hey, i'm new to subaru, and in the market for a 2002 wrx....i was wondering if there are any kind of tranny issues/problems i should be aware of...do they have any weak gears or any problems with the trannies breaking or anything like that?? i've been looking around online, but can't really find anything about any tranny problems, so i'm assuming that means there aren't any, but if anyone on here knows and could enlighten me, it would be greatly appreciated. thanks guys....


subie newbie

 

my friend is a service mgr for subaru and basically he said that subaru requires him to take pics of the tranny before any warranty reimbursement takes place. they will not award warranty work to trannys with 1st and 2nd gear damage(most cases) because thats what they use to determine that the car has been abused or launched hard. . . plus they know that the 1/2 gears are not all that great... but even with that they will not cover that kind of damage.

 

so it has weak 1/2 gears?? are they ok for the daily driven wrx, or are they something that i should consider when purchasing the car?? i'm not gonna be doing any racing or rallying or anything like that, just the occassional trip up the mountain to go snowboarding and probably the once in a blue moon stoplight race, but nothing to serious really, i have no plans to take it to the track or anything at this time.....so should the tranny be ok for what i plan on using it for??.....basically just a daily driver.

 

yeah dude, as far as a daily driver its awesome! i have 30,000 miles on my car and i drive hard often...very often... more than i should,.... but the tranny is tough...just not made for drag strip. i have a buddy pushing 300 h.p. @ da wheels with a stock tranny.

 

sweet!!! that's just what i wanted to hear. so your friend with 300whp hasn't had any problems with gears breaking or anything? and does he race it/drive it hard very much?? not that i plan on having that kinda power on tap, but i'd just like to be reassured before i make a $15k decision :banana: ....thanks for your replies btw

 

I have a 2002 WRX sedan, I drive it about 1,000 miles a month and I get involved with some stoplight races, take it down some back country roads really fast, drive 100 m.p.h. sometimes and play in the snow with it. The only things I'm going to change is the suspension and my brake rotors. I dont have any problems with the drivetrain. The stock suspension just doesn't meet my wants and needs on the backroads. I'm just going to tighten it up a bit. The stock brake rotors on my sedan are just not enough to handle the brake load from driving really fast.