MY99-5DR

Hi all,

I have just bought a pristine MY00 with 45k miles. Unfortunately, it appears to be suffering from the well-documented 5th gear crunch that has evidently blighted a number of MY99/00 cars.

My question is: Reading some of the older threads on the subject, several contributors have apparently cured the problem by either changing the oil (Syntrax semi-synth appears to be a favourite), or by simply tightening the lock nut. Have these minor interventions completely resolved the issue, or has it re-occurred, or worsened over a period of time?

I am currently weighing up whether to spend £200'ish on oil and the tightening of the nut - which may prove to be a waste of time, or simply to bite the bullet and pay the £500 quoted by trusty A. F. Noble for the full repair with new hub, locknut assembly, etc.

All thoughts, comments welcome.

Cheers,

Andy

ade_sti

iTrader: (2)

Hi mate, my 99 plate car had the sam problem. I have just had 5th gear fixed & 1st whilst the box was apart- think £500 is a bit steep to be honest. I would get the box off and get 5th rebuilt as you may find that other gears need sorting. I thought mine was OK apart from 5th, however baulk ring omn 1st was wasted. At the end of day up to you mate but would be worth doing, especially if your clutch needs doing as mine did.

What happens if you wait a couple of seconds after you have taken the gear lever out of 4th & before you put it into 5th - does the crunch disappear?

MY99-5DR

Ade,

Thanks for the reply. I have literally only just bought the car, so I can't be sure whether or not a particularly slow shift alleviates the problem. It is certainly possible to change from 4th to 5th at, say, 50-60mph without graunching, but at higher speeds/harder acceleration the crunch is repeatable.

I'm interested to hear that you think £500 is pricey. Having read some of the other posts that talk of quotes in excess of £800, I thought I was doing quite well?! If you don't mind me asking, what did your repair cost? Did you use a Subaru dealer? Do you know what oil the 'box was filled with?

Out of curiosity, were you experiencing any difficulty with 1st gear at all before the discovery of the worn baulk ring?

Cheers.

ade_sti

iTrader: (2)

I had the gearbox rebuilt, clutch and flywheel changed at the same time so labour was not that bad as the gearbox had to come off to get new clutch and light weight flywheel on. The total labour for the job was 350 plus VAT and the gear box parts about 130 plus VAT. That did not include gear box oil. I will get the bill out tomnorrow and find out what gear oil was used. The labour price also included the cambelt change and full service, including all the fluids (breaks and coolant)

The work was done at CAS on the Wirral.

1st gear was only a bit stiff to select at times, and when Steve opened the box the baulk ring was on it's way out as well.

your problem on 5th sounds the same as mine was. OK if going slow, but if driven hard and taken further up the rev range it would crunch quite badly.

I suppose 500 is not too bad when I think about it, I probably did OK as was getting all the other things done. The only problem is that the guy wont really know for sure what state the box is in until it is opened so cost could go up.

Ade

DARKDESTROYER9

oh no ive noticed mine crunches into 5th on hard accel but at low speeds it dosent happen what do you have to tighten?

RON

My my00 used to do this, i tokk the box out myself, then stripped off the back of the box, replaced the synchro on 5th, and put it all back together again..... cost... less than £50.....

Then i found out i needn't have even removed the box, the rear of the box can be removed leaving most of the gearbox IN THE CAR!!!

MY99-5DR

Darkdestoyer,

Try a quick search of the "Drivetrain" folder folder, there are numerous threads on the issue.

Here is a shortcut to one of them:

https://www.scoobynet.com/5th-gear-c...light=5th+gear


RON - tempted to give this a shot myself too. Only trouble is that I need the car for work and the garage is currently rammed with a soon-to-be-installed bathroom suite, so work will have to be done outside, within a weekend! Can you offer any tips or pointers?

Thanks in advance.

Andy

David_Wallis

IMHO 500quid to repair a box is robbery.

David

MY99-5DR

David,

What would you consider to be reasonable for the work necessary?

Thanks.

Andy

RON

Andy,

i did mine on ramps on the driveway, mind you, it nearly killed me when the box fell on me!!

getting the box out was the hardest part, followed by getting it back in the car.... doing the work on the biox was a piece of pi55, but then again, i am always tinkering with things mechanical.... (currently modding a Disco for offroading!!)

If the clutch is older than say 50k miles on your car, then fit a new one just cos the box is out, thats assuming you do actually remove the box, i wouldn't advise trying to do the box in the car unless you have acce4ss to proper 2/4 post hoists.... no fun being on your back (under a car) all day!!

It's been a while since i did mine, if i remember anything else, i'll pop back and post it.....

MY99-5DR

Just to conclude this...

Too little time to sort the problem myself, so I entrusted the repair to A F Noble. Evidently the problem was in the early stages because the 'box only required the £12 baulk ring and locknut assembly. Total cost including oil and labour - just over £200.

All is now well again

cbowditch

Really? I've seen stealers quote £2200 to repair the 5th gear baulk ring. £500 sounds like a bargain to me.