garbo88

I pulled the trigger on a transmission rebuild a couple of months ago. (2001 2.5 AT Outback 130K miles). I'm happy with the results and have a 2 year warranty on the new transmission, but in the time since I've had a bunch of little things go wrong. Hoping for opinions as to whether any of these items could be related to the rebuild. I don't want to blame the mechanic for something coincidental and unrelated, but I also don't want to have to pay someone else for problems from the rebuild which maybe would be covered under the warranty. Check engine light = knock sensor code, I replaced it myself, old one was original and was cracked. Coolant leak, don't know where from, need to get it checked. Burped it and cleaned overflow tank. (heads were done around 90K, along w/timing belt and water pump and other belts and tensioners). Plan on swapping new fluid, changing thermostat and adding Subie conditioner but waiting until I can find the leak. Oil leak from crank case, noted by oil change guy, but oil levels are fine. The most disturbing one is the starter has come loose twice, both times I was able to get it working by tightening up the top bolt but I haven't been able to get to the bottom one. Any of these things related to the rebuild, even if just need to be re-adjusted after a shakedown period? And if yes, is that work that ought to be covered under a warranty of the rebuilt transmission, or should I expect to have to pay for fixes? When the check engine light came on a week or so after the rebuild, I took it back in to the guy to check the code (knock sensor) and he acted like it was not his problem. So if I go back with problems I want to be on firm footing.

Just posted follow up; tried the fluid change but things got worse and I wound up having the transmission rebuilt. Local guy who specializes, charged me about $2700 but it has a 2 year warranty. Running great, now I just have a bad case of squeaky struts...

A belated update, I tried to nurse it along with some fancy fluid but wound up having the transmission rebuilt. It was expensive, but a whole lot less than a new car, and less than the retail rebuilt units. The guy who did it was wonderful and has a 2 year warranty on the work so I have some peace of mind that I wouldn't have had if I had opted to swap out a mystery used transmission. Now I just have all the regular things wrong with my car instead of extraordinarily bad things... Thanks everyone for helping!

Thank you everyone! I'm going to start with fluid change and the axle and go from there. I really appreciate all the advice. I will post again with an update.

Ha! It's an excellent idea! Unfortunately, I have the moxie but not the tools. If only it could be accomplished with a hot glue gun and a sewing machine, or those little screwdrivers for computers and cell phones, I'd be all over it...

Maybe I'll just order up a salvage transmission and online tutorial myself on how to rebuild it. Worked for the washing machine!

Thanks so much for the wisdom. The diagram is really helpful, but a little different than the one the mechanic printed to show me. FWIW, the part he thinks is the problem is the one labeled #2, most likely the one on the driver side. The way he would get at it is by heating and unscrewing the part labeled #9 in your diagram, which is threaded into the outer housing. This is the tricky bit that can cause the problem because the gaulding problem is either there or not regardless of how careful he is; the part is originally installed with no lubricant and the aluminum threads can sort of fuse upon install. If that's the case then it can't be reassembled after he opens it up.

Thanks for the tip! I think this might be what it was, because it happened once and I thought the car was dying, but it's been fine ever since.

Thanks for the input everyone. Calling around for quotes to swap out the transmission is a great idea. Shop #2 said that it would be $750 labor just to take out the old one & open it up, but based on your $500 number maybe I can do better. Shop #3 guy warned against buying used because you don't know what you're getting, and might just have the same problem in 6 months, since most of what's out there is high mileage. Interesting idea about having a used one rebuilt while I wait for this one to die, depending on rebuild and swap costs. To answer question above, the car has had timing belt, serpentine/alternator belts & tensioners, rotors, brakes, battery and tires all done in the last 2-3 years. At some point the driver side axle was done once already and I feel pretty sure they did not reboot the original part, just swapped out for a cheap aftermarket one. I didn't know any better. A bit longer ago had the head gasket done, front shocks/struts. Back end is kind of squeaky and needs new rear bushings/shocks/struts, but can live with it for now. Otherwise little things like window seals, dings and scratches. Nothing major except, you know, the whole transmission and differential thing. I've loved this car, been my daily driver since new and had planned to keep it until 200K miles to let my kids use when they learn to drive in a couple of years, an idea which they HATE by the way because UNCOOL . But at the moment $ is tight. If I can spend $1000 to keep it going I will, but the idea of the cheaper repair going wrong and leading to $3500 in new (used) transmission on a 16 year old car seems kind of unwise when I could get a decent replacement used car for around $10K. That's why I was looking for more info about the differential bearing repair mechanic #3 was talking about, to see if anyone had done it and if his quote about the odds for success were accurate or exaggeration.

Could use some guidance about a repair, and sorry for the long background here. 2001 Outback 2.5 AT, 130K miles. Whining sound under load, stops as soon as you let off the gas but then there's a whispery sort of scraping sound as the transmission downshifts into each gear while coasting. This has been going on for some time. Have been to 3 mechanics with varying opinions. Long time mechanic #1 said, yeah, it's the differential going bad, costs a lot to fix, just ignore it, it will get worse but might as well just drive it until the whole transmission goes and then redo the whole thing if you're going to keep the car. Mechanic #2 (transmission shop) said yeah, sounds like the differential, need to pull/rebuild the transmission, minimum $1600 probably more but won't know until we go in. Time cut to this week, where there's suddenly a weird choking shimmy while turning right and accelerating up hill. Mechanic #3 (different transmission shop) says probably 2 separate problems. First, he noted torn CV boot/axle needs replacing front driver side, which may or may not have been the cause of the shimmy but couldn't be replicated. Second, in his opinion the differential noise is coming from one of the bearings (he called them the front carrier bearings). He said there is a way to get at them without having to pull the differential, but it is difficult and about 20% of the time he's done it there is "gaulding" upon removal of the part of differential case that is the access point, in which case it's impossible to put back together and the whole housing would need to be replaced which would mean having to pull everything and could wind up being really expensive. (Apparently nobody sells just the differential case separate of the transmission.) He recommends doing the bearings and axle at the same time since he'd have to pull the axle to get at the differential case anyway so it would save on labor; replacing the carrier bearing/s (he thinks it is a particular one because the whine is only under acceleration, not coasting); and adding some thicker fluid in the event the problem is actually the transfer case going bad. And also that if the gear in the differential has been damaged by the bad bearing then the fix might not cure the noise 100%. Oh, and that there's no book time shown for the bearing repair he's talking about but it probably is about 5 hours but he's not sure it depends what happens. So, minimum $500 + parts with a risk of killing the differential rather than fixing it. And so, here are my questions: 1. Is it possible that the whining noise is due simply to the axle issue, and that replacing just the axle would fix the noise, and all the mess about the diff bearings and gaulding and the rest is malarkey? Would it make sense to try an axle replacement (have seen deals for under $200) first or would it indeed be dumb to (potentially) pay 2x for labor? 2. Does anyone know anything about the way he's planning to get a the bearings, the gaulding and the odds that attempting the repair might result in the untimely death of a car that is currently running (albeit noisily)? i.e. are the odds really 80/20, or is this repair actually common and no big deal, or is it actually more like 20/80 and the guy's angling for a whole costly rebuild when things go south? Don't really have $3K to spend on a new (used/rebuilt) transmission. 3. Does anybody know the part number for the carrier bearings and seals? He suggested that if we are going to go ahead it would make sense to pre-order them and bring them with me when I drop off the car, that the Subie dealer here is really slow to order parts + expensive + not as good parts as other brands like Timken. I don't find "carrier bearings" listed; is there another name for them? Or are they part of a larger set? Opinions most appreciated, including whether it's time to move on from this car...