Hi all, hope you all had a good x-mas.
With all this cold weather i have noticed on my 05 WRX that the gearbox when cold doen't want to go into 1st & 2nd gear properly. Once it's been changed up and down the gears a few times it gets better, and then goes. Does any one else suffer from this?

 

methinks new oil is required

 

might be low on oil?

stew

 

My 02 STI does this, I quizzed Prosport about it and they said its because the gearbox oil is cold, check the oil level to be on the safe side but I think it will just be the cold weather. If you stand at the drivers side and look down near the turbo you should be able to see the dipstick, be careful not to burn your hand on the blower

 

I've recently had a 6-speed fitted in my 93WRX and have noticed this problem in the cold weather.

I have checked oil levels and found them to be fine.
As said though after a warm up its fine.

 

My 2004 WRX ,and my old MY00 turbo 2000, did the same, I just put it down as a scooby thing, Usually goes when the car is warmed up.

 

Yeah got the same thing on my 04 WRX. Seems to go away after the engine has warmed up a bit so haven't considered it a problem - unless anyone knows different?

 

Mine has always been difficult into 1st. Car started giving problems into 4th so took it back to dealer who put a different rate of oil in which seems to have solved it, though is still sometimes hard into 1st when cold. Dealer said it was quite common and that subaru uk advised them of the oil change - worth a try if you still have warranty as you should get it changed for free!

 

My 02 WRX was much the same when coming down into 2nd(as did my old MY98 to a lesser extent). Oil change helped a good bit. after 15mins or so it would improve significantly but generally I learned to drive around the problem. Blip the throttle on down changes and also when coming down from 3rd to 2nd I'd make as if to go into 1st then pull back.

 

Thanks people for the info, will get down my local dealer to get it looked at. Happy new year to all by the way

 

It's just cold oil in a cold gearbox on a cold day. If it persistist (sp?) past the first couple of mins of running then by all means get it checked out. Otherwise double de-clutching to get first usually does the trick until warmed up.

Sheeeze, is it me or have many of you never driven a car before..? Sooooo many questions about fundamental motoring (eg; 'why does my scoob tick over at 1500+rpm when cold..?', 'why is it hard to select a gear when -10c..?')...! Sorry guy's rant over (must be my 21yrs behind the wheel)..

BTW This gives you some idea of what the engine has to put up with on cold starts when the oil is thick, hence the need to warm it properly before giving it some..!

Happy New Year & stop worrying..!

 

Well said.


Far too many people take too much for granted. Cold oil= more viscosity, meaning the input and layshafts will slow very rapidly as soon as you dip the clutch, so baulk rings have a harder time spinning them to the right speed...result is reluctance to go into gear and slight crunching or snicking of gears. Look at how a gearbox works and it"might" be possible to understand why it won't always do what you want it to do.

God forbid if anyone drove a high performace car older than 20 years - nothing really has changed in design since then, except for weight, material types and much less forgiving syncros. (Maybe this explains why so many old cars have shagged gearboxes - no mechanical sympathy from the owners ).

 

Well in defence of those of us that were querying whether this was a problem I would have to say that I have owned a string of high performance cars over the last 10 years or so and the Scooby is the only car I've owned that has exhibited this trait.

Sounds as though its worth taking a closer look at which grade of oil has been used so cheers for the advice.

hmmm, has just occured to me that the car does seem to have been worse since Subaru did some work on the gearbox (synchro on 5th failed) and changed the oil.

 

Possibly. If as I said before you still have real difficulty selecting 1st/2nd after a couple of mins driving then it's quite possibly some fault or other developing.

What were the symptoms of the 5th syncro failing..?

 

the symptom of the 5th syncro failing was a slight grinding sound when up shifting to fifth (and had to above a specific number of revs) - occassionally had to double de-clutch it to get it to engage too - the Subaru mechanic identified it almost immediately when we took it out for a spin, even knew the part numbers without looking them up so it seemed to be a "known issue".

The mechanic did tell me that the Scooby box is a bit on the notchy side so I've been ignoring the issue to a certain extent and putting it down to a Impreza characteristic. Cause I'd also noticed an occassional tendency to fail to engage when downshifting quickly but thats probably me rushing the shift.

As you say its to be expected that when the gearbox is cold its going to not be as smooth as it should be but from time to time it is a real b****** to get into 1st/2nd gear so maybe a trip to the dealers might be a good idea.

Always very difficult to know if these are "quirks" of the Scooby (and its the first one i've owned) or the makings of a fault so I appreciate the advice

 

MY04 WRX STI Type UK - same problem!!

 

I've been suffering the same (2001 Sti 7), especially 3rd to 2nd, I have just oil changed the box to Motul gear 300 Fully Synthetic.
See what happens after a few miles of the oil circulating

Dean