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Forester transmission

I have ~10,000 miles on my 10 month old Forester. The transmission is a little disappointing. Oh, it works fine 99.9% of the time. I guess it's just not as smooth as the AT on my last car, a 99 Altima. For example, coming down from speed, sometimes I feel a little reverse-surge as the gears downshift. Or sometimes when I engage D, the power comes on funny, over about 1/2 a second, not just a -BOOM-I'M-ON- but more like

-I'm-engaged----I'm engaged-more-

These are really very subtle little things. I think a lot of drivers would not notice them. It doesn't feel like a problem, more like it it just the way the beast was engineered. Does anyone else notice this? I presume it's normal for the car; have no intention of taking it in (unless someone tells me, you have the dreaded J7Q43 defect!)

Reply to
P T
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What is the dreaded J7Q43 defect? Google comes up with nothing. I've also used Lucas trans oil additive with great success, smoothes out the shifts.

Reply to
ed

Must have been a typo, shurely he means J7Q48.

;-)

Reply to
Ian Brown

Reply to
rick

My wife's '04 forester xt does some very strange things as well. I think the drive by wire throttle has alot to do with it. The 4eat in my svx is very predictable. The same tranny (although upgraded over the years) seems to be schizophrenic in the forester.

Sometimes a very slight change in throttle position causes a 2 gear downwhift and a quick run to redline, other times (usually when you need it) the tranny hunts for the right gear for 3-4 seconds before passing with the pedal to the floor.

Reply to
Rat

Is your wife's driving style similar to yours? I think this may hold the key to question.

I've heard that the EAT is some sort of electronic controlled transmission that has a degree of learning ability i.e.it remembers and adjusts to your driving style (?).

I also have the reverse-surge type sentation described by the original poster (Impreza '00). This happens especially after a long highway-speed trip. I suspect the tranny's electronics have set up for highway type driving and when style changes it gets out of sync briefly, so I get some infrequent weird reaction from it..

This is my very subjective explanation of what is going on,

- I am not a mechanic. Anyone familiar with this issue please comment on the theory.

MN

Reply to
MN

You are correct. Most electronic autos have a small amount of "learning ability" and can and do adjust to different driving styles (even if you don't use the power/economy switch, if it has one).

Reply to
Losiho

Reply to
Edward Hayes

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