WRX hates Reverse

Yes. You appear to have found the solution, which is to pump the clutch a couple of times and to come 'round the corner' from 1st or

David Betts snipped-for-privacy@motorsport.org.uk

less after changing to Lucas oil. Maybe if subaru didnt use 50 pound (kidding) clutch disk on it, it wouldnt have so much momentum (hense the gringing in reverse) Does yours gring into 2nd too? :)

Yup. There is no sychro in reverse (its why the car has to be fully stopped before you put in reverse, or the thing will grind like hell). They also put a protection mechanism in it, so you can't accidently grab reverse when you are downshifting. The Kartboy bushings might exacerbate the problem, but it is already there anyway, and you are doing what you need too; find another gear and pump the clutch a bit and you'll be good to go.

It sounds exactly like the way you have to coax the M22 Muncie in my 70 Chevelle into reverse.....

It has something to do with reverse being a non-synchromeshed gear. If you try to engage reverse when the gear teeth aren't alight to mesh together, the outer edges of the teeth will hit each other and prevent reverse from engaging. When you select a synchromeshed gear (like all the forward gears), the synchromesh mechanism will rotate the transmission's lay shaft just enough to permit the gears to mesh rather than bounce off one another. Bumping the clutch serves exactly the same purpose: It rotates the lay shaft, though using this method is more random than selecting a forward gear -- the lay shaft might still wind up misaligned and prevent engagement of reverse.

It's perfectly normal -- and it sounds like my own tranny is far more difficult than either of yours, since mine often refuses to engage reverse even after first selecting a forward gear. I often find myself in the driveway going "reverse? Nope. First -- reverse? Nope. Fourth -- reverse? Nope. Bump clutch -- reverse? Nope. Hell with it! Bump clutch while pulling back into reverse -- There it is!!

- Greg Reed

While this is a problem in most manual transmissions, it does seem a bit excessive in your case. Indeed first gear and reverse are seldom if never syncromeshed, particularly reverse. Instead of pumping the clutch you might try easing the car forward in second gear which will synchronize the driving and driven gears right before you shift to reverse. You might also try a premium synthetic lubricant. I found that Mobil 1 synthetic gear lube solved most of my harsh shift problems. Your could even try the more premium lubes such as Amsoil as well.

That problem developed in my Impreza right after I changed the tranny oil. I suspect a different oil might help as you suggest. Where did you get your Mobil 1 gear lube?

I have pretty good luck switching to 1st gear, driving forward less than an inch, and then engaging reverse. This often works for me even if I had pulled into my parking spot in 1st gear. Half the time reverse works on the 1st try, the other half I need to use my drive forward trick.

That may be what you meant by 'bump clutch' but I've never heard that term, so apologies if you've already tried it.

I've seen this on a '84 Toyota, '90 Honda, '95 VW, '01 VW, and my current '02 WRX. To me it's very normal for the reasons stated by others.

A lot of folks find the tranny problems exaggerated by use of synth oils. Synchros don't like slippery, and synthetics are.

On the contrary I have found that most people find that tranny problems are diminished with the synthetics. In the end there are a lot of variables and every case is a bit different. I know some premium gear lubes (Redline comes to mind) come in varieties with and without friction modifiers for limited slip differentials. Im not sure if that will help the synchro's, but I throw it out there.

I am running dino right now and I have a terrible time with 1st and reverse. I'm ready to try a synth to see if it helps any.

I'll try your "drive forward" method. Hadn't heard of it and never thought to try it on my own, but I can see where it might work. And by "bump clutch" I was talking about briefly disengaging the clutch with the car in neutral -- spins the transmission's lay shaft but not the output shaft(s) because no gear is selected.

- Greg Reed

The one in my Rav4 is the same, I like to tell people it makes it seem more like a rally car, have you ever seen a PWRC driver trying to find reverse in a hurry? :-)

Yeah same here. I think grinding isn't as bad as just yanking it until it goes in. :-) Oh well.

You can pick up a decent synthetic gear lube at your local auto parts store for around 5 - 8 bucks per quart. I have had good success with Mobil 1 75w-90 that I get from Schucks Auto Parts up here in the pacific northwest. Even Wal-mart will carry some brand name synthetic gear lubes. Make sure you dont overfill the differential and get your car nice and hot to get that dino juice out.

Try redline MT90. It makes the synchs grab much better than stock.

-rm

Spend a few hours looking thru the gear oil posts over on NASIOC, and you find synthetic seems to return about a 50/50 split. Soem love it, some initially love it, but then come back and post that the "grind is back and worse than with dino".

Anything that reduces friction give the synchros less to work with. Good for bearings, and synchro grind.

Particularly problematic transmissions may require synthetics formulated for synchromeshed systems.

Good reading.

Some folks like synchromesh fluid for this, go figure. :-P