MT Transmission noise that wasn't

[LRoselle]

This is a long story but finding something like this might have helped me so I'll post it in case someone finds it useful.

 

About five weeks ago, my MT 2010 Legacy started popping out of reverse. It was still in power train warranty so brought it to dealer, determined it was covered, and fixed it we thought.

 

Three days after getting it back, I embarked on a 700 mile weekend road trip. All was fine for the first 500 miles. As I stopped at a toll booth, I tried to put it in first (while still rolling about 2 mph or so) and found myself locked out of first (hitting a hard stop right at the start of the throw). And locked out of second. And locked out of reverse. Except that in trying to get it into reverse, it hit the stop and slid into sixth after which all gears were available. Weird. Proceeded on my way but I knew I needed to at least call them on Monday (this was Saturday afternoon).

 

That was not to be. Sunday, I set off on a short trip and after just a few miles, started to hear a racket like I was dragging something under the car. Pushing in on the clutch stopped the noise. Tried moving again and it repeated. Stopped and called for a tow. Dealer determined one of the pins in the transmission had popped out when they were closing it up (how it made it through 700 miles of driving and then failed within spitting distance of home I'll never know). More work.

 

Finally get it back again and it seems OK at first. But then I'd notice the noises. Increased what I took to be road noise. Thunks when letting out on the clutch (usually when going into second - and which just as mysteriously stopped three days ago). Other misc. clicks and clacks. Bangs when I'd hit a bump. But car otherwise seemed to be OK.

 

I arranged to bring it back last night for a quick look under the car to make sure everything looked OK. They said everything looked fine except they found a misrouted ground wire that was hitting the gear lever and might have accounted for some noise. I was skeptical but got back in the car. Took all of 30 seconds to realize I had my quiet ride back and am 99% certain all the noises were coming from that ground wire hitting the gear lever. Never expected that an out of place wire hitting other things could cause so much noise.

[A_A_ron]

If you still have your Legacy and are active on the forum, have you had any other issues related to this?

[LRoselle]

Wow, a four year old topic. Not active but I still have the car. It did end up back in the shop a third time but that was the charm. Runs fine. I do hear knocking sounds when letting out the clutch at times. The manual says this is normal but it wasn't present before the initial problem. OTOH, before the problem, it was very difficult to get into gear when very cold (e.g. sitting outside on a below freezing day). It's a lot easier now. So my conclusion is things were too tight in the gear box originally and now are right. I don't really like the knocking sound but the car runs well.

[A_A_ron]

Thanks for the follow up I figured it was a shot in the dark but I am trying to get as much info as possible going into fixing my own transmission issues.