Hesitating transmission and timing belt

The automatic transmission on my 2000 Outback (98,000km) has started to act up. There is a 2-8 second delay from the time I pull it out of park and put the gear selector into "R", "D", "3", or "2" before it engages. Any ideas?

Also, I'm taking it in for its 96,000km scheduled maintenance. The service guy is telling me I should replace my timing belt(as per the pre-1999 models), but the owner's manual says it should be good until

168,000km. It's an extra $400, so is it really necessary?

Thanks, Scott

Reply to
Scott Murphy
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Reply to
Edward Hayes

The transmission fluid looks good and there is plenty of it. Somebody suggested that a seal might be the problem. Does that sound legit?

S.

Reply to
Scott Murphy

Scott:

I have a 2000 Legacy GT, and I went through a similar experience. I bet that if you let your car warm up for 15 minutes and put in Parking, you will not be able to get it back in Drive, 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. I spotted my problem at 62,000 miles (3.5 years of ownership).

If your car is under warranty or if you have it under an extended warranty please take it to your dealer. I don't want to scare you but I just went through this last month and the end result was that I needed a new transmission. I went to two mechanics (my Subaru dealer and an independents mechanic) and they both concurred that I had an internal transmission problem. The non-Subaru mechanic told me that this symptom is universally described as a transmission delay. Most of the time the culprit is the automatic transmission pump. The pump is considered an internal transmission part that can not be fixed from the outside. Unfortunately it's more expensive to fix any internal trans. problem than to get a remanufactured transmission. Subaru will normally provide some assistance to their customers when a car is out of warranty, the cutoff point is about

68,000 miles (102,000 km). Please talk to you Subaru Regional Representative and be nice to him/her. In my case Subaru paid more than 2/3 of the cost. Unfortunately my portion of the final bill was $1580 US.

FYI: The reason why you have that delay is because your automatic transmission pump is beginning to fail. It's taking the transmission longer than normal to create enough pressure for the plates to come into contact. With time it will get worse. I'm not sure if a power flush can help you, but you should ask around.

Joaquin

Reply to
Joaquin J. Rosario

Hi there,

I think I am having the same trouble on my 1999 30th edition limited outback wagon. When the car has been in the garage for a while, it just takes a little longer than normal for the Drive to engage. Long enough just to make me wonder. (66000 miles as per present). No extended warranty applied. Your price as mentioned scares me! I will start looking for some solutions

babu

Reply to
Nilanjan Brahma

I got the transmission flush as both you and the service department suggested, and they told me to drive around and let the conditioner they added work itself in. It worked fine for the rest of the day, but now, 2 days later it's hesitating again. It seems to slip into reverse easily enough, but going from reverse to drive it still hesitates for a few seconds. I think should probably take it back in since I only have 200 km left on my warranty. Any other things I could give them a heads-up on?

Scott

Reply to
Scott Murphy

Folks

I replaced my timer belt, as well as the plugs/rotor/cap and cables @ 62000 miles, and the problems as I have mentioned seem to have disappeared. Car reacts very well again to accelerator and desires.

Reply to
Nilanjan Brahma

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