Hi all,

My bugeye has just started 'crunching' when I change into 4th gear at high-ish revs.

When either changing from 3rd to 4th or 5th to 4th, if the rpms are over about 4k the gear crunches. It still goes in but doesn't sound or feel good!!!

I'm not mechanically minded unfortunately but could it be the synchromesh or is it more likely to be clutch? It seems fine in all other gears, regardless of how hard I'm driving the car. Just had its 30k service so not high mileage.

Help, I can hear £££££'s leaving my bank??????

 

Mine has always hated going in to 5th at high revs. It may not be as bad as you think.
Diffs and gear oil should all have been checked/replaced at 30k service.

 

I had this when i first got my MY99 - it was 2 years old at the time. The problem went away after a service with the g/box oil change
May be as simple as this for you

 

The problem is I've only just had the 30k service and it was all changed then.

I realise it isn't good for the gearbox but does it do too much damage if I continue to drive it, or should I get it booked in ASAP? I don't want to have to shell out for a new gearbox

 

My Bugeye did exactly the same for a while but seems OK now. Could just be tightness of syncromesh on gearbox due to relatively low mileage. Mine certainly got better with use. I do try mind to change slightly slower 3rd to 4th (0.4 secs instead of 0.2!!!) Would not worry mate.

 

Thanks, I'll try not to!! I did try a slower change earlier but it seems that it's the revs that's causing the problem rather than the 'aggresive' gear change (although I'm sure that doesn't help )

 

Its seems to be one of the REAL design faults on the Impreza, I had my 5th gear syncro changed at 7K (5 months old). Like yours it grated ever so slightly when changing from 4th to 5th at high revs. The dealership were very aware of the syncro problems.

A syncromesh gearbox should never crunch or grate even slightly.

 

Hmmm sounds ominous. How much did that cost you to get it changed and did it fix the problem?

 

Fixed under warranty.

Been perfect ever since, the problem of the 5th gear syncro is well known (loads of threads on the forum about this). Not sure if there is a known issue with 4th gear syncro.

 

Unfortunately it seems that there are quite a few posts for 4th gear syncro problems, one guy was quoted £500-£1000 by Subaru dealer.

Oh lord have mercy on my soul - please let it be gearbox oil level and not the sync mesh!!!

 

I've just taken her out for a spin and after letting the engine warm up a bit gave it some stick and all was well for the 1st 5 minutes or so.

However after that the 5th to 4th gear change (at 4-5K+ in 5th) started causing the grating noise but 3rd to 4th was ok.

I kept accelerating/braking and so on, to test the gear changes, and after a couple of minutes the 3rd to 4th started doing the same.

I guess this indicates that something is causing the grating noise once it's warmed up (eg. oil)????

I also tried double-clutching to see if it would go in smoothly but it still crunched.

Any ideas?

 

Have you checked the oil level, it will crunch 4-5th if it is lowish, i.e. still on stick but not full. I had my 4th gear syncro changed under warantee when the car was only 2 months old, but have had it occasionally when ion track under hard acceleration after leaving a left hander, but once i topped the oil up it stopped

 

Mine was the same at high revs changing into 4th,Apparantly it was a common fault with v6 classics, had mine done 2-3 months ago had to change allsorts, cogs, gaskets, bearings, blah blah blah blah,...........£1600 !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I had exactly the same problem in my 03WRXppp.
I had to have 3rd and 4th gears plus the synchro changed under warranty.

It does appear to be a very common problem. I always had problems with 5th at high revs and dropping into 1st while anything other than completely stationary. It got gradually worse and ended up with the 4th gear problem you describe.

If you're lucky you might get away with just a synchro replacement.

Good luck.

 

Noticed it a couple of times - glad its not just me then - first service will sort out ......

 

Thanks for all the posts guys, it certainly seems to be a common problem!!!

(Apologies for the following war-and-peace)

I took it to Subaru in Cardiff on Friday and they took it for a test drive with me in the car and he confirmed that it definately has a syncro problem. In addition to this he said they do see quite a few WRX's with this problem, although apparently the new 6-speed box is much better.

They've said that they'll write to Subaru head office on my behalf and request that they pay for the repairs, (even though it's out of warranty). However I will have to commit to paying for them to strip down the gearbox for them to investigate the problem. If Subaru agree it's a component failure, they may pay for all/part/some/none of the repair costs.

I have to be prepared to fork out for 6 hours labour at £67/h. Has anyone been through this process before? How likely are they to pay out?

They told me that because it's only done 28k miles and has just had it's 30k service they 'should' agree to pay at least some of the costs - but no guarantees.

Does anyone know of a good Scooby specialist in S.Wales/S.West England that I could try instead?

Thanks.

 

If they won't do it under warantee, don't use the dealer as they are mega £££ compared to ther place. Send us a PM if wants it done by a gearbox specialist rather than a dealer.

 

You have a PM.