Hello everyone. I posted this in the Outback forum, but because of the similarity to the Legacy I thought you guys might be able to help as well.
A few weeks ago I was driving my 02 Outback 2.5 with an automatic transmission and a hit some woody debris on the road at about 40 mph and definitely heard a thump underneath the car. When I got home and put the car in park I noticed that I now feel a vibration and a muted rough sounding noise. As if whatever was vibrating was maybe rubbing on something. When I put it in gear (both forward and reverse) the sound and vibration went away. When I shifted into neutral or park the vibration and noise returned. I thought maybe it was the heat shield but it was solid.
I kept on driving the car as other then the muted noise in in park and neutral, the car was shifting and driving just fine... until yesterday. As I was driving, again at about 40mph the car suddenly dropped out of gear and I felt a thump when it happened. I looked at the shifter and it was in neutral. I thought maybe I accidentally did that myself as I often drive with my hand on the shifter (habit from driving stick). I put it back in to drive at about 20 mph and as I accelerated I felt the transmission slip. I limped the car into a safe area and parked it. After parking it I shifted through the gears and noticed that reverse no longer engages, while the forward gears do. ATF level is good and doesn't smell burnt. Also never heard any grinding noises or anything loud or whining. There are no dashboard lights on and when I shift through the gears the shift position indicators on the dashboard match the shifter position.
Considering that the first unusual thing that I noticed happened after running over a smallish branch I am planning to first take a look at the shifter linkage and cable.
I've never experienced anything like this, but wondering if any of you have and have some ideas on how to approach this.
Thanks.
