Agreed. Big names seem to be well regarded by the community. Should be hard to go wrong with any of them

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Shifting to second is known to be sticky/crunchy when cold. New fluid can help but it's just the way the car is designed. Plus having a shifter directly connected to the transmission.

Just need to be smooth and consistent with inputs when cold and it usually shifts into gear fine.

You both are bosses. Thank you. I am gonna try to brainstorm where I can install these. Ever since I moved up to NJ from FL I really dont have a great place to work on my cars. The parking lot at my new apt is small and has textured stone and doing a simple oil change was once of the scariest experiences of my life. Car was wobbling all over the place. Minute I pulled out a torque wrench I looked at my friend and was like, whip out the super human strength and keep this thing from sweying to the side... please... lol. As soon as I find a good spot to do it ill put these on. Or I might bight the bullet and ask a local mechanic to do it for me. I don't know yet. Fear of a car falling on your face is a powerful thing. haha.

You need jack stands if you plan to get under the car. For two reasons. One so you don't die if the jack fails and two you want to use your jack to lift the transmission and slide the insert in.

The install only takes 15-30 minutes if you include removing the undertray piece and take your time. You could literally do it during an oil change waiting for oil to drain out.

loosen One Nut, jack up trans, grease insert, slide in, lower trans, retighten bolt/nut and done.

I legit did a rear brake job* in a truck stop parking lot once, for similar reasons. It was actually very convenient, even if I did get a few strange looks.



(* - A hundred years ago on my '88 Chevy Beretta GT)

My terrifying experience was with jack stands. one on each side and the jack up front. The car was still rocking side to side. I was committed at that point but I have no plans to do that again. The bumpy texture of the embossed bricks just doesnt leave much room for good 4 point contact on each of the stands.

a truck stop is actually a great idea...

Change your transmission fluid before doing anything else. I like Redline MT-90 in mine.

yup. When I cycle out again I will cycle with that. Today I am just gonna run out to my local private shop and have them throw whatever GL4 they have on deck because I am probably going to cycle out again in a couple weeks to clean it out. If the engine oil says anything about the fluids in this car, I dont trust that this transmission doesn't need to have the fluids cycled at least twice

Yes until the fluid is warm you gotta baby it into 2nd.

I use MT-90 as well. Improved feel with little increase in noise.

I'll run through my spiel again. You might regret changing fluid because of the increased noise. Consider that.

This transmission has relatively small syncro clutches. I hate leaning into the gearshift.

The spinny parts of the gearbox, which are all swimming in thick oil, are driven two ways.

1. The input shaft drives them at all times.
2. When a gear is engaged, the output shaft will also drive them. Think engine braking.

With cold, thick oil, in neutral, clutch disengaged, the gears all quickly drag to a halt. The trick in getting from first to second in the cold is to not pause in neutral. Done quickly enough, with a gentle flick, no pause, it will fall into second. This is because the shift collar is already waiting for an opportunity to mesh with the target gear before the syncro clutch has to do any work.

In neutral, with clutch disengaged, once the gears all drag to a halt, they must then be spooled up again by the output shaft via the syncro clutch. That's where the difficulty is encountered.

If I don't shift quickly enough, while still in neutral, I engage the clutch and spin up the gears with a blip of the throttle. Then while they are still spinning faster than the output shaft, in one motion I disengage the clutch and again go for engaging second gear.

This is textbook "double clutching." It also helps with downshifting in all cases, including first gear on a roll.

I appreciate your thorough post. Yeah it’s a pretty quick movement. It’s more that the moment it begins to seat into second at cold or low RPMs, it sorta clunks through and there’s a bit of resistance. Once it’s warm there’s more wiggle room and it’s a lot easier. Believe it or not, I actually have an ulterior motive for changing the fluid. Between third and 4th if I rev too high too long (not redline but we’ll say the 5.5-6.5k range) then you can begin to subtly smell the transmission a bit but I’m not slipping so I don’t suspect my flywheel. I think the fluids are probably old and dirty. Also the car wasn’t drove for 4 years which might or might not contribute but certainly not helping anything. I am hoping some fresh fluids will help eleviate some of that burning. Worst case I have clean fluids, best case I fix that issue. Previous owner certainly worked the car. The crappy stock tires prove it. Idk how they chose to drive the car. Nothing seems broken but for stock, they certainly out it through the paces.

Update... I pulled up to the mechanic and they refused to touch a “Subaru transmission” because Subaru has specially rated transmission fluids that they won’t touch... honestly I’m just about 96.5% sure I smell BS somewhere. It’s just in who’s part I’m not so sure about yet. I’m gonna look around for a mechanic that doesn’t care and just bring my own fluid and ask them to put it in. I can try mt90 then also. I would do it myself but I haven’t touched transmissions mich in my life and if I over fill then I’m not sure I would honestly know if it made anything any better.

You fill it til it poors out. If it's pooring, then it'll even itself out lol. No joke, that's how it's done. I recommend you get some fuel hose, and a funnel. Put the funnel in the engine bay and hose into the transmission. Poor until it pukes back out. Insert plug.

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