Reverse suddenly hard to get into/ new noise

[kaluce]

I know the noob answer "Reverse is always hard to get into" / "it has straight cut gears" but yeah, this isn't like that. I tried rocking the car, shifting into first and 4th, tried clutching back and forth etc, everything that worked in the past, and my XT just would NOT go into reverse no matter what I tried last night.

 

I think there's something seriously wrong in general, and I'm thinking it's the transmission. The transmission has always been somewhat notchy and hard to shift since I bought it, 3rd gear in particular is just a bag of fresh ass to shift.

 

But now it sounds like there's a "metal grinding/nuts and bolts in a can being rolled around" sound when I let off the accelerator (highly pronounced in 2nd, though present in all gears), and there was a metal on metal squeak when I shifted last night.

 

I changed the fluid to Subaru OEM fluid, thinking it might help, but it seems to have retained the same issues as before.

 

I'm deeply considering a 6mt swap.