Ontopic The new car-seching thread

Possible final entry: Took it to the Subaru mechanic. They plugged in their scanner. He showed me the errors. Same errors I had before I started. So it seems that no matter what I did, nothing was clearing out the TCU codes. Until he did it with his scanner. After that, I drove like 6 miles home and no lights coming on. Cautiously optimistic.

Anyone got suggestions on a good (full) OBDII scanner. I think I saw they were $200-300. Having those codes (and the ability to clear them) could have helped me weeks ago. Also, it would have helped me a few months back when we got bad gas on a road trip.
Your scan tool is gonna fall into one of two varieties:

- Generic OBDII: will clear a check engine light, read the codes that give you a check engine light, and that's it. Sounds like you've got this already.

- Some kind of Subaru-specific kickass scan tool that knows how to dig into the TCM and basically do what the dealer does. No clue where to start here, start scanning subaru forums to see what other people have done.
 
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...and the lights came back on. I'm so fucking beaten down by this thing. I fucking hate losing.

The mechanic is coming by tomorrow. From what I saw today, the same error codes are still there, which means the Chinesium solenoid I put in there is probably bad. I was concerned about this from the start, but the guy that started the thread on the Subaru forums said he had dozens of success stories and only one that failed a couple months later.

So at this point, I can get a reman valve body for like $400, or a brand new one for $775. I think I'm done fucking around, and will just get the new one. FML
 
...and the lights came back on. I'm so fucking beaten down by this thing. I fucking hate losing.

The mechanic is coming by tomorrow. From what I saw today, the same error codes are still there, which means the Chinesium solenoid I put in there is probably bad. I was concerned about this from the start, but the guy that started the thread on the Subaru forums said he had dozens of success stories and only one that failed a couple months later.

So at this point, I can get a reman valve body for like $400, or a brand new one for $775. I think I'm done fucking around, and will just get the new one. FML


How long do you intend to keep the car?
 
...and the lights came back on. I'm so fucking beaten down by this thing. I fucking hate losing.

The mechanic is coming by tomorrow. From what I saw today, the same error codes are still there, which means the Chinesium solenoid I put in there is probably bad. I was concerned about this from the start, but the guy that started the thread on the Subaru forums said he had dozens of success stories and only one that failed a couple months later.

So at this point, I can get a reman valve body for like $400, or a brand new one for $775. I think I'm done fucking around, and will just get the new one. FML
And what are you going to do when whatever's clogged up the works fucks up the new valvebody?
 
...and the lights came back on. I'm so fucking beaten down by this thing. I fucking hate losing.

The mechanic is coming by tomorrow. From what I saw today, the same error codes are still there, which means the Chinesium solenoid I put in there is probably bad. I was concerned about this from the start, but the guy that started the thread on the Subaru forums said he had dozens of success stories and only one that failed a couple months later.

So at this point, I can get a reman valve body for like $400, or a brand new one for $775. I think I'm done fucking around, and will just get the new one. FML
DOn't listen to these negative Nancies - your mechanic will say "dude, you forgot one small thing - doink! $400 please"
 
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That repeated failure of the same thing would still have me digging for some other deeper root cause.
 
I think we can be quite certain that Subaru has already done that work, and their solution is to replace the valve body. Apparently they beefed up the solenoid on the next generation transmission.
Then an improperly/under spec'd solenoid would be that deeper root cause I guess.
 
Then an improperly/under spec'd solenoid would be that deeper root cause I guess.
IDK, a failure to actuate (under spec'd) doesn't necessarily correlate with actual solenoid failure (e.g. coil resistance going to infinity). Usually that happens because of an environmental change. In my Nissan that happens because the fuel injectors weren't meant to be run in fuels full of alcohol, so whatever coating went over the coil slowly corrodes away and then it oxidizes into oblivion.
 
IDK, a failure to actuate (under spec'd) doesn't necessarily correlate with actual solenoid failure (e.g. coil resistance going to infinity). Usually that happens because of an environmental change. In my Nissan that happens because the fuel injectors weren't meant to be run in fuels full of alcohol, so whatever coating went over the coil slowly corrodes away and then it oxidizes into oblivion.
It doesn't go to infinity. It's just out of spec.