Hi, I have a 93 Subaru Impreza four door sedan, front wheel drive. Recently it's begun making a noise that makes me worried about the transmission. Can anyone give me any details on what it might be (and a guess on how much its going to be to fix???)

Details:
Starting a few weeks or a month ago, when cold and accellerating at low speed it makes a loud metallic "rattle" somewhere in the front end (to the right and front of me as I'm driving). It doesn't make this noise in reverse. I back out of the driveway, no noise, shift into D, then hear the noise as I accelerate a little. At first I only heard it between my house and the stop sign at the corner, now I hear it accelerating from the next two stop signs as well. It goes away if I stop accelerating to coast or brake, it goes away when the car is warmed up, it goes away at higher speeds.

I checked the transmission fluid dipstick...when cold it seems almost over the full mark on the cold side, when warm it's in the correct range on the warm side. The color is like fruit punch, kinda red but watery. Not orange, doesn't smell burnt, I don't see any grime or floaty bits when I wipe the dipstick on a white paper towel.

The transmission fluid was last flushed and filled perhaps 4-5 years ago (30-40K miles), the car has about 163k miles on it and has some other issues (body rust, needs new steering rack, etc). SO is this going to be something expensive (like a new transmission) or something cheap (like a flush+fill)?

Thanks,
Liz

Liz it sounds like you have rattling heat shields. Have a mechanic you trust take a look at the exhaust header and the heat shielding around it.

If I had a mechanic I trusted, I wouldn't be posting here :)

Is there a way for me to tighten it, even temporarily so I know that's the problem?

Thanks,
Liz