I had some Subarubucks to spend, so I decided to let the dealership change my diff fluids, and gear oil. 117,000 miles on the car, I've only owned it for 10,000, who knows if it ever got changed.

 

The dealership showed me the transmission drainplug. There was part of a broken ring stuck to it. not good.

 

So, ever since the new flluids, car has been shifting worse.

 

The diff will shudder sometimes when taking a right turn from a stop or going in reverse.

 

Then yesterday, started out fine then got hard to shift into or out of second gear. Parked car, did my thing. Later, get back in car, and clutch pedal was soft, then would go down and stick, then pop out. Car continued to have 2nd gear problems until warmed up.

 

thoughts? advise?

did they know the rear is lsd and did they use lsd fluid/additive?

who knows. They might have also overfilled the gear oil, because the dipstick had popped up, and there was oil oround there.

i was about to suggest the same thing.

 

 

You need to be careful what tranny fluids you use. Some are actually too slippery and won't let the syncros work properly and it won't shift nicely.

 

however there are some which make shifting notchy, but are VERY good at protecting.

Even for Subaru, i would not be surprised if they didn't put in the LSD additive

Thats what I was worried about. You need friction for the synchros, but lubrication for the bearings right.

 

Milesfox-your picture or whatever is taking a lifetime to load

the one in the sig or the avatar? the avatar is a .gif i did shrink it down unlessit remained the same file size. i'll try to fix that

The signature, Seems good now, awesome picture!

Seems kind of odd that you had no problems, until the dealership showed you that you had a problem. I'm not saying all dealerships are "stealerships", but have you dealt with this one before? What kind of reputation do they have?

I could only point the blame at them if they put the wrong fluids in. So I'm going to go over there now and find out.

Well, I was looking at the car, and the shifting problem might have been because of the clutch cable. It was moved around when I did some work on it the other day. And I didn't have any problems driving it today.

 

The differential thing is getting worse. The dealership said they put the same fluid in all their new cars. Mototech 70-90, and yes it is for limited slip he said. They are going to take a look at it on Tuesday. Hope it doesn't explode before then.

its not gonna explode. it took 7000 miles for the diff in my car to fall out after the pinion seal went bad, after the u joint broke some 3000 miles earlier. when it did let go it proke off its bolt mount from the vibration, dragging the ground.

 

i took it out and took the axles off at the doj cups, since the pins were seized and i was 50 miles from home coming back 300 miles, tossed it in the trunk, and drove another 200 miles before i chopped the other end of the axles off with an angle grinder because for some reason they were cv ends instead of doj ends......you'll be fine!

I was just being dramatic, but hey, thats a good story:)

so here lies the problem with the diff

 

New LSD's that are in WRX's and such.....they are Viscous. meaning they don't need any special oils.

 

The LSD in the RX is a plate type LSD. They require special LSD oils.

 

So....to an unsuspecting Tech...who's only been around Subaru's for a couple years....a diff is a diff.

 

The Diffs in the RX's were the only Subaru diff which was a plate type. Everything else has been a viscous diff....Legacy Turbos, Imprezas, WRX's.

Ok then, what are using, or what should I look for?

The Diffs in the RX's were the only Subaru diff which was a plate type. Everything else has been a viscous diff....Legacy Turbos, Imprezas, WRX's.

 

what about loyales with a lsd? same diff as the rx?

The guy at the parts store said to use whatever gear oil they used and to use an additive, so he gave me transX.

 

Then went back to the dealership and told them that I had a clutch pack lsd, and not a viscous, the guys there said it shouldn't make a difference. Well obviously there is a difference, or my car wouldn't be acting up.

TransX worked awesome. No problems now. Proved the dingbats at the dealership wrong(the guy who worked on my car has worked there a really long time, why the didn't know this, it amazes me). Thanks as always for the help guys.

Is it just the rear diff that is a lsd? How do you tell?

It'l say LSD on the sticker that's on the back of the diff.