Jumped in the Subaru to run a few errands this morning and made it few blocks from the house when I heard a pop. Shortly there after a whirring noise started. Decided it was probably a good idea to turn around and head back to the house. As I pulled into the driveway I was greeted by burning gear oil smoke/smell (burning off the exhaust), parked the car and peak underneath to see gear oil pooling up under the car, not good! Will have to dig into it later tonight to see what actually broke.
Bought this car as a cheap winter beater and have quickly found out there is no such thing as a cheap Subaru 
sounds like when the differential rivets went in my VW many moons ago, a boom/pop, drove 20-30 miles, the to lovely smell of burnt transmission fluid.
I understand those output center differential thingies at the back of the transmission are a weak point. Friend of mine with a Subie had to replace his recently.
Bummer. What kind of Subaru are we talking about?
2003 impreza ts with a/t
Something in the front diff let go and drained the gear oil, boy does burnt gear oil stink!
Update for those that are interested - got the car up on stands and crawled around under it tonight. I found my catastrophic failure, looks like something (gear?) broke in the front diff putting a substantial crack/hole in the diff case on the passenger side just above the exhaust. which also explains all the burning gear oil.
I knew I was probably on borrowed time on the front diff because after purchasing the car I found the PO had filled the front diff with ATF. I was hoping that it would have lasted through the winter but it didn't. So now it looks like I will crawling around on a cold garage floor fixing it.
that must be a somewhat common thing...my SVX had a cracked front diff housing, so the previous owner swapped in a new diff and trans (also a 4EAT) and when I got the car, I found the front diff full of ATF as well. Must be something to do with having two dipsticks up there.
