I just purchased my first subaru, '99 legacy GT AWD 2.5lt manual 5 speed tranny. My question is that it has a light to moderate grind going into third on both the up-shift and down-shift. Just wanted to see if anyone out there has come across this problem before and if so any solutions. I am farely mechanically inclined but I've never worked on or messed around with this type of vehicle (I have owned diesel trucks most of my life so I'm in unfamilier tarritory). Any help would be greatlu appreciated.

The synchro is getting tired. There isn't much to do. You can change the transmission oil with subrau extra-S. Sometimes that considerably helps.

Over the summer my outback completely lost 3rd gear synchro.

It can be double clutched into gear just fine, it's just finicky. But it's not a terribly uncommon problem for these.

what he said - synchro is warn and not much you can do except to try fluids to mitigate the issue.

 

thread should be in newer generation forum for better visibility.  how does it get posted in site help/suggestions forum?

I'm going to move this to the new gen forum.