Jase Shipley

After covering approx 800 miles, my STI V5 developed a gearbox problem. When changing from 4th to 5th gear, the problem first manifested itself as a notchy gear change (as if the clutch hadn't been fully depressed at the precise moment). However, with more miles, the notch became a grind/crunch of the gears. Finally, when attempting to change into 5th gear at any speed over 40 mph, I experienced a horrible crunch as 5th was engaged.

When the car was cold, the gearchange was fine (colder gearbox oil = lower oil viscosity and successful synchro operation). After many phonecalls, Interpro Engineering appeared to have come across this problem on STI V5s and told me what parts I needed (new 5th gear hub and synchro). After much hassle with finding a garage in Northern Scotland which was happy to tackle an Impreza gearbox, I also got Warranty Holdings to cough-up £750 for the labour and parts. I consider myself lucky because the original parts which came out of the gearbox were visually perfect and warranty companies usually only pay-out when parts have mechanically broken down?!

For 9000 miles things were great. I had just had a Group A Downpipie fitted (courtesy of Falkland Performance Centre, Glenrothes) and my original STI springs refitted - I tried some Eibach springs, which although worked wonders on Peugeot GTIs a Fiat Coupe 20V Turbo, totally destroyed the cars ride quality with little improvement in handling if any. With the downpipe the car pulls like a bloody steamtrain. The increase in torque is clearly evident and, in conjunction with a Scooby Sport backbox, the noise is simply awesome under full acceleration! Caution - Wifes hate loud exhausts and I am now an official 'Boy-Racer' according to the trouble and strife (wife)!

I was as 'Happy as Larry' on my way back home until after a few overtaking manoeuvres on the A9 in Scotland, I detected a notchy feel when changing into 5th gear. By the time I got home the problem of crunching gears had re-appeared. As I workaround, this can be alleviated by holding the clutch down for a moment longer to allow the 5th gear Synchro to 'synchronise the gears'. To say I am now pi55ed off is an understatement.

Having spoken to Roger Clarke Motorsport (another excellent 'no-bullsh1t' outfit that knows what they are doing), it would appear that I must replace several parts to finally remedy the problem - Synchro ring, hub, selector fork........£££££££££££.

Has anyone else out there 'successfully' dealt with Warranty Holdings second time around with the same problem? I can see them telling me to poke off when I report that my gearbox is again knackered. Any advice from anyone would be appreciated regarding this matter.

DAZ

theres a small problem on sti v5 coupes with the gear box.
theres a nut inside the gear box that comes undone and causes a similar problem

this is fixed by replacing this nut with a nylock nut and lock tight sealed to stop it comming undone

if you dont catch it in time then it means the sycro has to be change.

ive got this problem with mine. parts are on order at moment 8000 miles. still under warranty under subaru 1 year world wide warrant

cheers

daz

Darren Soothill

I would suggest you change the gearbox oil over to fully synthetic such as the Silkolene. My car had a gearbox that started to feel quite notchy it got warm as the oil starts to thin out. Changing over to the Silkolene made a substatinal difference to the feel of teh gearbox in that it feels the same when warm and cold now.

The 4th to 5th gear problem you talk about occurs when you change too quickly from 4th to 5th gear as teh Syncros appear not to be able to match the speeds quickly enough. Allowing the engine to drop the revs a bit more before changing into 5th gear means you dont get this problem.


Darren

AndyMc

Jase

I've had an identical problem to yours which started at about 7K miles (MY98).I was only about a month away from a service by the time it got really bad so I decided to wait and drive carefully.Over the month it started to improve and by the time I took it in it was back to normal and has been perfect ever since (now 13K),however 1st,2nd and 3rd can still be very notchy at times.
If you have got enough time left on your warranty it might be worth living with it for a while to see if it cures itself.

I think the problem is caused by some sort of contamination which seems to stick to the syncro hubs,because when the box is opened up there are no obvious defects.
The contamination might come from the standard oil breaking down due to excessive heat.
I got under the car after a run on the motorway and couldn't believe how hot the box was.
If mine gets any worse I will try the synthetic stuff.

hope this helps

Andy

ps the change was really bad,if someone told me mine could cure itself I wouldn't have believed them,but it did.

[This message has been edited by AndyMc (edited 19-12-1999).]

Jase Shipley

Darren and Andy,

Thanks for your replies, however I must add the following. When the gearbox was first rebuilt it was filled with Redline synthetic gearbox oil (approx £10 per Ltr) - I assume that this is comparable to the Silkolene product which was mentioned.

As for changing gear too fast I feel inclined to disagree simply because I have never experienced problems with any other cars which I have owned (STI V4 Type R coupe included). I understand that many people wear out the 2nd gear synchro because they feel that they must change into second rapidly (as a result of the car's fierce accn in 1st); however, when changing from 4th to 5th I certainly don't rush the gearchange - many V5 STIs are apparently suffering a similar problem and Warranty Holdings have certainly got their fingers burnt over such problems.

Andy, as a pesimist I think that the hole in my **** will heal up before my gearbox problem goes away! I am convinced that the problem will be exacerbated with the advent of more miles - time will tell.

AndyMc

Jase

It took about 3K miles for the box to deteriorate to the point of not being able to engage the gear without a crunch.
Within 200 miles of starting to drive slowly(and I mean slowly ie not letting the car come on boost)it started to get better.
As you already know the parts that come out of the box seem to be in good condition so it does seem possible that they might start working again.

All I'm trying to say is that my problem sounds identical to yours,if not worse eg OK when cold or at low revs,worse when warm or at high revs. I've also never changed from forth to fifth quickly.Now the problem has gone I can not beat the syncro nomatter how hard I try so I don't seem to have done any permanent damage.

EVO mags Forrester also had a problem with 5th gear which seems to have fixed itself because they didn't mention it last month.
There were also a few MY99's that had the same fault I wonder what conclusions they came to?

As you said time will tell
anyway time for bed!

Andy

WAYSIDERS

I had the same problem with my Type R after about 1,000 miles. Very crunchy from 4th to 5th.

I simply changed fractionally more slowly and the problem disappeared. Now (at 15,500 miles) I can change up quickly without crunching. The gearbox appears to be self-healing. No idea how/why, but who cares?

Ian Cook

Latest news on my UK 99MY car is that they have identified the fault as the nut coming off of the 5th gear mech, whatever the hell that means, and have ordered a new nut, so hopefully i will get it back tomorrow or wednesday, I am not sure why they never spotted this the first time they had the car for a week though ???? especially as i was told they had stripped the box and found no faults ?????? Old cynic me suspects they changed the gearbox oil hoping it would fix itself. I will let you all know if its fixed when/if i get it back before Christmas.

If anybody is getting bored with their scoob drive a hyundri Lantra for a week and a half

DAZ

ive found that it is when im changing gear quickly. as you say if you leave the revs to drop out a bit it goes into gear properly.

not sure about the curing its self may be that youve got used to the delay changing gear and do it subconsciously (maybe)

later

daz

pwebb

I can confirm another case - my sti V5 4 dr will crunch from 4th to 5th if I change quickly and under heavy load (10 k miles driven)- this would appear to add credence to the prognosis that this is due to a synchro problem/design fault. Only happens under extreme acceleration mind and at speeds that we all shouldn't be reaching in the UK !
My next step is to change oil for a better one but won't be doing this till March at next service. If it gets any worse I will be ringing Motor Warranty Direct to see how they stand on replacements...either way I will report back here at some stage,

cheers,

Paul W

Ian Cook

My problem is jumping out of fifth on the motorway when backing off, then when you try to put it back into any gear it crunches like crazy, even if you blip the throttle. I have tried all different methods of doing this, none work, i end up losing so much speed, between 10 and 20 mph while this is happening, i get worried that someone is going to rear end me. They all appear to be synchro problems, but like i said they reckon a nut has come off/loose and thats whats causing the problem. Hopefully if i get it back i can let you all know if its fixed ?

NigelB

I have the same problem with my STI V Type R Was OK for about 5K miles and developed the problem after that. Seems to happen when changing from 4th to 5th with high revs in 4th gear. Was doing it all the time at the recent donington track day so I ended up double declutching to change smoothly Demo car at interpro where I bought my car I drove had the same problem too !! Thinking of trying the Synthetic Gearbox oil but by the sound of it that doesn't help much either.

Nigel

Ian Cook

Getting mine back at 4pm today so will let you all know if its any better.

Ian Cook

Well, I dont know what they did to my gearbox, I may have to ring them tomorrow and check, its absolutely amazing now, its never felt this good since i bought it, much more positive and doesnt jump out of gear anymore. Plus after a week and a half with a Hyundai Lantra, it scared the s*** out of me

DAZ

ian i can imagine

what have they done

i think a lots of people on the thread would like to know

cheers

daz

Jase Shipley

As I suspected, with another 1200 miles on the car the gearbox problem has got worse! It now crunches at less revs when changing from 4th to 5th gear (4000+ = crunch) I think I require some expensive replacement parts.

AndyMc

Bummer !

Ian Cook

Daz,

I will try and find out what they did to it, but after a couple of weeks it still feels transformed, i was getting a bit nervous that it was the hyundri gearbox making me feel mine was this much better, but it definitely is better.

DAZ

cheers ian when you know send us an email or post it

later daz

pwebb

had my gearbox oil changed last week (manual says change oil at 20,000 km for an sti - that's every 12,500 miles)....crunch is still there but not as bad - I had semi-synthetic oil fitted - maybe significant - had hoped the crunching would go but no.

cheers,

Paul W

Rog L

I have been told that by a few people . Do you now how i would stand asking them for a new car. It had only done 4410 miles when it went in for the warranty work , when it was crashed it had done 4790????? Some road test! Any ideas ????


Rog

Rog L

What a nightmare this gearbox thing is. My car went in for warranty work for the same thing ,They told me that a harder 5th gear would sort it out. Sadly i did not get the chance to drive it. They crashed it the night before i was to pick it up. Three weeks waiting for the car to be done , now five weeks for the bodywrok to be done . Thats my Luck !!!

sunilp

They crashed it?

Ask for a new car!

sunilp

I dunno mate...seek legal advice. I dread the thought of having back your car after some other **** had crashed it!

Keep us informed

DAZ

id ask for a new car

also 300 and a bit miles for a test drive is taking the ****

get some legal advice on the matter

i wouldnt want the car back after that.

its never the same after a bump

best of luck on the matter

cheers

daz

Howie

Guys,

Mt STi3 has crunchy 3-4 gearchange close to the redline. The 30k Service is due this weekend. In goes the fullysynth hopefully this will do the trick, however I've been told that "fs" is likely to aggrevate the problem. As a friction eliminator, ZX1 is supposed to be excellent, so the engine, gearbox, and diff will get a shot of that too, (5% by volume). I've just done a service on the girlfriends GTi cabrio. The engine's always been a bit tappetty on cold starts even on "fs" oil. So as a test I whapped in some ZX1 too. The results so far have proved positive - quiet as a mouse, even on cold starts. The gen on ZX1 also says that once it gets to work it breaks down any deposits on the metal surfaces (a bit like antibodies do when attacking germs)
therefore it should clean up the gearbox mechs!

I'll post the results next week >13/2/00

cheers
Howie

[This message has been edited by Howie (edited 07-02-2000).]

Mark Coleman

Hi guys,

posted a thread several months ago about a gear crunching problem I had for 6 months or so on my WRX. 1st to 2nd, 2nd to 3rd, 3rd to 4th and then all the way back down the box. This happened when the car had gone 50+ miles.

I tried changing the oil to a fully synthetic brand as per Subaru manual specs. Still no luck and I was at the point of sourcing a new gearbox when Pete Croney from Scoobysport suggested trying Silkolene fully synthetic. This apparently is the only oil Prodrive could find that was suitable for their WRC boxes.

It was as if Pete had fitted a new gearbox. 5000 mile later and its still as tight.

I'm not sure which one he used as I think there are two sorts but it certainly did the trick.

Its worth a try

Howie

Guys,

had my 30k Service yesterday.

Replaced gear oil with AMSOIL fully Synth, 75W/90 plus a shot of ZX1, probably too soon to give a realistic judgement but so far feels much smoother and less notchy thru the gears, have n't had a 3-4 crunch yet either.

cheers
Howie