Bad Gearbox????

[twa]

Just went out to pick up my lunch, and I think I'm losing 2nd gear??? Anyone in Portland right now with an opinion (taking phone calls at xxx-xxxx)?

sounds loose, rattles and clanks...appears to only be 2nd right now. First & third sound ok.

I haven't taken mine in for service yet, so I have no dealer relationship yet.

Patriot or MaineMall?

 

[Runnah]

Just went out to pick up my lunch, and I think I'm losing 2nd gear???

 

[WRXav8r]

how firm/loose is the shifter? could it be linkage related?

What kinda car, milelage?

 

[Lawdawg]

IMHO, if you have to go to a dealer, go to Patriot. With no warranty, the other choice is that guy that is just off the 295 washington st. exit--right across from the guy that seems to sell Saabs and volvos. You know, by back bay--about 10-15 subarus for sale at all times. I have heard decent things about that guy.

 

[twa]

2004 wrx 31k miles

still within warranty, was just looking for the preferred dealer shop.

while in second the rattles/clunks??? Not hard to shift into, and also does not slip.

 

[Runnah]

2004 wrx

 

[twa]

Patriot is booked for the afternoon, but I'm going to limp it down there this afternoon.....

:-(

 

[Runnah]

I've heard the 2nd and 3rd are the first to go on subie trans.

How hard have you beat on it?

If you've beat on it, you might be fighting the warrenty department about if you were "street racing".

 

[WRXav8r]

You would think that they would have a hard time giving anyone greif about driving hard.... they give you a free membership to SCCA when you buy the damn car.... what do they expect you're going to do with that membership???

 

[twa]

The car made it to Patriot perfectly fine. 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th are still normal. You can only hear the problem at idle or while 2nd is engaged. The service fellow was nice, but also said the following: "We'll have to inspect the car to insure that it hasn't been driven past it's designed limitations."

Which sounded like the typical we'll see if we want to do it or not. Basically the bumper to bumper warranty doesn't give me the warmest fuzzy feelings....Time will tell.

They won't get to it until tomorrow morning....

 

[Evan]

good luck.

 

[twa]

Got the call back from Patriot today. Not so good so far. Basically they told me that the car had been flagged from prior dealer service and they couldn't look at it yet without approval from S.O.A. Apparantly the previous owner had the car serviced at Exeter Subaru for the transmission TWICE before I bought the car. They've opened the case for review and I have to wait 24-48 hours before I hear any word.

The second time Exeter Sube did the tranny for him apparantly they said it was a "Goodwill" service and could not be further serviced for the same problem. Which sounds odd to me since this is now the 3rd transmission for this car. I've put 12k miles on the car since August which are 98% highway miles, haven't autox or dragged. How can they claim that the transmission will never fail again, or warranty their own replacement work or parts that could have been the issue?

Every car I've ever owned has been a manual transmission, some with over 200k miles and I've NEVER seen or HEARD of so many people having tranny issues with such low mileage. My prior cars included a heavily modded TSI on the stock tranny which was autox and dragged. No tranny or clutch failures. My last car was a 2002 Mazda Protoge5 which was modified and I drove that from mile 0 to 60k with not one crunch clunk or grind from the tranny.

How come the WRX gears are so weak?

The other thing that's really bothering me is when you buy a used car private sale you have to obviously trust the seller for full disclousre which apparantly I got duped there, but before I bought the car I ran the carfax and it came back clean. There's no protection from Warranty denial aside from visiting a subaru dealer to see if the car had ever been serviced, but at what point does that become a burden of the car manufacturer or the individual when it's assumed that the Limited new car warranty and powertrain warranty are fully transferrable?

On a car with 18k miles would most of you think to visit a Subaru dealer to verify service records if you were buying a car that is still well under the bumper to bumper?

 

[Lawdawg]

My 2 cents.

Obviously wait to see what SOA says. I am not sure how a Subaru warranty works when there is an intervening private sale. I suggest you read the warranty manual carefully to see if a private sale has any effect on the warranty. I suspect not, but just make sure to nail that down as you begin to "get your ducks in a row."

If SOA tells Patriot not to fix, then your beef is not with Patriot, but with SOA. IMHO the first step is to get the history on the car. Car Exeter Subaru and get as much information as you can. Find out what "goodwill" service means, etc.. When you call, ask who you are speaking with so you have their name. Explain your situation politely, and ask for a copy of service records. You may have to show you own the car--maybe Patriot can help you get this information, but it is important for you to know exactly what happened here so there are no surprises later.

You asked for the person's name at Exeter Subaru because you may want to confirm that, and any other, conversation in writing depending on what was said--use your judgment. When you have all information, and you believe the warranty should still apply, it is time to call SOA customer service and plead your case. Again, get the person's name and followup with a letter confirming the conversation--every time. I suggest you spend some time writing the letter to SOA, then use it as an outline for the phone call.

You might even consider calling SOA now, while the case is under review to plead your case a bit and at least ask them what the process is to contest a warranty decision should it be unfavorable. Ask the person's name and for them to send you in writing the process and any other information you want. Again, confirm with a letter (they may also reference calls by a contact number--ask if they do and reference that in the letter as well). Always be polite, do not lose your cool, be firm and professional. It may take more than one letter or call, but eventually you may wear them down.

Lastly, send the knee-cappers to the person you bought the car from, and who did not disclose this information :- I presume the bill of sale says "AS IS" or something of that nature?

Good luck.

Brett

 

[twa]

I've breezed through the online information about the 2004 warranty; available here:

http://www.subaru.com/owners/warranty/index.jsp?year=2004

It doesn't explicitly say anything other than the warranty is transferrable and to visit your local Subaru for further details.

I totally agree with you, my beef isn't with Patriot at all. Their hands are tied. Although, they did wait almost 30 hours to verify the warranty status to find out they couldn't even examine the car....

Thanks for your thoughtful response.

 

[Evan]

also keep a copy of whatever you mail to anybody, SOA or whoever, for your own records.

you may be able to have some beef with who sold you the car for not disclosing this to you, depending on where you bought it.

 

[Rightseat]

also find out from Exeter whether they simply rebult the existing box or stuck in a new one. if it was rebuilt, there may have been add'l damage to the case or gears. synchros etc that wasn't fixed as part of the rebuild. warranty repairs are covered for a dealer by SOA, but at a flat rate so there's incentive for the dlr to rush the work and do it on the cheap.

if the same box is in the car (you can confirm this via seriel #s) it's time to dump the 3-time loser box and find a new one. if they deny the warranty, you may have to bite the bullet and source a used one. don't believe Subaru prices of $5000-7000 or more, used WRX trannies are readily available for under a couple thou.

Good luck, sounds like you may need it.

DG

 

[twa]

Thanks for the tranny advice on the serial numbers, that will be a very interesting point to prove to SOA if in fact it is the same box. From what Patriot told me over the phone they reported rebuilds and not a tranny replacement. I'll have to verify the maint. records as Lawdog mentioned. Hopefully Patriot can just print them out for me since they were able to pull all the info up on their website.

I've already emailed Rallispec to see if they have any of the Close Ratio RA gears in stock. If it's coming out of my pocket I'm not putting in another shitty gearbox. On their site they seem to have some kind of tranny swap program with the RA gears installed for like $700 (plus $1600 for gears). Also you can make an appt with them and have them do it in house for $1100 (+gears).

Does anyone have experience with Chip's Subaru on Washington Ave in Portland? I was going to give them a call to see if they have experience rebuilding tranny's.

Other than that still waiting for SOA to call back.

 

[silver bqqst.]

subie trannys are extremely difficult to do, I assume CHip won't touchit.. but maybe worth a phone call..

 

[Evan]

Does anyone have experience with Chip's Subaru on Washington Ave in Portland? I was going to give them a call to see if they have experience rebuilding tranny's.

my expirience with them is they charged me 50% more than what i told them i could spend, didnt fix the problem, then my keys 'went missing' from their rack and $300 worth of gauges and stuff went missing from my car the next day.

that was the first and last time i will ever pay someone to work on my car.