[Sphyrna]

Hi,

I have done searches on this and haven't been able to find anything. This is a 2001, VDC, 6 cylinder, Outback.

We had a shudder on slow turning that was diagnosed as the front u-joint on our driveshaft. The mechanic took off the driveshaft for repair, and we later found out he had been moving the car with the FWD fuse in to move it. Is this okay? Could it have hurt anything? I read later that the VDC model cannot be taken out of AWD by the FWD fuse. They did have a cutoff driveshaft top to plug the transmission.

The type of vibration we are having is at least different now. It seems to be coming from the left front tire on slow turns and not so much from the center of the car anymore. It almost sounds like the tire is loose and wobbling. I'm wondering if something is out of whack that could have damaged our driveshaft initially and am now worried about the new one.

We also now have a new high frequency growl that is worst between 35-40 mph.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Elizabeth

 

[canubaru]

wheel bearing and axle come to mind as possible causes.

there is not ''FWD'' fuse on the 01 VDC. there is a fuse holder but i think it turns off the VDC. no way to make it FWD except to remove the drive shaft. and i don't know enough to know if pulling the drive shaft will hurt it. i don't think it will . the VDC is a better AWD system but it should operate just fine with the draive shaft gone.

as you mentioned, the trans will puke ATF with out the ''front section'' drive shaft. if you want / need to drive it with out the drive shaft i suggest you leave the front section in place and remove the REAR section of the shaft. i did this with my 95 lego auto trans and drove it 40k miles as FWD.

 

[Sphyrna]

Hi,

Thanks. It doesn't sound like just moving the car around the garage could have done too much damage. I was just worried that it might have hurt the differentials or something with this new clunk clunk.

We will be checking the wheel bearing and axles next. Hopefully we will get her back together and working. Thanks!