Hello people.
I bought a 2005 Outback wagon (2.5L, 4 speed auto) a few weeks ago, for a good price and knowing it was weeping some oil from the head gaskets and that the transmission was "slipping slightly when cold" (but hey, the body is in excellent condition, and the price was good ). I had another my '01 to use while I fixed the '05, so no problem.
Alas... a dumb, distracted driver totaled my '01 while parked in front of my house, so fixing the '05 now became a priority.
I have done head gaskets before, so I'm not particularly worried about it. But the transmission is another story :/ It was indeed slipping slightly when cold (seems to be a common problem), but after parking it for two weeks while on vacation -and a serious drop in temperatures- it refused to run at all for more than 5 minutes. The engine would run without problems, but the transmission would not engage when put in Drive.
After several minutes the car started moving, and now is *almost* back to it's lazy self, but I'd like to know if there's any trick to try on these transmissions before replacing them. On the '99 I had before I used the Trans-X recommended on another website and it seemed to work, but the poster on the main thread mentions specifically the 4EATs from '99 to '01 so I don't know if it will work (and the fluid used in the '05 is the expensive Subaru one, right?).
If/when everything else fails, how difficult is it to replace the transmission? Is there any thread someone would recommend to follow?
Thanks!
J
I bought a 2005 Outback wagon (2.5L, 4 speed auto) a few weeks ago, for a good price and knowing it was weeping some oil from the head gaskets and that the transmission was "slipping slightly when cold" (but hey, the body is in excellent condition, and the price was good ). I had another my '01 to use while I fixed the '05, so no problem.
Alas... a dumb, distracted driver totaled my '01 while parked in front of my house, so fixing the '05 now became a priority.
I have done head gaskets before, so I'm not particularly worried about it. But the transmission is another story :/ It was indeed slipping slightly when cold (seems to be a common problem), but after parking it for two weeks while on vacation -and a serious drop in temperatures- it refused to run at all for more than 5 minutes. The engine would run without problems, but the transmission would not engage when put in Drive.
After several minutes the car started moving, and now is *almost* back to it's lazy self, but I'd like to know if there's any trick to try on these transmissions before replacing them. On the '99 I had before I used the Trans-X recommended on another website and it seemed to work, but the poster on the main thread mentions specifically the 4EATs from '99 to '01 so I don't know if it will work (and the fluid used in the '05 is the expensive Subaru one, right?).
If/when everything else fails, how difficult is it to replace the transmission? Is there any thread someone would recommend to follow?
Thanks!
J