Change your manual transmission fluid ASAP!!!
 

There are lots of threads about this, but I've only had my BRZ about a week and a half now and since the first time I drove it I noticed chunky gear changes especially in 3rd and 4th gear...

I have 1500 miles on the car already and nothing improved, so I did my research on here and talked to my dealer and came to the conclusion the simplest option was to try new fluid. I went with Redline MLT due to some recommendations here and the fact I had it available locally.

Changing the fluid on the twins is slightly more difficult than my old impreza due to the skidplates but I actually found the two hole and no dipstick design slightly easier to work with because you can just fill it until it seeps out and plug it up. Not complicated at all.

Anyway, when I drained the stock fluid it was COMPLETELY black and the magnet was covered in metal "sand"! I was very surprised how poor the condition was already!

With the first test drive with the new fluid the results are instantly noticeable. Every shift is much easier and the chunks are replaced with nice snickts :)

So I'm going to personally recommend everyone replace their stock fluid ASAP, it might save your transmission from significant premature wear.

thanks for the headsup. been planning on doing this for awhile now, just haven't had the time since I thought its not my daily driven anyway. does it matter what fluid you use or are there better ones out there than the regular oem manual transmission fluid?

thanks:)

Motul Gear 300 is top notch, as well as Amsoil. Redline is hit or miss. The Motul is more expensive than the Amsoil. If you don't want to order it online, you can try to contact local tuner shops or google Amsoil reps in your area. They usually work out of their house lol.

Motul Gear 300 is a great choice too. Especially since you can do the rear diff with it as well! I didn't do the diff because I didn't buy the gaskets for it otherwise I would have :(

Also note, it only took me about an hour and 15 minutes to do the transmission fluid in my garage with jack stands and 2 jack stands (I lowered it to drain it, then lowered it again to fill it after installing the bottom drain plug)

wait, why all the lowering and lifting ?

Because only two jack stands and no lift and not enough ground clearance under the car to get under there without lifting it up.

The car must be sitting level when filling the transmission.

oh alright, yeah its a hassle to do these oil changes without enough jacks or lifts

That's odd, when I changed my rear differential fluid at 2k miles it had more dirt and metals than my tranny drain plug did at 8.9k miles. I just changed my tranny oil 3 days ago and it didnt have any dirt on it with only a few metal particles. That dirt must be a special formula they use at the car plant that eventually dissolves overtime.

I'll keep this in mind when I get the fluids changed at 1k miles. Finish the break-in with OEM fluids, replace with quality fluids.

By the way, because of our awesome engine bay, you all realized that you can fill your tranny with a tube and funnel from above the car right?

Of course you did... using a pump from underneath the car would be silly. :wink:

I filled with a tube from the top. But I still had to lift the car to drain it and get the plugs off and the skidplates off, all that jazz.

I wouldn't be concerned with the metal particles that were in the fluid. Synchros are covered in very hard materials that needs to be worn in/off before they begin to work smoothly. A lot of material may be worn off at initial break in but it probably takes many thousands of miles before everything really smooths out. I'm at 3000 miles and my synchros have smoothed out and are no longer crunchy. 2nd gear used to be the worst especially when the transmission was cold but has since gotten better.

Engines, transmissions and brakes need to designed with all types of drivers in mind both good and bad. I'm pretty sure that even drivers with marginal/poor shifting technique would have no problems putting 100k miles on a transmission without a fluid swap.

You obviously haven't been around Subaru's very much...