Nutty Subie Owners

Well, seems as though you yourself said it. If the transmission could not handle the HP in the STi, WRX, or whatever else when properly applied, there would have already been a recall situation, as you would have a gross failure rate of practically, oh, say most of them. Which leaves that the HP was most likely not applied properly.

I third the point that Rick and Jim put forth.

~Brian

I am not a Subaru expert (I only just purchased an 02 Legacy) but I do own a Trans Am and am familiar with hi-perf cars and mods and warranty issues.

For example, the trans on my car is stout. The rear end... not so stout. It's effectively the same as an 82 V6 Firebird with 125hp... people are amazed that mine has held up to drag slicks and nitrous because it's usually the first thing shredded, the second being the clutch. My clutch went instead. (and no, I didn't try to stick GM with the bill - clutches aren't covered anyway.)

I'm not debating the possibility of owner ham-fistedness, but innocent until proven guilty...

I do have to ask - how does one apply HP improperly to do the damage to the transmission that was stated? :)

Ray

Shifting without the clutch, probably. Also, applying the HP and clutch before the gears are fully engaged. I know it's hard for us, who know how to drive, to imagine, but I've seen it done. I once saw a guy destroy an Aston Martin clutch within less than a week after buying the car new.

...

Hi,

Well... I'd think your statement in the first line SHOULD help you figure out the answer to the question in the other one... :D

But just in case it doesn't, the first scenario that comes to mind involves a missed full throttle "power shift", a popped clutch, and a sound best described as "BAM!" There are others, but I've got work to do instead of write a treatise on the many ways an idjit can blow up a gearbox.

Boy shoulda used that Uncle Scotty's Cocktail sauce stuff--betcha THAT woulda saved those gears, eh? ;)

Rick

you're telling me a Subaru gearbox can't handle some powershifting? and it would cause "Lying on the parts counter were parts of a WRX transmission including the layshaft, idler gear and 3rd and 4th gears. They were stripped almost smooth through nearly 180 degrees, obviously the result of violently incompetent shifting by a wannabe boy racer."

and, trust me, I know plenty of ways to blow up car parts. I've got bent flexplates, connecting rods that look like pretzels,.... I have a race car and an attitude of drive it like you stole it, but for an OEM gearbox to fail like that hooked up to a stock engine... :)

Keep in mind how accessible these cars are to very young (inexperienced) drivers. An STI has 'close' to the performance of a 'vette at 'nearly'

1/2 the cost - makes it affordable for kids (or their dads) as a first car (stupid IMHO)Plus, there's the additional strain of AWD resisting any release of drive train force with tire slippage/scratch. I suppose Soob could have a part or 2 get through to assembly with a fault once in awhile as well.

I dunno

Carl

Hi,

This whole situation was best described by a mechanic I worked with in high school/college days: "There ARE people who could screw up an anvil with a rubber mallet."

'Nuff said? :D

Rick

I've heard that the STI's 6-speed manual is a completely different design. I've even heard a rumor that Subaru paid BMW to design it and hand them over the blueprints and parts specs.

We just had one in our shop not long ago. 1st gear was gone. We agreed to pay 1/3; Subaru paying 1/3 and the kid paying 1/3 as a goodwill gesture. Then the kid says "Imp going to have a private mech repair it; can I just have the money?" We all agree that there was only one thing to cause the gear to get stripped this hard and the repair offer wasn't a Settlement. Anyway we did fix the car and I just found out it's back; won't go into first gear now (been over a month) so either the tech did something wrong or he broke it again

I guess I've been moving backwards. I learned to shift an Allison-Chalmers WD first, then a 46 GMC dumptruck, and such. I actually was scared to drive a car with an automatic, it took me months to quit trying to stomp a hole in the floorboard with my left foot.

I think that has a lot to do with it.

Porgy, that's the best description of ricer squids I've ever read. "Better off racing their stereos."

And I married her.

They will learn eventually, though I've been on a stick for 7 years now and still don't think I'm as smooth as a cvt. I *could* get the car moving smoothly, but it's always work and slow engine spool up does not help either. I kind of am sympathetic to the owners of automatics. Not to the point where I would want one myself, but to the point where I see some merit in DSG and possibly CVTs. I found some automatics to be as jerky as I'm in a sloppy mood though!

That has nothing to do with the quality of the components or not. Say you are driving at 100km/h (5th gear) and you switch to 2nd gear for a manual. Or backing up at high speed and switch to drive. When I was a kid, one of my friends used to do that on a rental car. He even drove the car on big bumps intentionally. You think the high quality shocks gonna last forever.

In my younger days, under the influence of testosterone poisoning, I found I could lay better black stripes on the road with my 2.4L '76 Skyline than my mates with worked V8s. Trick was to select reverse at highway speed & floor it! I managed to hit redline a few times at around 140KMph. Working out the ratios, this turns out to be about 110K backwards. With an open diff, usually one wheel broke traction first & did all the spinning. Do some math, and it turns out the relative speed of the spinning wheel to the road was around 500Kmph!

Who says you can't abuse an auto?