WRX Tranny Reliability

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02-01-2004, 11:04 AM

jun-STi

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WRX Tranny Reliability

i have heard there is a doubt about 04 wrx tranny.

and

i have seen few articles about this but couldn't find clear answer.

=> 04 WRX tranny is reliable?

=> i'm gonna use it for race, sometimes on the street
sometimes on the track
so i'm gonna abuse it that i should be tough.

any experience? or comment??

i've also heard about amazing perfoemance of wrx's tranny...

hmm...

02-01-2004, 09:42 PM

simpwrx02

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if you plan on making much more than stock and abusing your tranny be prepared for a new one. i heard that the 04 trannys are just as weak as the 02s.

02-08-2004, 11:13 PM

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Dahveed aka Robin Hood

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just get an STi or you'll be sorry

03-06-2004, 09:28 PM

knight1833

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If the '04 tranny is like the '02 tranny, just replace it now when you can choose when. Don't try to race it; I busted my '02 tranny with nothing more than a few high rev starts (though I think the prev owner raced it some) and about 36,500miles

03-07-2004, 09:06 AM

meilers

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Car Info: Subaru Impreza WRX 2002

Expecting race performance out of a stock transmission is pointless, regardless of who makes the car. There is a reason that all pro (and many amateur) racing teams strip down and rebuild the transmission(s) of their car(s) after every single race -- because racing is VERY VERY destructive to a transmission, and no amount of engineering can solve that problem.

Getting 36,000 miles out of a transmission that has been raced or dragged is a really impressive feat. The WRC Subaru has an STI tranny, and it gets rebuilt every 100 miles or less.

03-10-2004, 08:48 AM

punkrocksailor

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The WRC Subaru tranny is a prodrive electro-pnuematic tranny. FYI

03-10-2004, 01:44 PM

SuBaReLlA

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the clutch cant take the powers of turbos

03-10-2004, 05:09 PM

namakemono

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Car Info: gc w/ neons and a wrx that needs neons

go for the 6 speed, or buy lots of 5 speeds.
the standard tranny for the wrx is just fine for driving, but racing will take you out of the game pretty fast.

or so i've heard

03-10-2004, 10:25 PM

meilers

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Car Info: Subaru Impreza WRX 2002

Quote:

Originally posted by punkrocksailor
The WRC Subaru tranny is a prodrive electro-pnuematic tranny. FYI

The first year they ran them, it was a hydraulic bolt-on to the existing transmission; halfway through a race it failed, and the driver finished the race shifting manually. I'm not certain which transmission they are running this year, but WRC rules state that it can't be dramatically different than stock (like a CVT, for instance).

03-11-2004, 03:22 AM

#10

v rod

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Car Info: Real Slow

i'm getting rid of my wrx because of the tranny nightmares.

03-19-2004, 09:46 AM

#11

amjf088

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I used to worry about the tranny, but as time goes on, I've come to regard it as not bad. My 02 is still great. But reading forums like this gave me the impression that every second tranny was blowing up, but in my local club (pretty huge) very few people have actually had serious woes, and those that have are mostly due to usage factors. It's not a perfect transmission though, and you have to be mindful of a few important facts:

1) The big criticism of the transmission is the looonnnggg second gear. You do have to "wait" a bit on the 1-2 upshift. Forcing a shift (this also includes the downshifts) is hard on the synchros no matter who made the tranny. The US box has these strange ratios apparently as a result of trying to keep corporate average fuel economy at a certain level?

2) ANY all wheel drive car can put a LOT more stress on the whole drive train during an agressive launch. You will see that said here a lot. Watch a WRX drag...hardly any tire smoke (which means no wheel slip, which would ease the strain on the drive train). If you hunt around, you'll find that A4 and Evo owners run into this too. 5-6K clutch drops are pretty dumb with these cars.

There are many people that have put the WRX 5 speed through lots of hard use (hundreds of Auto-Xs etc.) and it has been fine. Don't launch like a maniac and try to speed shift all the time and you will likely be just fine (also replace the gearbox oil with factory approved stuff at regular intervals). Having said that, I am sure there are a small handful of individuals who are true victims of bad luck and have had their tranny break through no fault of their own. But that happens in all cars though.

One last thought, if you've seen the last issue of SCC, the rear drive WRX on the cover broke the output shaft (NOT tranny) on a hard launch with almost double stock power!