jonb96150

Is there a way to test the TCU? I really appreciate your time and knowlegde!

Been there, done that, got the license plate holder lol. Norms will not work on the 5EAT trans, much to my disapointment because that is a good shop and very honest. I've been using Norms for years. To Micheal Hohls credit, they did spend over an hour on the car. And the mechanic took it home from Carson city to washoe valley and back to work the next day with a monitor on it and of course the problem did not display itself for them. They didn't charge me a dime, which surprized me.

Thanks for the replies. The symptoms are rare enough that after hours of internet searching, this one thread is the only mention of the same problem. I found threads on tribeca trannys (same trans I believe, the 5EAT) having hard shifts and bad torque converters. But my search kung fu could be weak.:-\ Just as Nipper said, the trans does not seem to even know it has higher gears. When this problem occurs, and we then put it into sportmode, there is not the customary gear indicator display. Is is just blank until you use sportmode to force an upshift. It will not upshift at redline unless you use sportmode to manually upshift. When we get time to take it to another dealer (75 minutes away) I will ask about the inhibitor switch and cables. Although I would have figured there were no cables to adjust like on older trannys. I just figured it was all electrical inputs on this tranny but I don't know diddly about auto trannys. Thanks again, any info helps!

Hi, My name is Jon, we have a 2005 outback xt limited with about 115,000 miles on the clock. A great car that is really fun to drive, but we have a mystery tranny problem that is going to force us to take a bath on trading it in if we can't fix it. ( I resureccted an old thread on here describing it.) The first new car I ever owned was an 84 subie wagon gl. What a great car. we outgrew it but I saw that car for years here at South Lake Tahoe. Hope to have the xt for many more years, but I don't know. I guess a lot of folks have had turbo issues, but ours has been fine. Fastest car I've ever owned.

I know this is an old thread, but my 05 o.b. xt is doing this same thing. We can force it into 3rd by hitting redline and sportshifting into 3rd. Then it's good until it does it again, usually about 2 to 5 times a week. Also will put itself into neutral at random times. Sometimes associated with a bump in the road, other times on a smooth road. Dealer can't find any codes, we even let their tech take it home and back in hopes of it happening. Of course it didn't do it for the tech. And of course they don't know how to proceed without a code telling them what to do next. Fluid is at correct level, and is not burnt, but I don't think this is a fluid issue. Just hoping the original poster is still on this board and can tell me how he resolved the issue. Thanks in advance.