Help Needed - Grinding, 3-4 unuseable?

[gdrider77]

Hoping someone might have some insight.

So its been nice here in Denver and I have been driving my car a good deal in the past couple weeks. I noticed about a week ago I started getting just a bit of grinding going into 3rd occasionally. I attributed it to not pushing the clutch pedal in all the way and didn’t think about it again, as I was able to simply push the pedal all the way in, and didn’t seem to experience it again.

Drove the car for a good week and no problems, including yesterday. Today I’m driving into work, and started having issues. I could barely get into 3rd, it grinds and I have to pretty much slam it into gear. 4th gear I cannot get into at all. 1-2, 5-6, R all seem to be ok, its only 3-4 gear. 3rd I can get into but I really have to slam it. 4th I was able to get into a couple times if I slammed it into gear, but it pretty would slip right out of 4th.

I check my clutch fluid as soon as I got into work, and its same level. OS any suggestions? I will be driving home late this evening so I can avoid most traffic and just cruise home in 5-6th. I upgraded my clutch back when I did turbo, but is the exedy stage 1 and not really rated for the power I’m putting out. My thought is clutch finally going out, but then wouldn’t it be affecting all gears probably? That leads me to the tranny being bad?

Any help. Thanks!

Thanks for any help.

[endless_pain]

I'm starting to have also problems getting into 4th gear, but not as bad as your, just grinds. The trans seems to be a problem in a bunch of cars, so if you are under warranty, go to the dealer and they might replace the trans like with some forum members.

[endless_pain]

Also, there are no "go to" threads for this. Many people have solved it different ways. Some I have read:
-Switch trans oil to Motul gear, Redline MTF, Pentosin, etc. But within this you have the thinner vs thicker oil, GL3 vs GL4 vs GL5, train of thought.
-Switch the slave master cylinder to a "better" one:
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77390
-Replace the shifter bushing to a urethane unit.


Some have worked, some haven't.
It would be good to have a thread that states, what was happening (with description), what did you do, and did it solve it the problem. Something like the track pad thread.

[gdrider77]

Yeah, im with you. I will try to go to dealer first, still under warranty, around 11k miles. Problem is im boosted, with upgraded clutch and fluid changes, so i could see them trying to deny the claim saying its the aftermarket stuff.

Im hoping to get an idea of the problem though, as i pretty much expect subaru to deny the claim and i will be stuck with fixing it myself.

[celek]

You could have a bent or broken shift fork if its popping back out.
The fact you have grinded gears over time probably destroyed the brass synchros to the point you were slamming it and damaged the fork.

[celek]

Originally Posted by gdrider77

Yeah, im with you. I will try to go to dealer first, still under warranty, around 11k miles. Problem is im boosted, with upgraded clutch and fluid changes, so i could see them trying to deny the claim saying its the aftermarket stuff.

Im hoping to get an idea of the problem though, as i pretty much expect subaru to deny the claim and i will be stuck with fixing it myself.

Boost and 4th gear tend to eventually damage the trans more in the 400HP range you could get a few hundred pulls until you get some sketchy mechanical issues

[fika84]

Originally Posted by gdrider77

Yeah, im with you. I will try to go to dealer first, still under warranty, around 11k miles. Problem is im boosted, with upgraded clutch and fluid changes, so i could see them trying to deny the claim saying its the aftermarket stuff.

Im hoping to get an idea of the problem though, as i pretty much expect subaru to deny the claim and i will be stuck with fixing it myself.

Which dealership do you go to here in Denver?

[spitfire481]

mine felt like it bent a shift fork or something. hard to get into gears, weird noises, popping out of gears. pulled the trans to throw another one in and found pieces of gear in the fluid

[gdrider77]

Originally Posted by fika84

Which dealership do you go to here in Denver?

I dont have a specific dealer, as i do all my work myself and avoid dealer at all costs. In fact never had the car in to a dealer for anything yet. But if i take it in, i will most likely go to the Subaru dealer on 104th.

Do you have a dealer you would recommend that is mod friendly?

[fika84]

Originally Posted by gdrider77

I dont have a specific dealer, as i do all my work myself and avoid dealer at all costs. In fact never had the car in to a dealer for anything yet. But if i take it in, i will most likely go to the Subaru dealer on 104th.

Do you have a dealer you would recommend that is mod friendly?

I was hoping that you did.

I did the first 2 free oil changes at Go Subaru (Autonation now), but I've heard mixed reviews of them... I don't know who I would trust, I also do all of my own work and avoid the dealerships.

Is your Exedy the same clutch that people were having issues getting into 1st with? Or did you get the revised version? I would imagine that if you're only having issues with 3-4 that it wouldn't have anything to do with the clutch.

Good luck and keep this thread updated if you can!

[gdrider77]

Originally Posted by spitfire481

mine felt like it bent a shift fork or something. hard to get into gears, weird noises, popping out of gears. pulled the trans to throw another one in and found pieces of gear in the fluid

So what exactly did you do to solve it, or did you simply replace the whole tranny?

[djliquidsteele]

I had the same problem about a year ago. Resulted in a new tranny under warranty. Bad synchros.

[gdrider77]

Originally Posted by djliquidsteele

I had the same problem about a year ago. Resulted in a new tranny under warranty. Bad synchros.

Guessing you didnt have aftermarket mods? If i didnt have an upgraded clutch maybe i could argue, but guessing boosted, plus upgraded clutch/flywheel, i will be out of luck.

[spitfire481]

Originally Posted by gdrider77

So what exactly did you do to solve it, or did you simply replace the whole tranny?

I have another stock trans in the car now just so it's driveable. We are doing a swap this winter though