cvb128

haven't been here in a while.

Our 2015 3.6 R making howling noise in rear right with acceleration

and gets louder with speed. Its not the brakes. I think its probably

a wheel bearing. Anyone else have this issue?

My 2016 Legacy just had the rear right wheel bearing replaced at 18,500 miles.

I don't know about the older CVT models, but the newer models don't have a dipstick for the CVT transmission. So you can can't check the levels, even if you wanted. Hope there's a good reason for that, because seems dumb to me.

I have heard this before and my own dealer said they've had cases like this many times. This is apparently a common mistake when people try to change the oil in their own car. The plugs look similar and aren't far from each other. I suspect this is what killed my CVT. I went to Valvoline for an oil change in the morning, drove about 100 miles, and it died that night. Guess who ended up paying for that? Me

That is what I thought too.

I'm just hoping that Subaru didn't drain all the fluid already for some reason and dispose of it. They do still have a sample though and they are saying the fluid is contaminated and that it's black.

I appreciate the advice, everyone.

Send the fluid that is in the tranny case to get tested. If it's engine oil then Valvoline owes you a tranny.

That thought crossed my mind, but how would Valvoline get the engine oil into the transmission?

I will get the fluid tested and let you know.

There are actually 3 colors Subaru CVT fluid... amber/golden, green and blue.

All depends on application and in the case of blue and green, timeline.

 

The most common blue cvt fluid is for example is being phased out and replaced with green, can be mixed with it too.

 

Amber/golden fluid is used in Lineatronic HT-CVTs only, cant or rather shouldnt be mixed with either green or blue or any other cvt fluid.

Its also not sold in qts, only 5 gallon jugs.

 

Many times Dealership service and parts depts do not know this and have sold the blue fluid to Forster XT and WRX CVT owners.

 

More info I researched here:

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showpost.php?p=43285165&postcount=796

So if my CVT isn't a "Lineartronic HT-CVT" and this amber/golden fluid(which I believe did come in a 5-gallon jug) was introduced to my tranny, could it cause the transmission to fail?

Yeah I heard waiting that long to service the CVT was bogus.

Maybe I'll give that a try. The dealership did say they saved a sample of the fluid.

My other concern is that the whining/odor I heard/smelled after the car was serviced at 60k, was the diff. Could the diff cause the tranny to fail? Cause then I have a bigger problem on my hands.

Thanks for your input, everyone.

I don't have proof that anyone is at fault, unfortunately. After reading several issues people had with accidentally draining CVT fluid instead of engine oil because of the plug confusion, I realized that I had Valvoline change my oil earlier that day that my transmission died. Perhaps just coincidental?

Another thing that bothered me is that Subaru asked me why I changed the tranny fluid. They said it shouldn't be serviced until 105,000.

My '13 Legacy(purchased in May 2013) has just shy of 70k miles on it and the transmission failed on me. I had the car serviced at around 60k and had diffs and tranny fluid changed by a mechanic. After the service I noticed a propane-like smell every so often, and a slight whining noise when hitting 40 mph. The AT Temp light started coming on every so often, but then would turn off. Had no issues with the way the car drove at any point and the light stopped coming on. Then when driving home 2 weeks ago the car started to jerk and made an awful noise like it was dragging something and poof, the tranny is dead. Mechanic inspected it and said the fluid in the transmission was still golden colored(He used BG CVT tranny fluid). Called Subaru up and spoke to corporate. Subaru dealer said the differential fluid was char black, then a few days later they said it wasn't the diff fluid, but the tranny fluid that was char black. They said it looks like the fluid used wasn't transmission fluid. This is after the car was already seen by the mechanic and said the fluid was still gold.

WHAT HAPPENED??