fishbone

Take a picture of your shifter and your dash, so we can see what it looks like with that Sport light on.

They are most definitely not. It's a common assumption coming from MT owners because the MT transmission does in fact share fluid with the front differential. But AT fluid isn't compatible with differential gears, thus the two have to have separate fluids.

Differential and transmission do not share the same fluid, they have separate housings. Not sure if that answers your question. It's worth re-inspecting the fluid, to make sure it's at the correct level and that it doesn't look to have metal particles in it.

Maybe. The shifter is spring-loaded, and I have found that I can slightly push it towards the Drive position and can make it go to Sport mode without the shifter actually jumping into Drive.

Really? Ask your dealer to put that in writing, so that you can run it by SOA. They'll shoot them down. Going back to your issue, if the dealership can determine what fluid is in the transmission, that will go a long way. Or, grab a sample and send it in to Blackstone labs maybe. Determining what was put in there would go a long way to telling you who messed up.

Okay, besides the Sport light, is there also a green dot lit up next to the letter D on the dashboard? What position is your lever? Are you SURE it's not in Sports mode? Can you move the lever up and down to manually change gears, or do you first have to slide it over in order to be able to? Regarding fluid, there is no such rule to prevent you from using multi-vehicle transmission fluid. All that matters is that it specifically meets the Subaru ATF-HP spec.

Very likely that the mechanic checked the differential fluid instead of the CVT fluid. The CVT transmission doesn't have a dipstick, so it's not a hard thing to confuse the differential dipstick for a transmission dipstick, but I would have expected more competence out of the mechanic. Assuming he did use the correct transmission fluid, it's possible he didn't use enough, which caused it to burn up. Or he screwed up the fluid, like the dealer said. Either way, the mechanic would be liable for incompetence.

If it says it is compatible with Subaru ATF-HP, that's all you need to check to be sure you can use it. What light are you talking about that stays always on?

All you need to understand is that it's a traditional, regular, run of the mill, nothing fancy, 5-speed automatic transmission.

Wikipedia doesn't cite a source, but here it is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaru_Legacy

3.0R has the same automatic as the turbo 2.5. It is most definitely NOT a CVT. Also stuffed in the Tribeca and all other 5-speed automatics from that time. Working from memory here, Prodrive was responsible for programming the manual shifting logic into the TCU. I do not understand your statement when you say "I guess it won't need ATF so it must not be a robotised". Yes, it most definitely uses ATF which you should change as needed.

Front/rear diffs are the same type of fluid on the automatic. 75w90, 1.3quart in the front, 1.5 in the rear. Always undo the fill bolt first on the rear diff. If you drain it and the fill bolt is frozen, you're screwed.

You don't want to mess with additives in this transmission, for many reasons. Firstly, there is simply no established track record whether or not the transmission plays well with additives, nor do we clearly and indisputably know that they help. Secondly, the transmission is manufactured to very, very tight specifications and its survival depends on the fluid used. So unless you are willing to pioneer the path to knowledge, knowing full well it could lead to expensive failure, then stick with acceptable fluids and don't put additives in.

The reason they are expensive at the dealer is because they install new units. So the "idiots" telling you the dealership horror stories actually have a point, but they, like the vast majority of consumers, don't really know that they have this avenue at their disposal, to look up and install used parts.

So I did a random search for a 2010 Legacy CVT, in my neck of the woods Texas I am getting a TON of results for under $2000 with less that 50K miles on them, grade A with warranty from the recycler, and willing to ship anywhere in the US.

I agree, a fluid change might just take care of it. There's a lot of possibilities at play here. It could be a failed solenoid, making it an electrical issue which a fluid change won't take care of. Or it could be build-up that may clear up. However, the CVT should not generate any meaningful amount of debris to become suspended in the fluid since it doesn't have a bunch of wearable clutches like on a traditional transmission. The part you link to seems to be correct, however given the price, you could actually source out an entire transmission for not much more. Look at http://www.car-part.com and whatever you do, for the love of God don't let SOA sell you a new transmission to the tune of 5 thousand dollars. There should be plenty used ones on the market for a fraction of that price, with a warranty included. I would definitely look to that route because you would be getting the whole thing with potentially less miles/wear on it.

It's more or less normal. As in, it has been reported here by many different owners. I am guessing you are not stock? Basically the transmision doesn't respond quick enough for how fast the car revs up.

It was just an observation, no critique at all over the fact that you did not use Blackstone Labs. There are many other competent places and I'm sure the one you used is top notch. As far as fluid color, keep in mind that color is not necessarily an indication of fluid condition. My engine oil gets dark pretty quick long, long before it needs to be changed. Just a thought. Changing the CVT fluid now still has merit. If I were you, I would probably do the same. I am at 73K miles and just about the only reason I haven't done it already is scheduling conflicts. I plan on getting it done within the next few months myself.

No downside that I can think of other than the expense. What lab is this? Typically we here in the community use Blackstone, I am used to their reports showing a bit different, as well as more commentary around the findings. They will typically also write a recommendation based on findings, such as "extend the change interval to XYZ miles", that sort of thing. Based on the report, it looks like there is no apparent indication that the fluid needs to be changed now, and can go for another 30K miles based on their commentary. Nice! They talk about debris existing in the system and address the filter. That's interesting. Not sure what to make of it. It could very well be that this may be the issue that is causing some problems with that one clogged passage which is causing some gen 1 CVTs to not unlock at idle and stall out the engine. I am not sure if the CVT unit has a filter. If it does, I do not understand why the debris they noted is suspended in the fluid. This probably gives you a good reason to do a fluid change now. I think it's starting to become obvious that there are no ill effects to running the fluid up to 100K miles, barring towing or other types of driving that would put a lot of load on the transmission. Thanks for sharing and adding to the knowledge base.

There is merit in resetting the TCU and doing a test drive, but they are not required. A dealer may opt to only perform the service contingent on these two procedures as a business decision to cover themselves.

This is correct. Only two tools can reset the TCU: Subaru Select via the dealer, or FreeSSM, a free open source tool for which you need an OBDII cable. Disconnecting the battery also does not reset the TCU. If the problem is corrected, trouble codes go away by themselves after a certain number of start cycles.

I'm starting to suspect a clunk coming from the drivetrain, right rear, when I am in manual mode and taking a sharp right turn, for example turning from a parking lot into a main road. It feels and sounds as if hitting a pothole or going over one of those raised plastic markers on the road. I have always assumed I'm hitting something and now I am starting to think it might be the trans. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Rear diff issues? LE: did some reading, sounds like I'm going to start by checking the tire pressure all around. Gonna do some figure 8-s in a parking lot and see what happens.

http://www.car-part.com Search used

I have the soft one, the blue version, and half of me wishes I never got it installed. It can get rough in cold temperature and to be perfectly honest at Stage 2 power levels I question it's utility.

There's a diy thread on Subaruoutback.org. I've handled a transmission with this exact layout, except it was a regular AT. I skipped the whole "temp"part. I measured what I got out, put the same in, drove the car to warm it up, then tested the level on straight ground by making sure it came out of the fill hole. It's straight forward, just time consuming. Very similar to draining a differential.