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Subaru Forester Transmission Questions
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Comments
-mike
Subaru Guru and Track Instructor
ESTABLISH A BASELINE ON ALL FLUIDS WHEN YOU BUY A USED CAR.
I bought an 8 year old Miata, and the seller gave me receipts for a 30k service that was just done.
Changed the oil anyway - it was clear.
Change the gear box/front diff oil - it was good.
Flushed the brake fluid - it was still yellow.
Then I went to change the rear diff - looked like melted chocolate! Yikes! The stuff was nasty, way WAAAAAY beyond the point where it should have been changed.
You never know, even with written receipts, you just never know how old those fluids are.
The clutch was hydraulic (brake fluid) and when I went to bleed that system it was also way past-due (brown). It ended up ruining the clutch slave cylinder, which I had to replace.
Do not trust the first owner or even shop receipts.
Is this just a way of generating service center profit, or is it legit?
Thanks.
It definitely generates profit for the service center....
There is no interval in the manuals, just check and change if needed. Draining only removes 4 of the 10 quarts, so flushing is the only way to change the fluid. Flushing is done with the engine running and a special automatic pumping system made by BG Co. This is the only way to remove particles and deposits caught in the torque converter, valve body, filter screen and other automatic transmission components. You can see the flushing units toward the bottom of this page:
http://www.bgprod.com/products/transmission.html
This equipment is an expensive investment for the dealer, the flushing fluid is reused but has a life and a cost, and Subaru ATF is $7 a quart. The dealer charges about $200 for the service, of which perhaps half is for the flush and ATF fluids, and half is for labor and equipment amortization. It is not an unfair price.
If you have an XT or pull a trailer, I would do the flush at the 30K service or anytime sooner that it is suspected that the fluid has been overheated (especially if the AT Temp light comes on). Otherwise at the 60K service. I don't believe in waiting until a check every 30K finds bad fluid, as it could have been in there too long.
For the ATF we don't believe in the flush method. It can damage the fins in the torque converter. We do a drain and fill at 30k intervals which gets out about 3-4 quarts of the 10 in there. We also change the ATF Filter if it has one external (the recent subies use the same filter as the oil filter).
-mike
Many dealers of all kinds of cars use the BG Co. flushing equipment, and dealers that don't have simply been unwilling to invest in the equipment. Flushing cannot damage fins that handle the torque of the motor.
If the ATF needs changing, a drain and refill of 4 out of the 10 quarts serves no purpose. Changing requires a flush.
The ATF filter is not the same as the oil filter. They are different filters, stenciled with Engine and ATF. The fact that they look identical to you led to many ATF filters being mistakenly removed by Jiffy Lubes, etc. For that reason, and for all the problems it caused to transmissions, Subaru deleted the ATF filter from all recent Foresters.
If you want to replace all the fluid, dropping the pan does no more than removing the drain plug. More than half the ATF remains in the transmission. To replace all the fluid, you must flush with the flushing equipment. The flushing equipment uses the engine running and the transmission operating, to remove all the old fluid.
In the post you referenced, I was asking Mike what his shop did when they first switched out the fluid to synthetic, as I would think a flush to be necessary at that point.
I am not opposed to flushing in any way.
Unlike the Caravan, the Foresters don't have an internal filter, just an internal screen.
The pre-2008 Forester AT has an external spin-on filter, but it is lifetime with no replacement schedule. The later Forester AT does not have any filter, retaining only the internal screen that is cleaned if the pan is removed for major service.
http://subaruproparts.com/product_info.php?cPath=1_24_37_48&products_id=318
I bet it was physically damaged. Did you run over anything recently? Or an accident perhaps?
Automatic.
Very infrequently my car has been unable to engage/move when in Drive or any lower gears. However it has no problem engaging/moving when in Reverse.
The problem has gotten worse this past week where i will see this happening more often. However just last week i did not have any engage problems at all.
This happened to me once at 60k miles. I took it in, they flushed and refilled the Transmission fluid. I did not see the problem again up until recently, around 90-100k miles.
Is this a transmission problem? Is it too late for a simple fix/repair. I noticed the transmission fluid is a Brownish color. Level is good.