I'm sure I read somewhere that the O/B automatic always took off in 2nd gear unless under mid to heavy acceleration.Can anybody confirm this ??

 

I know that for a while now mine has been taking off in 1st,(no matter how I accelerate), and when it shifts into 2nd it really jerks hard. I never really noticed before if it started in 1st or 2nd.

No it doesn't always take off in 2nd. Whever you heard that, they had their information mixed up.

Change your oil now... If you can put redline in. I think you want ATF D4... I'll check my bottle at home tomorrow. The books are wrong on what redline oil to use. I got the guy selling it to me to call Redline and they told him right one.

Changing the fluid in my '97 Legacy OB (well, most of it, I drained and refilled 2x) helped my 1-2 shifts somewhat. It's never been what I'd call "smooth", but it was getting to the "did I just get bumped by another car from behind?" feeling before I changed the fluid.

 

It was quite easy to do, it's not hard to access the drain plug, you don't even really need to lift the car up if you get to it from the driver's side behind the front wheel, IIRC.

 

Steve

Redline only makes one kind of fluid for autos, and it is the D4 ATF fluid.

 

I don't understand why everyone hates the 1-2 shift. It's a solid shift. I hate the mushy crap feel of soft shifts.

My 99 Outback always starts in second if the lever is in drive. it's obvious, because should I have to gas it to move out into a tight spot, there is always a downshift after an awkward moment followed by a strong upshift back up to 2 and so forth, more or less normally. I can avoid this by moving the lever to 1 if I anticipate a hard time pulling out from a stop, but then need to move the lever out of 1 in a timely manner so it will continue to accelerate. I believe putting the lever in 2 blocks out all gears but 2, but have not tried this. I have heard the clutch packs give a 50/50 torque split in reverse, and 1 and (possibly) 2, this being a small concession to low speed off road capability. My car has a very agressive hill braking downshift and gear retaining transmission program and may do the start in 2 action for the same reason. (agressive program) I have heard the dealer has a more subtle program than can be put into 99's at least, but I like it the way it is for the most part.

If you come to a complete stop, the car will start in 1st. If it's a more of a rolling stop, yeah it'll probably stay in 2nd.

 

The logic in the auto trannies is pretty good. If you floor it, it will downshift to lowest gear it can.

The jerking is impossible to irradicate completely. First is transmitted via the torque converter/fluid coupling only and second is locked mechanically. Therefore the 2-3% slip in first is "recovered" in second and gives rise to the shock you are feeling.

Was reading my owners manual recently, about the AT (for the 2004 Impreza RS/TS/Outback Sport).

 

Things I found:

 

In Drive and braking downhill it will downshift to 3rd, but fluid cannot be cold or else it might not do so, and also won't if above ~48 mph. Reaccelerating upshifts back again.

 

3rd (on selector) will go from 1st to 3rd (apparently no upshift into 4th), controlled by acceleration. Backing off the accelerator keeps it in the gear it was in before accelerating, e.g. currently in 2nd then speeding up downshifts to 1st, releasing accelerator pedal puts it back into 2nd again (D follows same logic).

 

2nd (on selector) remains in that gear, so no downshift or upshift. Good for slippery starts.

 

1st (on selector) also doesn't upshift. Good for very steep inclines.

 

Max speed chart shows the 2.5L Outback Sport's to be:

0 mph < 1st < 35 mph < 2nd < 64 mph < 3rd < 101 mph (< 4th)

 

I didn't see anything about AT locking during steady driving but I realize that's typically employed in the modern trannies. Guess that's not exactly what Setright was saying. I'd like to find out if the AT does actually use such a torque lock.

 

Well, in my list of web page bookmarks I managed to find the answer about "torque lockup". Plus more info, so some of you might be interested in seeing it too.

 

http://www.subaru-global.com/about/parts/07.html

Yeah, your torque converter locks up. I'm pretty sure it only happens in fourth gear though. The TCU will adjust the amount of lockup via a control solenoid.