My 2000 2.5RS Impreza shudders when I make tight turns (like u-turns). The shuddering seems to be coming from the middle-rear of the car. You can't really hear it inside the car but you can definitely hear it outside the car. Talking to a service guy he said it sounds like a transfer plate or the center diff? I'm taking it in Thursday. This is really bad timing because I'm trying to sell my car before I move and I definitely don't want to sell someone a problem car but I do need to sell it. Sigh. Anyways, does anyone have experience with getting the center diff repaired/replaced? How much does it cost and would it just be cheaper to get a used tranny out of a wreck and replace it all?

Thanks,

-Brian

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I did several searches before I posted including searches like 'center diff replace' and 'center differential cost', etc.

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If you have a manual tranny with viscous center differential, do a search on "viscous coupling." If you have an automatic, search on "torque bind."

I just had mine done on the 96 OBW 5MT and it was a little over $1,000. They replaced the viscous coupling unit (~$450 parts, $550 labor). The symptoms I was getting was a binding and grumbling noise on slow, tight turns but only after driving for some distance (at leat 25 miles or 30 minutes or so). After going through various different possible problems, it was ultimately diagnosed as the viscous unit.

Typical responses you'll get will be to be sure all your tires are the same circumference (or at least within 1/4" of one another) because that can throw off your CD. If they're too far off and you drive awhile, you can fry the VCU. If the vehicle was towed on two wheels, that will fry it. Handbrake turns will fry it. Apparently even one wheel slipping too much on ice/snow will fry it.

I've learned more than I want to know on the subject. It'd been a bane to my driving existence for the past 6 months. It was a lot of money, but since it's all better now, it drives like brand new and I feel it was worth it. My dealer never even made mention of the possiblity swapping out the whole tranny, and it has 163,000 miles on it. I figure being the dealer, they might want to go for the big money. Nope. It still shifts fine and feels strong and tight, so I'm assuming everything is OK. Just the VCU was bad.

By the way, I never did any of the things that they say cause this problem. Never had it towed, never did handbrake turns (not even sure if I know how to do one, anyway), never spun out for any amount of time, and my tires are all within 1/8 inch of one another. There's apparently a debate as to whether or not this part is a wear item or can only be damaged by one of the above activities/conditions. As far as I can determine, mine just wore out.

But, according to some of the posts I've read hear and elsewhere, many (especially those with AT) have had success getting rid of the problem by simply inflating the tires to the proper pressure and changing the tranny fluid.

Good luck.

Mine was just north of $1200. 2000 RS 5MT.


Brian

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Pretty much exact same symptoms in my car. I have gotten stuck on ice once when I parked my car on the side of a road and then everything froze over. I wasn't just trying to floor it to get out but it did take me about 10 min of rocking the car forward and backwards to get out so maybe that is what caused it. I guess the good news is that the repair isn't insanely expensive.

-Brian