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96 Outback Legacy Synchro Problems

This is my first post, and I'm not too car savvy. All I know is I love my Subaru, so I thought I'd see if anyone here could help me.

I have a 96 Outback Legacy, manual transmission. Back in the summer, I noticed that shifting from 1st into 2nd gear was making a really bad grinding sound. If I let it spin down all the way before going into 2nd, it wouldn't grind.

I took it to a mechanic who said the synchros needed replacing, and if I was going to do that anyway, I might as well replace the entire transmission since the cost wasn't much more. He said about $1500 to replace the transmission.

I haven't done anything about it since I don't have that much money right now, and he said it would be okay if I babied it. He also said I shouldn't take it out for long drives. I've been really careful with it, and the grinding doesn't happen very much anymore, as I've learned to compensate. It has worsened a little bit in that shifting from 3rd to

2nd will sometimes grind now if I forget to let it spin down enough.

So ..

Does this sound reasonable? I live in Philly, and have people I'd like to visit in New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Can I drive it that far?

Can I get it fixed for less?

Is this even a major issue? I've been treating the car like it's on its last legs because of this, but I'd love to be able to use it for long trips.

thanks, jon

Reply to
Jonathan Baumgartner
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Some folks in this type situation can change the gear oil out to Redline, Motul or something better than stock, retrain their shift techniques, and drive another 50-100K miles. Just keep the cellphone handy and drive.

Carl

1 Lucky Texan

J> This is my first post, and I'm not too car savvy. All I know is I love

Reply to
Carl 1 Lucky Texan

Reply to
Edward Hayes

Cool. Thanks, guys.

jon

Reply to
Jonathan Baumgartner

Sounds like my 95 Legacy, but for first. I can't down-shift into first unless I'm doing 3 mph or less, unless I double-clutch. No big deal - certainly not worth the $$ to fix it.

That's what I figured.

That I don't understand. Syncho's do nothing during steady state. Maybe he is just being cautious, but a dud syncho wouldn't stop me from driving. My friend's Renualt 5 ("Le Car" LOL!) had all the synchos (except 4th) burnt and he drove it for 40,000km like this. This happened because his clutch cable broke and he didn't bother to get it fixed for a couple of months yet still drove between Ottawa and Montreal once a week, and once to Ny city!!! Hence the burnt synchos from shifting without clutching. You should have seen him at red lights!

Since you have to replace the entire tranny, I would just drive it until it really breaks!! You will probably find that you will get used to double-clutching and you will forget you have the problem! Of course you will freak out any friends that borrow your car :-)

-- Dominic Richens | snipped-for-privacy@alumni.uottawa.ca "If you're not *outraged*, you're not paying attention!"

Reply to
Dominic Richens

That's what I thought, too.

Wow. That's insane!

I'm very glad I asked this group. This is great news! You're right; I am already changing my driving technique. And yeah, I don't envy anyone that tries to drive the thing ... :)

jon

Reply to
Jonathan Baumgartner

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