Why is my SUBARU four wheel drive fuse not installed?
June 10, 2011. Author: Lewis Werner
SUBARU vehicles do not have a four wheel drive fuse.
SUBARU vehicles with automatic transmissions do often have a fuse labelled FWD, but on Subaru's FWD stands for 'front wheel drive', not 'four wheel drive'.
Under normal operating conditions, the FWD fuse should not be installed.
When the SUBARU FWD fuse is installed on an AWD automatic transmission Subaru vehicle, it (is intended to) disable power transfer to the rear wheels.
Ok...but the person I bought my Subaru from told me the FWD fuse and FWD light in the dash means 'four wheel drive'?
That is not true. The seller may have been mistaken about what FWD means, or may have been trying to cover something up, such as torque bind or a transmission issue.
About the Author
This article was written by Lewis Werner. It was last updated June 10, 2011 and first published November 15, 2010. If you have questions about the article, please click here to view the author's contact information including e-mail address, telephone number and mailing address.
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Hi I have ej25 engine series and manual transmission does this mean that awd fuse should not be installed..?
Hello and welcome to the site! For a manual transmission, at least on a non-STI Subaru manual transmission up through say 2005 and probably later, the FWD fuse does nothing. The all wheel drive transfer mechanism in those manual transmissions is purely mechanical (consisting of a center differential and a viscous coupling). So for those manual transmissions, it does not matter whether the front wheel drive fuse is installed or not. It makes no difference.