There are certain gearboxes that are fitted to cars impored from Japan that owners may not realise could fail when used on European roads.

Having a few aquaintances within the motortrade I have found out that several short ratio manuals have failed after a relatively short time after importation. This has lead to the gearbox being replaced at quite significant cost. There is another problem though, some imported cars are physically unable to take the European equivalent gearbox without considerable work on the chassis mounts, bellhousing etc.

Imports that have already fallen foul to this problem are:

Pajero 4x4, Subaru Impreza Turbo 4x4 and Isuzu Citation 4x4

Only a few of these cars have had early failures, but it should be watched out for, usual symptoms are difficulty in engaging reverse, difficulty in engaging 4x4 from 2wd and general labouring of gearchanges.

The reason for these failures is simple. The Japanese are not long distance drivers, unlike us they don't go for huge amounts of miles at a time. They do short hops on roads with totally different camber settings than here.

An example of what happens is a mate of mine had a Pajero Exceed, manual short ratio box, had it in this country for less than a year, gearbox tore itself apart. He tried to have it replaced with the Mitsi Shogun equivalent but it would not fit, despite having identical part numbers. Cost more than it did to buy/import to repair.

So if you have a short ratio gearbox and you start to have problems egaging gears, have it checked out by someone with exerience of imported short ratio boxes, because you may find that it could fail and cost you loads of money

 

Has anyone had 'unexplained' gearbox failures, or have you had more than one go on you in same car for no apparent reason?

 

Its not an impreza though is it..

Had my imported MY95 WRX for well over a year and no gear box problems...

Dan

 

It has happened to Impreza's too sadly, unfortunately some gearboxes are weakr than others and those with a 1st gear that is virtually a crawler gear in this country do have a nasty habit of 'letting go' when you least want or expect it

 

Sounds like unsubstantiated cr*p to me, any evidence to back this up?

Rich

 

????????????
What is this post all about.
Gearbox faults are rare on Subaru models import or UK. But the odd gearbox selection fault in a vehicle that has been driven hard for a high number of miles or long period of time sould not be any great shock or need a warning. I have driven both UK & import Subaru models with gearbox faults so what do you have against imports?

 

I agree utter b0llocks

 

Have you actually had an import impreza gear box in pieces and the equiverlant UK spec gear box..?? The only main difference is the ratios are shorter, how can this possibly make the gear box weak...

You cant base a whole theory on a few observations, because you dont now what abuse each gear box has had. I.e there is a member on this board with an X reg UK impreza and he has recently had to replace his gear box with low mileage probably due to 30+ standing starts and a 1/4 event.. He knows who he is..

Dan

[Edited by dhorwich - 5/29/2003 6:31:19 PM]

 

well hopefully i wont have any problems, i have an my93 wrx. got the occasional problem. like sometimes the gears crunch going to 2nd or reverse. always goes in everytime though. I put it down to the fact that i only use the scoob at weekends and use my focus in the week. so getting more used to the focus box.

 

Alot of type Rs have had synco problems as early as a few 1000 miles.........not the end of the world having a few syncros changed????? Had mine done..............

 

Utter bollox.

My STi has seen more European mileage than most on here, 155MPH seen on regular ocasions whilst over there, 1200 mile round trips on many ocasions with a rather well known track thrown in for good measure. My gearbox is still in one piece.

In fact, i lowered 5th gear on mine as it was the limited spec low 1st-4th and high 5th, it is now the normal close ratio 1-5 RA set.

 

the utter bollox was refering to the first post.

 

sorry lads but i have known of a few gearboxes in subaru's to go belly up, one or two multiple failures from same car

bad driver or bad design, no such thing as failsafe or bombproof gearboxes sadly

 

no one is saying there is, this post is saying import boxes are a problem in general, which is utter bollox.

 

potentially they can be troublesome, and as with most things in life, when and if they go belly up they do it in spectacular (and expensive) fashion

 

There is nothing being said in this post that doesn't apply to every gearbox in every car.

Subaru gearboxes swap easily between UK and Jap spec, even the ratios can be easily swapped between them.

This sounds like the utter crap being pedalled by the UK official importers a couple of years back to try and stop people buying imports.

**** off and peddle your scare stories somewhere else until you have substantial proof. There are enough import owners on this site for us all to have seen the evidence and reported gearbox failures are rare, there are probably more people with piston slap than knackered 'boxes.

 

its ****e lol

 

Apart from the occasional reluctance to go into reverse, I have not had a problem so far on my MY94 STI which is a close ratio box.

A fill up with Castrol Syntrax does them the world of good!

Les

 

So why did my Chevette gear box break?? It was a uk car!!; !!

 

Sounds like he is completely against imports.

Perhaps he is a UK "Main Stream" Subaru Dealer, trying to get his own back!

 

US gearboxes on the other hand are naff. Read some of the american forums. It seems practically everyone above standard bhp is having trouble, and alot of people with standard cars too. I believe, im sure someone will correct me if im wrong, that the US tranny is US only and not a worldwide product??
But this is neither here or there regarding this post, so i'll get me coat.

 

the US tranny is the same as the Uk one.

However, having seen David Soul (starsky & hutch etc) driving a normal UK (as in normal every day jap import) on a motororing TV prog, I think the US drivers are a lot to do with it. He broke 2 boxes in about 10 miniutes whilst trying to drive round a track (don't ask). Anyway, if he is anything to go by, then US drivers are giving their gearboxes some SERIOUS grief!

Paul

 

err dont know about imports but my gearbox went belly up at 50,000 miles just had a funny grinding noise in second and had to have the whole box replacing.
i accept i am hard on tyres and brakes and i ride the clutch alot but i have never had a gear box go on me in 20 years of driving

 

My ,97 WRX with 35k jumps out of 4th--bummer

 

probabaly A.F NOBLE in penicuik spreading scare storied again, even his own mechanics said "he is a **** would try and put you off buying anything unless he was making something out of it the ******* that he is"

 

At the risk of getting flamed I use my MY94 WRX to tow a pretty old ( read heavy ) caravan several times a year. ( I know , I know but it's a case of needs must ! )If that doesn't put a substantial sustained load on a gearbox then I'm not sure what will . Car's on it's origional gearbox with no major problems at 80,000 miles . In my experience the gearbox is fine at power/torque levels slightly higher than standard .

Just my two penny's worth !

Regards,
John

 

Sporty fellax, aren't you the guy who was giving us all that guff about suspension settings as well?