Hello everyone. My story is - I woke up yesterday, saw an ad for a '93 Subaru Impreza, Auto, AWD... so I bought it. It's my first Subaru. 99K miles. Everything works (surprisingly to me) and it drives pretty good.

It needs work - shocks are soft, brakes feel a bit soft, sure it needs some work but I'm ok with that. It's a project car.

1) Today, it's doing something I didn't notice yesterday. When I make a sharp turn in the parking lot (going forward or reverse) - the car hops a bit as if the differential is locked. It's the same feeling you get in a solid-lock 4WD vehicle. I'm not sure which end it's coming from but I think it's the rear. Is this normal for this car to some degree? You think maybe it just needs some diff fluid or something? Anyone have experience with this?

2) When I "put the hammer down" there is this green power indicator that lights up on the dash. What exactly does that mean?

Thanks

 

Well, I thought this was a transmission / differential issue.. turns out this is a suspension issue.

Doing a bit of driving in circles helped me rule out any differential issues because the rear was banging around but the tires weren't hopping.

After getting it home and taking the wheel off I could clearly see that the rear strut was completely caked with rust and was just flopping around. The strut had rusted to the point that the strut piston was sitting loose and just rattling around in the body. Guess I need new struts.

Seriously - these things are so bad it's amazing. I'll post a picture when I swap them out.