle as the small PT cruiser seems to be getting smaller each year. So it was gifted to us. My wife has made it clear selling it is not an option as it is valued more in her heart than the few thousand we can get for it so with limited income my plan is to make it reliable and safe with as much do it ur self money and thanks to it being a third veichle it seems i have some time as well. Now to the problems. . .
I know about as much about trucks as a Japanese high school driver's ed teacher. Like most forums i spent the last couple days reading through threads looking for answers and the weird thing is i have had answers that lead to questions that lead to answers that lead to questions.
I get in the truck, check the fluids, check the tires fill her up standing at some gas station in small town Tennessee. One thing i notice the rear passanger tire looks recently replaced with a different used brand. I jump in i notice yes a check engine light is on, everything else is go. Oddly NO 4x4 light on the gauge cluster, but the actually LOW 4x4 button is conistatnly flashing. I'm thinking oh wells it seems okay at 30 mph let's hit the highway i want to get home to my wife. All hell breaks loose. The car from 30mph to 60mph has a repetitious banging that i feel under the front floor board it seems. I mean this is loud, hard, i'm thinking something is broken off or stuck or something!!!! The severity is modified by releasing the gas pedal, the more i release the more it clunks, or bangs or kicks or tugs. I think what ever it was doing it was the combination of those noises and followed the speed i was traveling until very faint at 60mph. Also the truck slides back and forth and the one time i slammed on the breaks the entire truck almost spun out of control which then lead to the abs light turning on and staying on till i got home....couple thousand miles later. I made it home...this was 1 week and a half ago...
Yesturday i decided what the hell lets do a simple test i read on here. Let's troubleshoot. I notice it seems the auto and high 4x4 buttons work just fine. Pressing high 4x4 causes the dash light to stay on. pressing auto turns it off. In auto the car does the clunk/bang/tug. In 4x4 high it is there but much less. I pull fuse 17, 18. i still don't know why but hey i saw it on the internet. All 4x4 symptoms completely gone!!!! I drive it around the block no issues. Great i put the fuses back in. Put it in neutral...(also read this here thanks guys) and pressed the LOW 4x4 ..... freaking thing just flashes repeatedly again.... WTF. So now i figure oh i will just poke u a few times...pressing the 4x4 high then Low then high... i depress the break hard and the ABS light turns on again... then the volt gaugue literaly just drops!!!!!! The airbag, seatbelt lights come on,....and finally the battery died. So now i jump it to drive up my long drivie way..... battery seems normal... put it in nuetral,press brake, press low 4x4, battery drains out again. WTF.
So here is what i know, i know i need to get the check engine light coded. I also know now that most likely 4x4 issues wont show up on said test for a reason i don't get yet. Second obviously something is wrong with the ABS system, new brakes rotors and brake fluid should clear something up if not i will continue from there. 3rdly there is alot of speak on here about the drive shaft and joints and such but besides a little shaking which i think is do to the tires, there was no signs of badly damaged suspension. The very scary clunk/tug/bang was 4x4 related. So my most important question.....what is draning my battery and how is it related to my low 4x4 not working? And will simply leaving fuse 17 and 18 out let us drive it safely around dry south texas with out causing major damage? And finally what the hell could be the starting point to fix the low4x4? the transfer case?control module? it doesnt make sense to me yet?
Phew okay that's it sorry for having such a long crazy first post but my mind is just mush it's been a rough few weeks and i want to be able to tell my wife i gots this, if selling it for a couple thou is more of a reality, then it is what it is but i don't want to get her hopes up.....Thanks for having this forum guys and to anyone who puts their 2cents and hopefully this is the beginning of a new 4x4 love. I allways kinda wanted a lifted truck so who knows if it works out i might be around these pages a long while.
