Did a search and only saw one other person that mentioned this problem (Slvrblt I think?). Basically, if you are just cruising along in first and let off the gas without pushing the clutch in, when the rpms drop down to 1500 or so the tranny pops out of first gear. Minor inconvenience and only slightly annoying, but it certainly isn't right. Anyone else have this issue? The transmission is great in all other respects. Only have 2600 miles on the car, and I've noticed it since 1000 miles or so; but wasn't really looking for before and don't cruise in first that often, so presumably it has done this since new.

I broke it in nice and easy, and I don't drive it terribly hard. I'm thinking I might wait until 50k miles or so and take it in then, as long as it doesn't get worse. That way I can get some wear out of the way and then get new transmission parts; perhaps have them install a new clutch at that time too, if necessary. Thoughts?

Phil

I would get that checked out ASAP.

Not that this is in any way related. But a good friend of mine with a new 911 (speed yellow!!) had the same problem, first would pop out of gear if you took your foot off the accelerator. Anyhow, the Porsche dealer replaced the transmission and APOLOGIZED to him for the inconvenience. Imagine that one guys, a little different from the Subie stories we've been hearing. Anyhow, the dealer also gave him a copy of the invoice for his records, total cost, a little bit over $7000.

-jb

My old car started doing this and I was going to get it fixed.

I know someone who had this problem and they had to rebuild the gearbox to fix it.

Definitely get it to a dealer.

Glenn

As I suspected, it sounds like something that will require major transmission work or a replacement. What I'm wondering though is if it will get worse over time, or if it's just something that will maintain for awhile. I'd rather drive the car for a couple years and then get it fixed, IF it doesn't get any worse. That way I can get a new tranny/new parts and probably a new clutch put in after I've gotten some good use out of the current pieces. That make sense to anyone, or does that sound like a bad idea? Of course, if the problem gets notably worse I'd take it in asap. . .

Well, my brand new WRX makes the "grindy deceleration noise" exactly the same as my old WRX made at 9,000 miles.

I don't think these gearbox problems get much better or worse.

Make sure you have an exact repro case, e.g. "drive hard in 1st, change to 2nd, change to 1st and decelerate for x seconds" to show it popping out.

The popping out of gear thing is worth getting fixed, but you need to find a dealer who knows what they're doing with transmission rebuilds. If you were in Portland Oregon I could tell you a dealer to go to who has fixed cars with this problem.

Glenn

Thanks for the advice. The dealership thing is a problem, as I don't know if the local guys know their way around a transmission or not. Perhaps over time I'll figure out their competence.

Today, for the first time, the car got driven really hard for an extended period of time; trying to keep up with my friend in his S4 on a variety of country roads. Interestingly, it now feels stronger and smoother. And, I couldn't replicate the pop out after the drive, although I only tried a couple times. Perhaps the car just needed to be really broken in?

Thanks again for the tips

Phil

Hey wrxsvt,

The exact thing happened to my WRX wagon. I noticed it going down hill, in 1st, just coasting down and it would pop out.

I took it in to the dealer and at first the mechanic could not reproduce it and upon 'kinda gentle insistence' the mechanic took me for an extended test and he was finally able to reproduce the problem.

At first, when the mechanic called SOA, it appeared that nothing could be done, but the mechanic must have called back or something because, SOA did authorize replacing the transmission.

The new tranny was put in about 3,000 miles and I have about 7,500 now and it has not popped out once. And that's a good thing. It was not especially dangerous because the speed and revs were pretty low, but it should not pop out at any speed, eh.

They were to ship the entire transmission back to SOA so they could see what was going on. Apparently, mine was one of a very few transmissions that did this popping out of 1st.

So, my advice is to take it in and insist that it get fixed and that SOA knows about the problem.

Good luck,

My wagon did the same thing in either first or second for the first couple thousand miles, I took it to a dealer with the complaint, they adjusted the shifter fork tension (not a big deal, no charge or anything) and it's been trouble free ever since. (now at 19,500 mi)
I heard of one or two tranny replacements for these symptoms early on, but I think they may have it figured out now.

Hey Jimb,
It's amazing how nice the dealer are to you when you drop 100+ large on a car!:lol:

I've had the same thing happen w/my car which was purchased in March '01... I live in flatlands, where I didn't experience this at first. But the first time I went for a drive up in the local mountains, it happened. And it continued to happen intermittently when I'm going down a hill decelerating, foot off the brake, just coasting, between 2.5k and 2k rpm in 1st...

After some time passed, it would happen in 2nd gear also. In addition, it would happen on flat roads when I had more than one person in the car, the more weight in the car, the more likely to happen.

So I took it to the dealer from which I purchased it, because their service department has a well earned reputation for quality work. I knew that they had seen the insides of more than a few impreza trannys.

However, this dealer, dealer "A" I'll call them, weren't able to diagnose the problem, because I dropped off the car, the mechanic would take it around for a drive by himself on flat roads, and couldn't replicate the problem. Also, this dealer has sold many wrx's and foresters in the last few months, and so their service dept was booked extremely tight. Which meant that the service dept told me to wait for the local regional SOA service rep to come by, and then he and I could drive the car to diagnose the problem. sigh...

But at the same time, a new Subaru dealership sprouted up in the neighborhood near my office. After they had been operating for a few months, I spoke w/the service manager, and told him in detail the problem w/my tranny. He told me to bring it in, and he would have me ride along w/the mechanic, and he told me where there is a small hill near by which we could drive down to help diagnose the problem.

So I scheduled an appointment for a couple of days ago, and we were able to successfully replicate the problem. Yeah!

Yesterday evening, I spoke w/the svc mgr, and he said that they phoned SoA, and SoA has a tech bulletin, or something like that, about this issue. The dealer was given instructions, and a list of parts which would solve this problem. Unfortunately, they do have to drop the tranny and crack it open to fix this problem. The good news is that according to people in another thread who have had this service for this problem, it solves the problem.

The problem did not go away.. During the 19 months in which I have owned my wrx, it probably got a little worse.

The key is to follow Glenn's advice above... you need to spend a little bit of time determining the exact conditions in which the problem occurs. This may mean going on test drives yourself to determine in what conditions this phenomenon is most likely to occur. Remember that you won't be driving your car when the dealership diagnoses it, so you need to be able to give as exact instructions as possible, so that another driver can replicate it.

There is a thread on this same topic over in the tranny forum, which I believe was started before this forum was born.

It is called Tranny Jumping Out of First Gear (http://forums.i-club.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=130776), and is at http://forums.i-club.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=130776

Please let us know the result of their repair!!

I've had my first gear pop out also, I have as of yet to have it reproducible, but first gear does feel stickier now.

Originally posted by psoper
My wagon did the same thing in either first or second for the first couple thousand miles, I took it to a dealer with the complaint, they adjusted the shifter fork tension (not a big deal, no charge or anything) and it's been trouble free ever since. (now at 19,500 mi)
I heard of one or two tranny replacements for these symptoms early on, but I think they may have it figured out now.

I just can't believe that mechanics replace a transmission without ruling that out first.

Any elementary diagnostic routine would tell you to check the linkage.