Roldan

The car is fixed now. The output shaft bearing failed and was replaced by a local transmission shop for around $800. They also replaced the center diff bearings because they are a common failure point according to the transmission shop. The only reason a STi 6sp swap was only considered is because I would be able to do the labor and the project would be similar in cost to what the dealer wanted to charge. Yes, I have tracked the car once some 70k mi or so before this happened. I drove it gingerly and limited my speed to 120mph, for comparison when I drove a stock STi there it indicated a speed of 145mph. If you are inclined to say that this is abuse and the car should not be expected to handle it I would you are wrong. My street car sees much more track time that is also more intense. It has never had any problems and now has 145k mi. It is also important to understand that track days are not races they are much different than actually racing a car. Again, no one is launching it from stop lights. Even if someone was I wouldn't think an output shaft bearing would be the first failure caused by that behavior. And this is me being a "wanna be racer": [ame=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7167758574762524620&ei=XchhS7mSK4v2qwOm1-DrAw&q=roldan+de+guzman]H4 Race 9-10-06 PIR[/ame] What must someone do to be considered a real racer as opposed to a "wanna be" on this board?

Some clarification... All information regarding gear ratios specific to this car was gained by searching this site yesterday. I rarely drive this car and have not been launching from stop lights. I'm a licensed road racer so it is not in my nature to go around launching cars from stop lights and I'm also adept at not destroying cars if they are designed and built properly. No one is driving the car incorrectly. The car is used mostly for city driving but it should be able to handle more than 90k with that usage. The car is also stock except for Blizzaks for winter tires and the successor to the RE730 used in the summer. I want to do the 6MT because they have fewer reliability issues as far as I know and I would expect a fuel mileage increase due to lower revs. The fact that the problem can be identified w/o opening the case indicates that the current 5MT is not up to the task. I will see my parents tonight hopefully they will have a document that states what the problem is. Maybe the best solution is to get a junk yard tranny and try to rebuild this one so we can replace transmissions when the clutch is due.

Hello, My Mom has an '05 Legacy GT Wagon with a 5sp manual that she bought new in Jan of '05 after her '99 A6 Avant was totaled. I favored a Subaru to another Audi assuming it would be more reliable. I question that sentiment now as I do not expect major failures in cars at 90k mi. The car has been regularly serviced at Carter Subaru in Shoreline, WA including oil changes. The dealer is indicating that a bearing has gone bad inside the transmission case. The transmission makes a strange noise at light to medium loads in 3rd and 4th gear. The dealer quoted a price of $2500 to repair the transmission. I think it is ridiculous to have to pay for such a repair in a car that only has 90k on it and would like to know if anyone has had luck getting Subaru or a dealer to cover such repairs. Also, I've been searching on here to see if I could find a thread that details a STI tranny swap into a LGT wagon but haven't found anything. My understanding so far is that the tranny bolts into place and there are no changes needed to the drive shaft. Is this correct? I also assume that the STI tranny has the front end geared to 3.90 so the rear end gears would have to be changed to match. Are there 3.90 final drives available for the R160 or would it have to be upgraded to a R180? If my parents do have to pay for this repair I would like to use equipment that won't fail in another 90k.