I have a 99 Legacy Brighton, manual transmission. Lately it has been making a clunking noise sometimes when I turn. I took it to my local mechanic, whom I trust, and they checked CV boots, and tried installing replacement front axles. The noise is still there. The mechanic says he has isolated the problem to something internal in the transmission, and that we may be looking at $2000 to replace it. He does not do transmission replacement, so we would have to go elsewhere.
We have had the car maintained at scheduled intervals at the dealer. Is this common, for a transmission to go at only 89,000 miles? Is there anything else it could be?
Know someone who had a problem with 3rd gear noise, dealer replaced the gear and a few bits in the transmission, but it was about a $2000 repair (but under warranty). Definitely worth having a 2nd opinion, dealer may have more knowledge on this than a general garage, who I doubt would open up a transmission due to the technical nature of the job. Ed B.
I bought a Ford Taurus at an auction. Drove it home and it was making a small clunking noise going over bumps. Had my mechanic, whom I trust(ed), take a look at it. Said he couldn't find what the noise was. Couldn't duplicate it in the garage but could hear it when he drove the car. Told me to keep driving until I could isolate the problem.
After a year of trying, finally guessed it was in the transmission and sent me to a transmission specialist he trusted. (found out he also got a commission on referral business, won't do that again)
Transmission specialist said it was the planetary gears and transmission needed to be rebuilt but I had caught it in time and not much damage had been done. Picked up car from transmission specialist. Driving out of parking lot heard same noise. Turned around and went back telling them noise was still there. They drove car, heard noise, and responded by saying "That noise isn't from the transmission. We fixed the noise in the transmission."
Four years later, had car at dealer for recall on springs and asked them to find noise. They said the through frame control arm on the lower strut mount (or something like that) was broken and needed to be welded. They didn't do welding and said I would need to have that repaired at a body shop. Asked body shop close to work and they said they sent their welding to ******* Garage. Had ******* Garage look at car to weld control arm. They asked who told me the control arm was broken because all that was wrong was the bushing on the end of that control arm was disintegrated. After bushing was replaced, car drove like a new car.
In short, trust no one unless they can SHOW you the problem and have the bushings checked.
Replacing a standard transmission in a Legacy is so easy...even in the driveway, I wonder why a "mechanic" wouldn't want to do it. Time for another opinion and probably another mechanic for all of your work. The trans should go further but it is made by humans and things do fail. Is the trans full of clean fluid? TG
Possible problem is center differential (unit that distributes power to front and rear wheels), especially since you state problem is "when I turn". Have it checked by a "Subaru" mechanic, not "Joe's Garage and Burger Joint".
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