Metal ball on the tranny drain plug magnet. What gives?

[Molez93]

Another OP update: Still no issues a couple years and ~4-5k miles later. I'm planning to complete another round of tranny and differential fluid changes this month. Will update again with what I observe coming out...

[Molez93]

Completed tranny and differential fluids today. I really have ~8k miles since finding that detent ball which started this thread. No more balls.
Had a decent amount of metal sludge/paste on the drain plug. I believe there was also a small amount of metal shavings in the oil based on investigation of the drain pan after I'd transfered the fluid. Though I'm surprised the magnet didn't retain that if it's really a metal shaving.

Differential fluid looked meaningfully better, though that too had paste/sludge. No shavings.

[86league]

I know this thread is old, but I disassembled a BRZ transmission with 3-4 shift issues and 2 metal balls on the drain plug magnet.


I can confirm what AxisPower says in Post 29/31 - these are balls that fit into the syncro keys in the sliders. Without the springs/balls in-place, I don't think there is anything to push the keys into the syncro ring. Don't see how the syncros would function if all 3 were missing. Missing 1 would make it worse, but maybe still function. 2+ missing like this trans had...

In addition 2 of the springs had gotten snagged by something (the slider ?) and were bent/elongated enough to stick above the hole drilled in the key and extend toward 4th gear. These were making the slider not move easily. This likely contributed to poor shift quality.



Bent spring shown on the left, OK looking one on the right.