1st gear "sticking"

[ihavebettersound]

I've noticed when its cold out, I have a really hard time shifting out of first. I always let me car warm up for 5 mins or so, and its still hard to shift even after 5-10 more mins. of driving. After all that passes by, I can still feel it being "stuck" in first gear, but not nearly as bad as when cold. And its only happening with first gear. Now would a simple transmission fluid change solve this, or should I bring it in to a dealer :(

[MuddyREX]

My car doesn't like to shift very easily when it's cold either. I would imagine the fluid just needs to warm up.

[ihavebettersound]

Possibly. I was thinking the same thing, but it seems like something may be wrong. Anyone know of a better tranny fluid that works well during colder climates?

[StealthTC]

I have the same problem in the morning even though I dont have a subie, but I will get into the car in the morning and goto throw it in reverse, doesn't like to go when its cold out

[TROLL]

i think when the car is cold, the fluid just needs to warm up. however even when things are all warmed up i still feel a slight resistance on my 1-2 shift... i think its just the nature of the transmission... at the same time i dont force it into gear so i suppose i could be faster if i wanted to.
bryan

[bavariasport]

do you do alot of hard launches. i dont have a subie but my friend does and he has the same problem. he did some reasearch and fond out that the trannys cannot be launched hard. his sometimes won't even go into first. he is currently looking for a place to get his rebuilt. this is a problem that he has all the time though so it may not be the same. if i can find the web site that he found his info at i will post it

[ihavebettersound]

Nah I'm never hard on the car with launching. And the problem isnt even going into first. That actually feels fine. Only when trying to take it out of gear, its very hard to do.

[TehWagon]

this post looks familiar... :wink:

i'm not sure what would cause it, but i have heard that redline is a good brand of tranny fluid. i plan on changing to that in the spring.

[ihavebettersound]

haha Yeah I'm trying to get as many opinions about it as possible.
I've actually heard of mixed results with the redline! I emailed the dealership to see what they would say.

[TehWagon]

interesting... yea keep us posted on what the stealership says :)

[ihavebettersound]

Will do!

[DaveTheWhiteAsian]

http://www.tristatetuners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8890

Neo Synthetic Transmission fluid

http://store.yahoo.com/twincamtech/neosynmantra.html

thats the **** you want


Read the article in the post above though if you havent, its good stuff

[TehWagon]

heh- i posted that article and already forgot which one they recommended! :rolleyes:

[JoeScooby]

I use Redline Shockproof heavy weight. My problem is vice versa, 1st can sometimes be a pain to get into when the sludge has not had enough time to warm up.. Check out WRXFanatics.com, they talk highly about redline shock proof.

Here is a pretty long thread about tranny fluids

redline tranny fluid (http://www.wrxfanatics.com/index.php?showtopic=8928&hl=redline+shockproof)

[ihavebettersound]

Well I'm taking it to get looked at tonight. I'll let you's know what happens.

[EjTwentyFiveSTi]

It sounds like synchros to me.....or the fact that its a stock wrx tranny :-p go get some RA gears and be done with it :cool:
Now I dont remember correctly but I believe the wrx has double cone synchros on first (as opposed to triple on the STi), which if they are not aligning properly is going to make it hard to pull out of gear and put it in as well, but it can still cause problems. I was thinking it was your shift forks, but then you said its only when pulling it out. :wink:


As far as fluid, i use Mobil1syn and i know quite a few wrxes who do to.

[ihavebettersound]

OK where should I start. I dropped my car off at Rafferty last night so they could check it this morning. I called them around 1pm to see how everything was going. The service guy told me he would be done around 2-2:30, and told me he would call when it was done. I just called them at 7:30pm to find out he's not even there. So I talk to the woman who answers the phone and she reads me the service paper : "road tested for 2 miles and found no problem, blah blah blah." Now I'm pissed. Obviously there IS a problem. What should I do now??

[MuddyREX]

You are lucky that the dealership didn't find anything. They probably would have refused to fix it anyway because you have a HKS bov. :roll:

Good luck getting it taken care of.

[Smokescreen]

If I don't give it time to warm up on cold mornings my 1st gear will stick. It will be pretty hard to get into gear and stuff, but it goes away once it is warm. I don't think this is a real problem other than not letting the car warm up to operating temp. I'm not surprised Rafferty didn't find anything. Try doing a search for it on ClubWRX.net. I remember reading something about this "problem" on there.

[ihavebettersound]

I actually had the BOV off for a while now! And I reverted back to stock through my AP. The lady also read back my mod list, cat-back exhaust and new wheels and tires, that was it. But I'm still pissed!

[TehWagon]

mechanics can't fix a problem that doesn't happen while they are test driving the car... maybe you should be in the drivers seat so you can replicate the problem?

[ihavebettersound]

Yeah but it HAD to happen when he went out to drive the car. It happens to me every morning, or afternoon for that matter.

[TehWagon]

what would he stand to gain by lying about it? i'm not being a smartass, i'm being serious. i always hear of subaru shops not wanting to cover warranty work, but if you bring them a legitimate problem, why wouldn't they even try to charge you to fix it? because that would be admitting to a problem? i just don't understand it...

[ihavebettersound]

Me neither! I just hope nothing serious comes of this later down the road, and then they somehow blame it on me!