[alphasaur]

Originally Posted by CIH_Nut

Thank you for the reply. I’m encouraging my daughter to join up here. A little about myself I’m a member of the Opel GT forum and still own a 1972 GT hence the nickname (cam in head)CIH_nut. I’m familiar with how very helpful people can be who are active on the forums and I try to help out too whenever I can. As far as any shifting issues it’s fine in drive but there’s two sport modes? It has very rugged spots between gears there so I encourage her to avoid using it since it seems useless anyway, the fun where you can run it in the upper 45-5500 range is found in manual mode to get past the lack luster 3500 rpm spot.

The PO also had the suspension dropped a bit too far for our liking which brings about the excessive negative camber especially in the rear. She also has the small oil leak at the timing chain cover, we’ve been reading this is common. That looks like a job that I’m in no rush to get into so we’re keeping an eye on the oil level, so far no visible loss after 1,000 miles.

Do any of you other folks get this jerky shifting on this transmission in sport mode? That would be my only concern with the fluid level. Since the last transmission fluid change is unknown I’m encouraging her to get that done (it has 117,000 miles on it), then she’ll have a fresh start and as you mentioned it’ll be easier to keep an eye on the leak and also give it a fresh start. I’ll call the dealer Monday and get the pricing estimate. It’s been routeenly service by the PO by the Toyota dealer and spent it’s life in the California desert, it seems to have been well taken care of except there’s a bent passenger side rocker panel where it looks like it’s been parked onto a large rock. I’ll try to post a picture of the car soon. Again thanks for your help.

I would consider servicing at subaru as their techs are likely more familiar with the platform and you're out of warranty anyway.