Question about 2001 Shifting.

It's the nature of the car.

There are 3 things that can help, but nothing will make it smooth as butter. Firstly, make sure you are pressing the clutch pedal all the way to the floor before you start the shift. Secondly, you can release a little on the clutch in neutral to spin up the syncros then push the clutch back to the floor before you push it into first.

Finally, drain the transmission and fill it with Redline gear grease. It helped mine a little.

Thanks for the info. Actually I noticed that when I first drove the car home, I had some rough shifting problems and realized I was pressing the clutch *ALL* the way down to the floorboard. More like 90% of the way. Once I learned the feel of the vehicle the up shifting has became smooth as butter and the downshifting as too for the most part as long as I do my shifting at the right RPMs/speeds. Just that going from 2nd to 1st was a bit rough, but I'm still learning. I haven't driven a stick shift since

I have the same issue on my 2000 OBW 5MT. The clutches on Subarus are unusually stiff. Perhaps it's got to be this way to handle the torque split between the front and rear axles, which a 2WD vehicle doesn't have to worry about? I've had my OBW for three years now, and still occasionally (meaning most of the time) get roughness between 2nd and

Yousuf Khan

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That makes me feel alot better. :) For a few days I thought something might have been screwed on the transmission which would require work. I was wondering if it might have had something to do with the AWD where as vehicles I had driven in the past with stick were all 2wd/4wd via manual engaging. Now I just need to tweak my own shifting techniques in order accomodate for that roughness.

Basically the 1st gear synchro is worn down. The previous owner used to shift into 1st at too high a speed.

My 1995 Legacy is now to the point that I cannot get it into 1st unless I'm pretty much at a dead stop _before_ shifting out of 2nd and into 1st. If I am coasting to a stop in neutral, clutch engaged, it will shift smoothly into 1st at about 1-2 mph, but roughly if I wait until I am at a dead stop since the clutch pressure plate and main-shaft are still spinning and have to be stopped by rubbing against the dog gears before they'll engaged fully. Other wise I need to wait about two seconds after dis-engaging the clutch before I try to put it into 1st.

You can spend 1000s of dollars to fix this, but no one ever does.

Thanks for the info. Is the transmission considered part of the powertrain because this does have a 3 mon/4kmi powertrain warranty on it. If so I would have it investigated to see what the problem is, if not, I'd be like everyone else and ignore it.

Yes - definitely part of the powertrain. May be difficult to get them to agree the performance is substandard, though.

Mike

Thankfully the service rep at the dealership is a customer and decent friend of mine. I'll go in one day and just pose a few questions to him about it and see where it leads.

Hi,

Yes, the gearbox is usually considered part of the drivetrain, but I'd imagine you'd have to do a LOT of talking before anyone listens seriously about a rough shift into first.

It seems every gear box has its own "personality," but I've noticed a bit of rev-matching is required on almost all those I've driven over the years to make that 2nd-1st shift smooth while moving. See Jim Stewart's suggestions above and I'll bet a few minutes in an empty parking lot will point you toward what works best for your car!

Good luck,

Rick

I wouldn't worry about it. Shifting from 2nd to 1st in my STi is similarly difficult, and as a result of the ridiculously high ratio between 1st and

Clutch down fast, neutral, clutch up fast, rev engine, clutch down fast, shift to 1st, clutch eased up... Good practice I guess.