Some odd 5EAT issues creeping up on me..

[t0ad]

Alright, so the past few days i've had some strange things happen to my Legacy. Oh, and for a little bit of backstory, I had the VB mod done to mine, along with an Amsoil fluid flush. Early last week after leaving work, I go to pull out on the main road and begin accelerating. Now the car is still pretty cold at this point so I take it easy on the acceleration (the trans is in manual mode so it doesn't get boost-happy). I wind out 1st to about 3500rpm and hit the shifter to go into 2nd, and the trans seemingly slips to about 4000rpm before shooting back down and completing the gear change. Needless to say I found this pretty worrying.. after getting the car fully warmed up I banged through the gears with a good bit of throttle and it felt just fine.

 

Later that week I noticed the same thing occured when everything was still cold. It's seemingly doing this at random since it didn't have this problem 3 out of 5 days. It only does it once too.

 

Now here's the other and even more scary issue.. this past Saturday while leaving a neighborhood and coming off of a steep hill, I left the car in 1st via manual mode to engine brake a little, but I noticed that it was doing no such thing. Eventually I hit the bottom of the hill, stopped at the stop sign, and tried to pull away .. but the car just free revved

 

I put the trans back in D and i felt the gears engage, so I put it back in manual and it said it was in 3rd... but it switched back down to 1st on it's own. After that little mishap, it acted fine. I'll admit, at this point I was pretty pissed, so I put the hammer down and banged through 1st to 4th and the car seemingly acted fine, shifts felt like always.

 

So .. yeah. I dunno what to think at this point, other than maybe I need to look into trading this thing in before it dies I never had a transmission problem before I did the VB mod, I just did it for peace of mind.. but now I don't have that. Anyone have any suggestions? Maybe I should see if I can get the dealership to reset the TCU? I checked the fluid level just before all this crap started happening and it was a tad low so I added a bit. I later noticed that the trans cooler I installed was weeping fluid from a couple hoseclamps (nothing major, no dripping or anything, just getting wet around the connections) .. damned things.

[fishbone]

t0ad, what power levels are you at right now, approximately?

When you say the car revved up to 4K rpm when it was cold, in 1st gear, did it really feel like slipping, so there was no forward pull anymore, or did the car continue to hold it in 1st gear despite your gear change "request"? When the transmission is cold I know for a fact it will delay shifts and allow it to rev up higher than normal in 1st and 2nd. It could also be that the ATF was thick because it was cold so it had trouble grabbing the gear once it disengaged 1st. How cold was it outside? Freezing temps? What kind of tranny cooler do you have? Is it a TruCool with the drop-pressure feature [it bypasses the cooler when the ATF is too cold].

 

I can tell you I had this issue on my 2003 Nissan Altima 4EAT. On cold mornings going from 1st to 2nd that thing would rev up in what seemed like neutral before grabbing the gear. It would only do this on cold cold mornings if I attempted to drive her spirited. I can only guess the ATF was thick at that point so it had trouble grabbing the gear.

 

Or, you could have some problems with the manual-mode shifting mechanism? Just keep in mind, and you probably already know this, with manual-mode and all the drive-by-wire stuff, gear changes are not really commands, they are actually requests The 5EAT may or may not comply when you request it to do it, depending on conditions.

 

Later edit: well, according to Weather Underground you guys had freezing temps of 34*F or lower the past few days, is that correct?

[t0ad]

If I had to guess I'd say I'm around the 250whp mark, I've got headers/tbe/tmic among other things. When it revved up after I requested the 1-2 gear change, it did seem to feel like it was still accelerating slightly. It's hard to describe what it felt like in words, but it was like it let go of 1st and got a little squishy while looking for 2nd (the rpms kinda lagged and then jumped up, then shot back down as 2nd came on). It's definitely never acted like that before though, usually 1-2 is quite firm even when it's freezing out. It was at or near freezing temps when this happened.. I have the TruCool 4451 cooler. I installed it last winter and never had an issue during the freezing temps then. Granted, I didn't have the VB mod or Amsoil in the trans last year..

 

You could be right on the mechanism being messed up though. As for my second issue, it was in what felt like neutral when I had it dropped down into manual mode, 1st gear. Maybe I'm just wearing it out I hardly ever drive the car in automatic mode, I hate the way it short-shifts and seemingly puts too much load on things most of the time, even in Sport mode.

[fishbone]

I'd say drive it in full automatic mode for a while and then get into manual mode and see how she acts. If in automatic mode the shifts are normal I can't imagine it's slipping because it would do that consistently regardless of mode, be it manual, sport or automatic.

[SeeeeeYa]

Call IPT. Point them to this thread.

 

I'm no help, when my 5EAT went it went from the top down, that is, 5th went and then 4th. I limped around on 1st thru 3rd until I got the IPT transmission. Your situation makes me think something else is going on. However, slipping is not good, not good at all.

[Habitual Line Stepper]

toad, i'm glad you posted because this is what happened to me exactly 8 months ago when the VB first went in. It happened 3 times to me in the first 1 i had the VB, it hasnt happened since. I was pretty worried, but i figured if its gonna go, then its gonna go. 8 months later, and nothing is wrong, yet. I'm keeping an eye on it, but so far it hasnt happened again, nor had anything else happened that would tell me the tranny is done, unless the sucker takes more than 8 months to die.

[t0ad]

toad, i'm glad you posted because this is what happened to me exactly 8 months ago when the VB first went in. It happened 3 times to me in the first 1 i had the VB, it hasnt happened since. I was pretty worried, but i figured if its gonna go, then its gonna go. 8 months later, and nothing is wrong, yet. I'm keeping an eye on it, but so far it hasnt happened again, nor had anything else happened that would tell me the tranny is done, unless the sucker takes more than 8 months to die.

 

That's odd .. wonder what the deal is? I've had mine in for probably 6 months or so now and it's been running like a champ up until just here lately.

[Habitual Line Stepper]

That's odd .. wonder what the deal is? I've had mine in for probably 6 months or so now and it's been running like a champ up until just here lately.

 

I dunno man, but if it only happens once, then consider it a quirk. But if this happens again and continues, its a problem for sure. I'm lucky that it was just a few times and never again, atleast for now. My advice, start putting money into an IPT rebuild fund just incase, thats what i'm doing.

[jeepthrills]

Call IPT. Point them to this thread.

 

I'm no help, when my 5EAT went it went from the top down, that is, 5th went and then 4th. I limped around on 1st thru 3rd until I got the IPT transmission. Your situation makes me think something else is going on. However, slipping is not good, not good at all.

 

 

how many miles did your 5eat last...and how bad and often was it beaten?

[snow05gtRI]

i find sometimes if i'm in manual mode and downshifting while coming to a stop and doing a little bit of engine braking, my 3rd gear seems to go into neutral while engine braking occasionally. however, when i hit the gas it is in gear and i have power right away, so it almost seems like something is putting in the clutch. i have no IPT mods though, all stock. i need to grab me a tranny cooler, though.

 

i've noticed since the temps dropped that the tranny runs a little differently. not badly, just different. mainly holding shifts a little longer than usual, especially when the car is cold.

[SeeeeeYa]

how many miles did your 5eat last...and how bad and often was it beaten?

 

About 60k, and used as hard as it gets. I broke the rear diff and a rear axel.... if that gives you any idea of the (ab)use . I launched it at full Stage2 boost many times. I autocrossed it over a year, Tail of the Dragon, etc. I always drive hard.

 

It was only a short time after I got the 380 in that it went. I didn't have time to really hurt it with the extra power, but it was enough to finish it off. I'm sure it was the three years of rawhiding it at Stage2 that cooked the transmission, not the 380.

 

The VF40 abuses the drivetrain much worse than the AVO380, and similar or bigger turbos. That huge spike of torque when the car isn't moving much is the killer, not the power later on. I can produce quicker 0-60 times now, but the time is made up after the car is moving rather than inputting massive torque into a relatively stationary drivetrain. It felt good, but it broke things. The way it is now is MUCH preferable, I have my cake and eat it, too.

[fishbone]

+1 on the power delivery of the VF40. Watching a boost gauge on qikslvr's LGT, it would be in vaccuum and a split second later he'd have the damn thing pegged up. Downright scary.

[bdisco]

My 5eat car would not move right away after start up this morning (temp in the teens, car had sat a couple of days). Rev the motor with left foot poised above the brake just in case it shot out the garage across the driveway and into my F250. Did seem to shift higher, harder, and later until it warmed up. Is this normal or a sign of trouble?

[ShadowImg]

Did you let it warm up a minute or two before driving? Sounds like cold tranny, though the not moving at all part is a little disturbing.

[jerseyglock]

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[bdisco]

Did you let it warm up a minute or two before driving? Sounds like cold tranny, though the not moving at all part is a little disturbing.

 

No. Wanted to get it out of the attached garage and warmed up outside. Car normally idles out of the garage when shifted into 'D'. It has done this before usually after sitting for a couple of days.

[fishbone]

I'd say that's a bit concerning. Have you drained the ATF recently? You could do an analysis on it and see what your wear levels are at. If it's failing, something will surely be WAY high.

[bdisco]

I'm @ 42k miles or so. Tranny Flush? or would that just be looking for trouble?

[fishbone]

If you do it, go to the dealer and have them do it with OEM stuff. It won't be cheap though, probably right around $120.

It's not asking for trouble, in fact it is recommended. If you ask around here I believe the interval most go for is 20K miles or so, depending on mods and such. I will try to stick with just drains every 15K or so, which replaces ~4.2-4.5 qts of the stuff. Drains I can do myself, so I figured they will be cheaper.

[rubberman]

bdisco, be sure that you double-check your trans fluid level. Subaru service manual says to drive the car for about 5 miles, then leave it running and then check the trans fluid level. My car did some similar funky behavior after installing an IPT VB while adding fluid since the level was slightly low.

One other thing to keep in mind if fluid levels become an issue...

I also actually had one of the rubber trans fluid lines leaking vey slightly where the rubber line connects to the trans hard line on the driver's side of the engine (visible from underneath the car). I swapped the clamp but had the same issue. Solution was to cut about 1" off the rubber hose and reconnect, no problems since. The end of the rubber hose had split or something.

[bdisco]

This morning everything seemed fine. The problem seems to happen after car has sat for a couple of days. I know the fix would be to not let it sit for a couple of days. Anyone else do this after a couple days?