I took my '02 rex to the dealer to have my tranny looked at. Was grinding when downshifting into 4th. Would do it on the upshift, but only if you almost red lined it. They couldn't find anything wrong with the car, til I took the tech. out and showed what was wrong. He said it sounds like a synchro or a blocker ring? not sure about that, never heard of that. But they said they call subaru technical and get back to me. They called me and said "If we pull the tranny down and see a faulty part, we'll warranty it. If we see any chipped or cracked gears I gotta pay for it." My car has 31K miles on it. I've had it for 15 months. I use to travel with my job, so lots of miles. I got a CAI for mods. My car was in for warranty work 5 times in the first 7 months. Then I was in a car wreck with it in November and it was out til Feb. I've had it in for clutch shudder too, but they can't reproduce that. I drive it hard sometimes, but do not drag it. I don't even know how to and don't wanna. Any suggestions?

I somehow chipped a few teeth off of 4th gear and my dealer warrantied it for me. I haven't abused my tranny in any way, I never power shift and I'm running pretty close to stock power. You should go in and ask your service manager to see what the outcome will be. In my case, they were stumped (as was I) and a defective gear was the only possible conclusion.

Matt

My friend and I are going to pull it down and split it. Any suggestions to make it stronger, while we have it down?

Hardened 3-4 shift fork and replace 4th g. syncro. See other post about same problem. If all you have is a CAI, let them tear it apart and fix. Stock shift fork(3-4 is alum.) is better replaced w/ hardened STI fork(steel) if you do fix yourself and like to quick shift into 4th. Might as well do Kazz(spelling) full gear set and syncros(don't forget hardened fork)

Going to do it myself. My friends a mechanic of 40 years, so shouldn't be hard. Thanx for the info. I'll look into it. anyone else?