"This repair is not covered by Subaru's limited warranty" RE: 4th gear tranny grind
 

TL;DR: Subaru gave me a "customer goodwill" new tranny, not under warranty, as a way of saying "It your problem, not ours."

It's been pretty well documented at this point that the transmissions are problematic shifting to 4th or 5th gear, sometimes others, at high RPMs. My problem popped up with less than 5000 miles after a meticulous by-the-book break-in. After finally taking it to the dealer, I explained it, went on a test drive with the service rep (not a mechanic), he noticed it too starting at between 3500-4000 RPM and getting progressively worse from there.

Here's where it gets fun. After a fart under 3 weeks in the shop, I finally got the car back today, and I was greeted with this little surprise from Subaru techline on the work summary/receipt

And here's where they have me grab my ankles:

Of course, I refused to sign that and I had the service adviser annotate that with his signature.

I haven't modified my vehicle at all, spare lights, hood struts, and a tow-hook plate mount. This is an absolute falsification of what I told the service rep. I told him I was starting to get resistance and grinding around 3500-4000 RPM, and that it got progressively worse as the RPMs increased. At no point did we exceed 70MPH on the test drive, in fact I showed him the grinding well under 45 MPH on city streets and he agreed he could hear and feel it in the passenger seat (and again, not a mechanic, a service adviser) They've since turned that into me taking them for a high-revving 70MPH freeway drive and shifting at redline. I don't baby the car, but I certainly don't abuse it. The majority of my miles are a 12-14 mile commute to work that's one of the most heavily patrolled stretches of interstate in the country. It's not unusual to see 3+ state police on the route, so I always keep the asshattery to a minimum.

I am seeing red at this point, because this is at best my words being twisted and at worst clearly Subaru either covering their ass by lying about what I said. I really don't believe the dealer is working against me on this one, but who knows.

The dealer advised my to contact Subaru and contest what they're saying and try to have them remove an obvious black mark from my VINs history, but pending that I'm trying to figure out how to cover my ass. Words can not begin to explain how disappointed I am with Subaru, who I largely bought the BRZ from because of how much my family loves our 2011 Outback. Any upgrade plans I had for this car are now dead until I know Subaru will back it, or until I lemon law the thing (it's already met state requirements, but after a tint job and 3M film I'm not anxious to piss away ~$1000).

Overdue update: I've been in extensive contact with SOA over this. It got elevated from the first guy I talked to to some higher indeterminate level.

She told me that while they can't change what the work order says, they're amending the "record" to state what happened, my immense displeasure with the outcome, and gave me her phone number to call before I take it in for any additional repairs so I don't get boned again. It's not the exact answer I was hoping for, but it'll definitely do considering she's essentially told me they'd rather stand by their warranty (at least in my case) rather than the nameless asshat regional parts manager who hijacked the repair. I told her that person should be re-educated, transferred, or fired because she didn't have the slightest clue as to what she was talking about or how manual transmissions/redlines work. Not to mention, she essentially lied.

I'm still debating whether or not to lemon law that car, but really happy I'm not going to have problems with them covering the tranny in the future.

Cute, considering FR-S transmissions have been replaced without the disclaimer. Now I KNOW they won't warranty it when it blows up so I have no misgivings about doing tranny mods.

I love all the limited creature comforts and my WRBlue, but if I had to do it again I'd skip Subaru in a heartbeat for that exact reason.

Subaru - selling cars 'as is'

I understand your frustration, but shouldn't you be frustrated with the dealership who wrote up your reply to make it sound like you were downshifting at 7000 rpm? It seems to me that the dealership falsely reported to Subaru the nature of your problem, and the nature of the ride-along and Subaru responded somewhat as expected.

You mentioned lemon law...what else is wrong with the car?

I sat there as they typed up the problem when I turned it in, they pretty much typed it verbatim as far as I know. I could be wrong. I do know one of the mechanics failed to replicate the grind, and I told him to try again until he got it, because I was getting it every single time over 4k RPM. It's possible that's when the story changed, and they put his words in my mouth.

The other problems I've had fixed were speakers, one replaced, crickets with parts replaced and problem returning, and over a total of 30 days out of service/at the dealer, which alone in the state of Washington is enough to trip eligibility for Lemon Law. I realize the crickets and speakers are relatively trivial, but a transmission eating itself alive isn't.

New cars aren't supposed to have problems like this. And I don't want to wait until the warranty expires or they deny my next claim to regret not getting my money out. Especially with them treating the warranty like this after less than 6,000 miles. It really sucks because I love this car otherwise, but I love getting my money's worth, too.

I forgot to mention, one of the gems the service rep told me the techline related, is that "the car's not meant to be driven that way," i.e. shifted around 7k RPM. You can imagine the look of incredulity on my face, and when I laughed out loud he told me he knew that was a load of crap, especially after having poured through all of their promotionals. I haven't even tracked the car once for Pete's sake.

That's like BMW calling their cars the "ultimate driving machine" and then denying warranty claims claiming they aren't meant to be driven as such.

Wasn't there a tsb or something like it for BRZ's in regards to gear grinding? I might have seen it while I was on my school's auto-tech computers but I shall double check tmr.

subaru thinks you suck at shifting

Did they ask you if they can replace the transmission out of warranty? If they didn't you have a new free trans, seek a lawyer and get your car back plus damages including fees, rental, time spent talking to the dealership, etc...

I really hate hearing about these stories. If the car has that few miles and no mods, they should cover the issue under warranty and kiss your ass the whole way through.

oh wow

as per subaru techline drained manual transmission fluid and inspected for debris, after draining transmission fluid, found excessive metallic shaving and fluid excessively dark, as per Subaru techline removed and replaced manual transmission assembly and added GL-5 fluid, test drove vehicle to verify repair [lonng story short problem solved for now]

I didn't pay for it, but they said they were covering it on a one-time basis out of "customer goodwill," quoting abuse and/or vehicle mods, neither of which occurred. But I've been driving stick for over 11 years, so I'd say they suck at selecting transmissions and fluid.

I just spoke to SOA, they didn't have any record of it yet, but they mentioned I should talk to the service manager at Hanson, and clearly pointed the finger at them as calling abuse. They said they can't just make claims like that, and have to clearly demonstrate that the car was abused or failed as a result of modification, neither of which they can do. They didn't make any mentions of the tech line at all aside from saying they didn't represent them. Now it's burning my ass that they pointed at SOA/techline as the ones making the call, right now I'm getting the runaround.

On the plus side, they made a notation of my claims and I followed up on an earlier chat about getting new 2013 GPS maps for free. Whee.

I think that may have been Toyota, but I'd be interested to hear if that was the case. Hanson made it clear that I'm pretty much the only BRZ they service, so it could be time to find a better shop (which would suck, because they're 12 miles away from me).

This is fucking stupid. My fourth always grinds above 4500 regardless of throttle position. My have my tranny rebuilt to fix the faulty syncro. Then I will ejaculate all over the old one and mail that to Subaru of America

But I thought all of you bought Subaru because of the name and maturity it brings.:bonk:

So glad I went with Scion. Had crickets replaced, rubber weather striping, drivers side rear axle, both tail lights and the drivers side window visor replaced. Nothing denied so far. Even had the car on springs and koni shocks and was not denied axle warranty.

Customer goodwill is a load of horseshit. That transmission is $8000 in parts alone. No dealership is going to eat those costs.

It sounds like they fucked something up and are trying to keep that off their corporate records. Keep pushing.

Even if you did shift at redline, how is that abusive? Why does it have a 7400 rpm redline then? If they want you to baby it they should put a 5000 rpm redline or less. I drove my honda family sedan to redline everyday and it went 110k without missing a beat.

That is one thing that sucks about manual trans, they will just jump to user error if they have a chance.

I was also upset when my cars brakes/rotors were replaced under "goodwill". The owner smoked the brakes and denied it. I will never buy a demo car again.

Lawyer up

30099AA 480 X6 - $15.92ea = $95.52
30099AA 580 X6 - $7.90ea = $47.40
30099AA 540 X7 - $14.34ea = $100.38
30099AA 470 x1 - $79.48
30099AA 450 x1 - $79.48
30099AA 490 x1 - $19.12
30099AA 610 x1 - $63.61
30099AA 600 x1 - $63.61
30099AA 380 x1 - $14.34

TOTAL PARTS(before tax) $562.94

That's the list of parts required to repair my grinding 4th. Which isn't covered due to the turbo. Prices are Canadian.

Are you doing or have done the repair yourself?

Quote:
"This repair is not covered by Subarus limited warranty due to abusive or aggressive driving habits and/or vehicle modifications"

So how are they saying you "abused" your car? Pretty damning statement to make if they are not able to back said statement up. Would make them look colossally stupid if they can't back it up.

Do they have some type of secret squirrel data from the ecu? Is there a special SOA drone following you around? Or they are just making a blanket statement of you bought a sporty car and thus an early tranny failure means you drove the wheels off it? Either way it BS. Proof is on them. Sounds like time to seek legal guidance.

I went thru this with dodge on a ram quad cab 1500 4x4 that was bought brand new. Tranny failed at 5 or 6k, they blamed it on "excessive offroading" because the bottom of the truck was muddy! Wouldn't have had anything to do with my aunt and uncle have horses outside Glens Falls, Ny and I had just been up there...

After too much run around I finally contacted a lawyer and was told point blank record them bullshitting me. Nc is one of the states where you do not need a person's permission. So I did, hated to do it and felt kinda sketchy about doing it but it saved my ass. I stood steps away from the tech's as they drained the fluid from the transfer case, perfectly clean (4x4 had never been used btw) as they drained the fluid for the second time on the trans they saw the metal in the fluid, got them to admit it was the second time they had seen this on my truck AND that they had had at least 4 or 5 others in for the same complaint! And when they opened the case there were little pieces of broken parts low and behold just like another truck that had been in for the same complaint. They even joked how the other truck was driven by a little old man. Guess he was out being reckless too? The regional rep told mine was the only case and that it was because I was driving recklessly and offroading lol.

After the dealership told me dodge would put a tranny in but void my warranty on the entire truck due to my reckless use the lawyer started sending letters out. Cost me a little under two grand but I ended up being given a check for the 3k over what I paid for the truck, I paid my lawyer and went to the Toyota dealer and bought a Tundra.

Sometime's you have to fight the good fight, if you're in the right here don't back down. Personally I'd like to hear in the end you're just dealing with a shitty dealer and SOA is a stand up company.

Best of luck to you.

I know there was one for FRS but there were more tsbs/customer thingies for BRZ than there was for FRS from what I have saw. I shall double check just incase I'm wrong.

Sounds like a shady dealership you go to there sir. See if there are any more around/near you the next time you need servicing. Subaru's aren't bad, My family has had too many to count and they were all near flawless except my brother's 2002 wrx. (first model year!) It had a blown turbo at 16,000 miles and they replaced the whole system free of charge. Best of luck to you!

Wouldn't they have to prove the your modifications are causing problems with your car? They are just assuming things..

I have the same problem and 1 dealer refused to work on my car due to my heavy mods...tint...springs....leds....lol

I had the same problem with my 86 here in australia. synchro issue. Shifting between 3rd and 4th above 90kmh causes a small grind. apart from a crank pulley no performance mods. took it in to toyota at 5000kms and he asked me to monitor it. got to 9000kms and i asked them to fix it. toyota said it would take max 3 weeks. its been 5 weeks now and we are still waiting for parts from Japan. not happy at all. i miss my car. but after hearing this im kinda happy as its covered by warranty.

A buddy and I are rebuilding it as Subaru wants nothing to do with it, not even a break on the parts cost. I'll be taking pics once we get the broken parts out but right now we're waiting due to backorders.

So turbo actually voids gearbox warranty?! Is this due to more hp/tq?

It's worth noting... GL-5 absolutely does not belong in your transmission (unless also GL-4 rated, e.g. Motul). Maybe that was a typo?

Most GL-5 oils shift like dogshit. This is a persistent problem for AWD Scoobies because the gearbox contains the front differential and hypoid gears and it absolutely needs GL-5.

Now I'm not pretending to re-engineer Toyobaru's product here, but imo the factory tranny fill is poor. It just doesn't shift well and it's horrid when cold. Synchronizer performance *will* be improved by substituting something like Redline MTL GL-4, but note that MTL is a bit lighter than the book spec. Guys that have tried MT-90 (similar, but heavier, meets book spec) report that it shifts poorly when cold. My car (so far) shifts great on MTL, best when at operating temperature.

Trans oil selection can be everything and you'd think the engineers at Toyobaru and their trans vendor (Aisin) would know this, so wtf is up with this?

Anecdote: I had an early wrx that at 80K miles had to be double clutched to get into 5th. Before too much longer it was 4th and 5th. The car would have been completely unsalable at this point and I was beginning to face up to a transmission repair. A little fiddling with oil selection (might as well try!) *completely* solved that issue (nothing was actually broken) and the car has done an additional 100K since with no problems!

The manufacturer's poor attempt at CYA is really annoying here....

Maybe that service rep knows more about these cars than we care to acknowledge?


Regardless, get some Motul 300v gear oil in that new tranny.

Yes...that's perfectly reasonable too. The issue is on a stock car.

Yes, your drivetrain is now taxed to put more power to the ground, probably more than designed for.

I feel like the dealer fed a line of BS to SOA to convert it to a goodwill only and claim it as abusive driving.

I've replaced a trans on a BRZ here for grinding with zero issues from SOA or their tech line.
Maybe the jackass tech tried to claim it as abusive driving...

Anyone in MD/Baltimore area I will be glad to help you guys out on warranty items at my dealer as long as it's not something insane, lol

At least you might have an out in the future - since they said they filled the trans with GL-5, which is not compatible with GL-3/4 (what the owner's manual recommends, because GL-5 can be corrosive to yellow metals). Would be a good idea to change the fluid for a GL-4 (or GL-4/5 rated).

I can see this happening at subaru dealership:
- oh, you have an exhaust, that's extra +3-5 HP/TQ - the car was not designed for it and so kiss goodbye to engine, and whole drivetrain (and suspension probably too) warranty.

Depending on dealer, I also see it very possible.

disclaimer: retarded reply about to follow...

everytime I read about MT grinding issues, I'm very glad I got the AT... plus it upshifts and downshifts faster than I can if I cared at all about the synchros...

That wasn't a typo on my end, that's exactly what it says on the service receipt/summary. I'm calling the dealer today to find out what the hell is going on, and why they tried foisting the blame on SOA. Either way, no one with any sense is going to be sympathetic to them claiming shifting at 7k is "abuse" on a car with a 7400 RPM redline, and that's not remotely close to where I told them the problem started.

I think this sums it up quite well