This is the same message that I posted in the general transmission section.

Last week my son was driving my car and lost power to the wheels. He tried to downshift and could not easily. He was on the highway and had to push the clutch to get off of the highway. He obviously fried the clutch in this process.

I took the car to my Subaru dealer, who agreed to repair the clutch under warranty. 15k mile on car.

When the clutch was repaired they found that the transmission also had "noise"
They tore apart the trany and found that the dynamic damper had failed and two of the washers had broken apart and caused extensive damage to the transmission.

1. Has anyone heard of this happening?
2. Is this a product failure or only do to abuse of the trany?

Thanks

This is the same message that I posted in the general transmission section.

Last week my son was driving my car and lost power to the wheels. He tried to downshift and could not easily. He was on the highway and had to push the clutch to get off of the highway. He obviously fried the clutch in this process.

I took the car to my Subaru dealer, who agreed to repair the clutch under warranty. 15k mile on car.

When the clutch was repaired they found that the transmission also had "noise"
They tore apart the trany and found that the dynamic damper had failed and two of the washers had broken apart and caused extensive damage to the transmission.

1. Has anyone heard of this happening?
2. Is this a product failure or only do to abuse of the trany?

Thanks

I am assuming your car is a Forester. What year and model? That would help out a lot.
Ok, as you stated above, your son was driving it, and lost power to wheels... meaning the car was revving and the car was not going anywhere?
Also, if the clutch was blown-apart, you could easily put it in ANY GEAR w/o the CLUTCH, w/ the car moving at highway speeds or even idling at a parking lot.
I suppose we would need some more info please.
Absubtle
CO

I have a couple of questions which might sound strange, but...

1. "He tried to downshift, and could not easily" - Was it stuck in gear or was it in neutral? Seeing as most downshifts are done from gear to gear, that would indicate he was in a gear. Pushing in the clutch should have disengaged the engine from the transmission, which would have allowed him to simply coast over to the side of the road.

2. "He obviously fried the clutch in this process." It isn't obvious at all unless the clutch assembly was somehow stuck in place, not allowing it to disengage. The clutch is NOT a part of the transmission per se, as it sits outside the gear and differential housings. Something snapping in the transmission shouldn't have an effect on the clutch operation.

3. If the vehicle WAS stuck in gear, how did it possibly get onto the flatbed to be towed to the dealership? It's not like you wouldn't have had to FORCE the transmission to move the car while it is in gear and the engine isn't running. That alone could very well be the explanation of what ruined the transmission.

Please, I'd really like to hear what happened on this, as I suspect the towing company had a really big hand in the transmission issues.

Great points mentioned Roo! Very precise and well stated.
Absubtle
CO