Hey gues, I'm thinking about buying a 2002 subaru wrx and modifying it quite heavily. Should I be concerned about the transmissoins, and if I drop the clutch, am I screwed?? Any help would be greatly appreciated. A lot of people have told me not to buy a suby, just because of this one issue.
Thanks

 

just invest in some RA gears. I believe the 02/03 trannies have thinner gears than the 04+ trannies which leads to weaker teeth and yada yada yada you get the point. I'd spring for some RA gears or full STi swap and sell me your tranny for dirt cheap

 

nice one!!

how heavliy do you plan on modding your suby? If it is anywhere passed 375whp, then a STi swap would be in order. i remember reading somewhere that the RA gears start to fail around there.

 

Dropping the clutch is bad for any car. Especially AWD cars that have 'too much' traction.

 

STi trannies are used in the Subaru US Rally Team. So it's been proven by them that they can take heavy abuse, also saves them thousands of dollars not having to use the ones the SWRT uses. There was a video posted on NASIOC of a guy lauching on his STi and broke an axle before he did anything bad to the tranny.

If you really want a reliable tranny, the STi swap is the only way to go. I've had my '02 tranny in pushing 250 awhp for almost 50k miles, however, with that much power, the stock clutch burns before I can really do any damage to my tranny so it's kinda like a safety feature .

 

Alright. And the best place to find an STI tranny would be for sale on this forum, or junkyard (lol) ??

 

If you have the $ for a 6MT swap go for it.

Read this https://www.i-club.com/forums/showth...?threadid=3540

 

I bought a used '02 WRX in '03, it had about 18k on it. I drove it like I wanted the warranty and ended up ripping 5 or 6 teeth off of 2nd gear when I shifted into 2nd at about 15mph. It was completely stock when that happened.
I swapped in a JDM STi 6-MT; that tranny matches the 2.0 much better than the 5-MT does, you can keep the engine in the power band at about any speed.
But you'll have to accept about 1000rpm higher at highway speeds, and more shifting intown.

It is expensive though. I paid about 5K for the package I got from Gruppe-S; I also got a light flywheel (VERY good thing), clutch, up-pipe, Samco IC hoses, and something else I think.
Make sure you get a tranny with a viscous LSD center diff, or you can get a DCCD center diff with the controller and basically have a RWD car until you want AWD. If you get a DCCD tranny without the controller you will basically have a RWD car if the rears start to slip.

 

Alrighty.... heres another question. Are the cluthes fairly easy to get accustomed to? I drove a g35 the other night..... that was a nightmare, but then I drove an M3, and it was no problem at all.... wheres the subaru lie at ?

 

They're easy. Really short clutch.

 

If you swap out to a STI 6-MT you can use a regular WRX's clutch .... if you have the money definately go for the 6 speed clutch .. but you can use an upgraded clutch for a WRX.
I would suggest that you use a light flywheel and an upgraded clutch; I'm using a 14lb flywheel and clutch from ACT.