I just picked up a '99 Forester L with a 4EAT for my wife. 

This is our 2nd Subi, we used to have a '99 Outback with a 4EAT. It didn't do this.

When in 4th and then accelerating enough to cause a kickdown to pass, the transmission has a violent kickdown. It feels as if you got rear ended.

RPMs increase substantially after pressing the accelerator before the kickdown, at high throttle, resulting in the violent kickdown.

I've adjusted the TPS, drained pan (fluid was clean and not burnt), replaced filter, refilled, no change.   The ATF Temp light isn't on and I have not been able to pull any codes from it.

 

The car shifts fine under all other circumstances.

Any ideas?

Edited June 20, 201312 yr by m4ff3w

Sounds like its slipping. How many miles on this car?

Sounds like its slipping. How many miles on this car?

189k.  110k on a replacement "Transtar" trans and rebuilt TC.

I would say that if the original owner killed the original transmission at 79k miles, the same driving style that likely killed that one has likely damaged this one.

I'd start looking for a replacement.

My '03 4eat and the '04 I replaced it with do this on my '03 LL bean H6. It's common on those.

 

Wiping the TCU learning will fix it for a few months if there is no other problem such as bad TPS, etc.

 

Just disconnect the batt for a while and see if there is any effect.