When cruising at a steady sane (ish) speed i let off the accelerator my car sometimes pops out of 5th - not all teh time just now and again.

it does not make any noise and it seems to be when i'm just cruising at 80 and i just let off a bit then it seems to pop out.

Is an expensive rebuild on the cards?

Hope not - spent enough on the damn thing recently

 

This is a common issue on 98 ish UK turbo's.
The dealer fixed mine while I waited a long time.

It is a big nut coming loose in the rear of the box so get it fixed quick!

Get yourself to Scooby Clinic up your way or call David at www.apiengines.com
Or even a dealer!

Graham

 

i've got Prosport on my doorstep so no worries there.

cheers

***although i'm worried now as i need to drive to Gatwick on Friday***

 

Any more?

 

what Graham said..

 

Agreed, i had the same problem on my P1, less then 200 miles after the problem started i needed a rebuilt box. I would strongly reccomend david at API impreza, very helpful and good customer relations.

Hope that helps.

 

**** i need to drive to gatwick on Friday.

better dig out the Cavalier!

 

Good idea.
Graham

 

Is there any way of prolonging the life i have left in it?

I'm buggered for transport tommorrow y'see

 

could also by the syncro's

 

The gearbox seems fine apart from sometimes struggling to get in reverse and through teh gears are very slick its just now and again whilst cruising it will pop out of 5th gear

 

mate of mine had his jumping out of 3 and 4th, turned out to be the syncro's

 

as reverse is difficult to engage then it's got to be the nut, if the synchros were gone on 5th it wouldn't affect reverse.

 

Is it a big job to tighten this up???

i'm in a right dillema as i need to drive to gatwick tommorrow evening

 

Its not just a case of tightening it up, my MY98 had this problem, it needed a new gearbox ! The car was fine driving just had to keep an eye out ofr the jumping out of fifth ! mine didnt catastrohpically fail, but i booked it in to get fixed because it was flippin annoying !

 

9 out of 10 are just a tighten up job with a new nut and washer, it's only those who leave it and eventually it cuts a groove in to the plastic oil feed tube that feeds 5th gear with oil and then 5th gear seizes.
it can be done insitu but it still means taking the back casing off and centre diff out and then the centre casing off, the whole job takes 2-3 hrs to do and some new gearbox oil.

 

Well i made it too Gatwick - then to Brighton and then back to Manchester - cant understand it i've done over 700 miles and it only jumped out 3 or 4 times looks like i was lucky.

although sometimes its a pain after selecting reverse and trying to get a gear again.

 

get it sorted mate or you will be forking out loads more asap ... as your box sounds good but soon will be destoyed sooner rather than later