Hard to Find 3rd While Cornering

  • Thread starter Thread starter skip0110
  • 4 comments
  • 527 views
skip0110

skip0110

Messages
5,178
United States
Worcester, MA
Messages
skip0110
I find it difficult to find third gear from second when accelerating out of a turn. I drive a 02 Impreza TS. I assume this is because during cornering, the transmission shifts in it's mounts a bit, making the gate move from where I expect it. Seems like a minor problem, but I have enough trouble finding it on a certain uphill S-turn near my house that sometimes I need to go back down into 2nd to maintain speed. Very annoying.

1) Is my reasoning for the cause of this right?
2) Anyone else experienced this? (I don't think you'd see it in a transverse drivetrain car.)
3) Would either the shifter bushings or the tranny mount improve this (source: http://cobbtuning.com/impreza/drivetrain1.html#bushing)? Which would improve it more? Is a tranny mount something I can really do in just a 1/2 hour with the car on jack stands? And are the sifter bushing accessible from the top of the car, under the console?
 
I think you could be right about the transmission moving, on my car the shifter will move around a bit sometimes under hard acceleration, im fairly sure this is due to the motor shifting and pulling on the cable, although I havent confirmed it.

If that's the case, I would expect the transmission mount would help you, since the transmission moving is the problem. The shifter bushings probably wouldn't help, at least not with the problem you are talking about.

A transmission mount in a half hour sounds possible... I could change out two of my motor mounts in about that time. Depends on the car, but if they are claiming a half hour it's probably pretty easy to do. I'd plan on an hour at least though :)
 
My guess is exactly what you described, the engine and trans are probably shifting around a little due to acceleration and cornering which can make getting into a certain gear difficult.

Stiffer engine/transmisson mounts should help the problem if it is infact due to the transmisson moving (although, on an 02 the mounts should still be in good shape) but stiffer mounts cause more vibration, and slightly more stress on the chassis. The shifter bushings slide into the end of the shifter cables, and slide on to the shift forks on the trans which really doesn't have much do with the problem your having.

The first thing I would do is ask this question at a Subaru specific forum, because you'll get answers from people who know what their doing. You can also try draining/putting in good quality fresh gear oil to see if that helps the problem.
 
Thanks for the input everyone. I just put in brand new Red Line Synthetic tranny oil about 2,000 miles ago.
 

Latest Posts

Back