My wife's T reg 2.5 Legacy GX auto is having problems with gear selections. It goes straight into reverse with no problem but when she tries to select any of the forward gears, it can take a lot of up and down shifting to get the car into a gear to be able to move forward. Any advice would be much appriciated.

 

Have you checked the oil level in the g,box? If its low it can prevent it selecting gears.

 

Yes gearbox level is fine, I have even tried overfilling very slightly. I phoned a local auto gearbox firm and he reckoned it might be the forward clutch seals. Said it would cost about £1100 to fix. Anyone give any more advice. If it came to it and I had to change the gearbox could I mate a 2 litre or 2.2 from the earlier cars, is there any electrical problems in doing that.

 

i have a very similar problem on my 98 impreza wagon. thread at:
https://www.scoobynet.com/drivetrain...y-gearbox.html
sometimes the gears just won't go in and lock solid but if i keep at it they eventually go in. there's very rarely any grinding etc. otherwise gearbox is ok although i do have a slippy clutch and a few oil leaks! i haven't replaced it yet but there is a gearbox spring broken which is visible underneath the car if you look up through the transmission tunnel on the passenger side of the gearbox. i plan to replace it and see if this is an improvement. spring is less than a fiver from subaru and guess at a half hour job tops. short of this i'm still not sure myself...