Pockman

Hi,

Has anyone here experienced gear change problems on their Scooby (I'm especially interested in MY02/MY03 owners)??

Reading on other Scooby forums there are quite a few reports of gear crunching problems when changing from 3rd to 4th or 4th to 5th and also of 'notchy' gearboxes.

I've just had my gearbox changed on a MY03 (less than 5000 miles) under warranty, as it was crunching into 5th and sometimes not allowing selection of 3rd gear when at high rpm. As well as notchy/poor gear selection in general.

The new gearbox seems to have cured the selection of 3rd problem and crunching into 5th problem (time will tell). However the new gearbox feels as notchy as hell and it is sometimes impossible to select 1st or reverse gear when static - you have to release/floor the clutch before it will go in. Not very impressive for a nearly new car.

Needless to say it's going back to the dealers for further investigation, but I'd be interested to hear other Scooby owners experiences.

I've read that replacing the standard gearbox oil with Castrol "Syntrax" 75/90 can help with a notchy gearbox change problem (??)

Any ideas?

Chris.

Pockman

From a website review...

Is this really a common problem with Scoobys??? :-(

http://www.epinions.com/auto-review-5A1E-E9CA107-3874B165-prod3

It did emerge, however, that the gear shift was pretty poor. Under hard acceleration it was often difficult to get fourth, which can be embarassing when racing people away from traffic lights. Other gears were hard to get too, especially second from first and reverse from first. Since the car was due for its second service this month I decided to have a Quickshift gear change installed by my local Subaru dealer. This is an upgrade to the gearshift linkages that makes the throw of the gear lever much shorter and more precise. It's still new so it's a bit stiff, but it feels as though it will be a big improvement once it's bedded in properly. It "only" cost $450 dollars fitted so I'd certainly recommend one. The test car that I originally drove had one too but I didn't bother with it at first - it was only after suffering the poor standard gearbox that I realised I needed one.

speedking

Standard MY02 WRX.

5th to 4th downchange can be painfully slow. Reverse impossible to select without some clutch action 1st to 2nd can be slow as well, but that's because it all gets a bit frantic under hard acceleration.

davyboy

Used to happen with my 2001 WRX when changing from 4th to 5th.

Did a track day and it never happened again.

Dave

Pockman

Dave >>Did a track day and it never happened again<<

Do you mean your technique improved or the car's performance chhanged??

P20SPD

iTrader: (1)

Chris change the oil. A good oil, Syntrax or Motul will help, and fill to the top markof the gearbox dipstick.

That reminds me i need to change my oil!

marklemac

My STi 7 is a bitch when dropping from 5th to 4th when you want to accelerate hard.

Pockman

Cheers P20SPD, BTW how's the house coming on?

P20SPD

iTrader: (1)

Getting there chris, thanks

STeven

deano555

Picked my my03 up brand new in july and going into 5th gear was painful, So bad I didn't use 5th untill it was repaired. I had a new 5th gear and synchro fitted, which sorted the problem.
Anyway enough of that , hello to everybody this is my first post on here and my first scooby, raised a few eyebrows at work when I bought it because I work for a bmw main dealer fixing those lovely machines !!!!!
Merry Christmas Deano.

barneyrubble

my WRX 03 is a bit notchy and under hard acceleration I have to be careful as 2nd to 3rd can crunch a tad. When cold it's very hard to engage first and reverse sometimes. Seems to be getting a bit better with time - 6500 miles now. Will mention it at the 10k service if necessary but I think it's going to be OK.

TON3

I have this problem 2 wiv my sti7, hates 1st and 2nd when cold infact it hates bein driven slow!

marklemac

Well, mine goes in for its 30k service in a few weeks, so I'm going to be telling them to look at/sort out the 5th to 4th problem, the juddering of the clutch in 1st gear, the soft brakes, the noisy and heavy power steering & the noisy seat belts.

mrklaw

I sometimes find it lumpy getting into 5th, but I'm not too concerned because thats just when you are settling down on the m/way.

Reverse can be an absolute bitch, often taking a couple of bites to get it in there.

Racing away from the lights I can't imagine you'd need 4th until you've finished. You can easily do 80 in 3rd.

russell hayward

If it's still not perfect after changing to a decent oil, try overfilling slightly.

Put an extra 1/2 litre in my STI7 and it transformed it.