Possible Transmission Problem...Input Please
 

Hey everyone,

Background:

So I bought my 2013 BRZ Limited 6speed about 2 weeks ago. I have just over 1k miles on it and just did my first oil change with OEM Subaru 0w20 sythetic the other day. For the first 1k miles, I took it easy on the car, but varied RPMs on it as much as possible. This is my fourth manual car, and I consider myself an experienced driver. My car history is: 2002 Nissan Maxima SE 6 speed, 2005 Honda S2000, 2012 Subaru WRX, and now the 2013 BRZ. I should also add that I've never had to replace a transmission or even a clutch on any car I've owned (and most of them had over 80k on them when sold).

Problem:

Since the day I picked the car up, whenever I shift sort of quickly (and smoothly), the car will make a pretty loud clicking sound that can be heard from outside the car. It sounds like it is coming from the transmission or the differential...I can't really tell.

As of one week ago, my car started doing something weird. The clutch feel sudenly changed, and now I can feel a resistance/friction when shifting with moderate acceleration or more in the mid-RPM range. I feel it in my foot whenever it hits the grabbing point when depressing the clutch in the aforementioned circumstances.

In addition to all this, when I give the car sudden medium or heavy throttle input (for example to pass a car or accelerate suddenly), the car shudders and lurches for a second before accelerating.

The last issue is that now my car, when getting started from a dead stop, once the car has started moving and my foot is off the clutch, will sometimes give a "rattling" feeling fromt he rear wheels. Hard to describe. It is like when youre using a performance clutch on a powerful car that has a very "finicky" grab point for the clutch.

I drove my buddy's BRZ yesterday and his clutch and car definitely do not feel the same as mine and it never makes that click sound either (same with a friend's FRS). Their cars even feel MUCH smoother to shift quickly or slowly on.

I have a scheduled appointment with the dealer on Monday morning, but I want to get some input on this if possible from some knowledgable members on the forum first. I don't want the dealer to just brush this off and give me a "this is perfectly normal thing" response when I'm pretty sure it is not.

Any help or input would be appreciated.

Thank you so much.

Best,

Mark

Have your buddy bring his car and make sure the tech drives both if you don't want them to tell you it's "normal".

Damn, another issue. I hope it's nothing major.

The clicking seems to be pretty widespread, my car included. I haven't experienced the other symptoms

To second another poster, I read somewhere the clicking was flywheel noise at low RPM in pretty much any gear (although you would have to be lugging the engine pretty badly to get it in anything other than 1st or 2nd). I've had that since day one.

As for the clutch feel, I thought I was going crazy when mine felt different after a few thousand miles, have many of the same symptoms you do. Let us know what the dealer says!

You also said you had "shuttering" when you applied throttle, is that in gear with the clutch disengaged? That to me sounds like a transmission issue and not a clutch issue, unless the clutch is not fully disengaging somehow.

Ok i'll let you know about the clutch feel issue.

Yep it sounds like a transmission issue to me as well in regard to the shuttering. Yes, it is when the clutch is disengaged fully, my foot on the dead pedal.

At what RPM are you shifting and under what strain (incline, decline, gravel)?

Did you hit any potholes or anything? I'm wondering if it's not a clutch/tranny thing but possible something else vibrating through the car. You'd need to run dyno to figure that out.

the feeling in the clutch happens between 3 and 5k RPM, and its on all degrees of inclination of road surfaces. The clutch vibration sound happens once in a while at random times on smooth roads. I haven't hit any big potholes or anything in the car.

Bump

OP, did you get a solution? I'm having the same symptoms but I'm not sure if that is a normal thing with our cars

I have the same exact issue. :(

I've been getting a little bit of shuddering lately too. I drive in and out of NYC five days a week so the car gets shaken and bounced around constantly so I attributed the shudder to knocking something loose or out of alignment. I'm going to bring it to my local mechanic on Tuesday and put it up on the lift and get a good look and see if there's anything obvious.

The noises are completely normal imo.

The feelings and jerkiness are hard to diagnose, there are times when I've botched the footwork and my car could be described as doing all those things and I'd consider my car to be operating at 100%, I'm not trying to imply that you guys are driving it wrong, only that the car is sensitive and I've experienced such things but blame myself.

Even with video this would be very difficult to diagnose.