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Differences / Interchangeability of TR580 CVT "Lineartronic" Especially TR580KHEAA vs. TR580KHEBA

Gen 4 
43K views 60 replies 24 participants last post by  Jaroob 
My man!

I'm in the same boat as you. The CVT on my 2013 OB has been howling for about 2k miles now.

So here's what I've learned in my own research: i have been told that Outback, Legacy, forester all have different drive ratios. So if you even want a chance at using the CVT out of a Legacy of the same year, then you probably have to swap the rear diff as well, because the front diff is built into the transmission.

From what i can tell, the different generations of this transmission are 2013, 2014, and 2015-2017. If you had bought your car one year later, you would have a much wider selection.

One of the big differences between 2013 and 2014 is that after Jan 1, 2014 they started putting the improved torque converter into the transmissions.

If you really want to go deep, then you can go here and find compare the parts within the transmission that are same/different across years and models. https://parts.subaru.com I started comparing my 2013 to a 2015, and they looked really simialr until I hit the page that lists planetary gears.

I talked to at least 6 different local places that deal with subarus (2 dealers, 3 indy shops, and 1 transmission shop). One of the indy guys said he could make a 2015 OB trans work in my 2013. Everyone else says they've tried to use something other than an original replica, and it bit them in the ass. They all say that the computer rejects it like a bad kidney transplant.

As one mechanic said: "There's probably a way to make it work, but someone has to put in the time to figure it out."

The shitty part is that no one rebuilds these transmissions, and no one is willing to crack one open to find the problem. they all think ghosts whill fly out if you open a dying transmission. Whatever. The day this one comes out, I'm tearing it down.

Tonight, I just drained/refilled my trans just to see what's inside the fluid. I caught the fluid in an clean pan and dragged a magnet through all the fluid and only found a single metal speck. The fluid old had about 8k miles on it and it was kinda dirty.
 
Right now, my temporary fix for this problem is: I bought a used VW. I can't find any decent used transmissions, the old one is grinding, and the dealer wants almost $8k for a new one. So I'm putting my outback in the garage until I can find a cheap used CVT locally.
 
Hey man, where have you gotten with this? Honestly, I've found some decently priced 2014 OB CVTs. Cheaper than the version in my 2013. For some reason, everyone thinks they were made of gold in 2013.

Tonight, I went to the parts.subaru.com site and printed off every parts sheet for both the 2013 and 2014 CVTs, and I went line-by line through each one to find the differences. Looks like there are about 10 different parts between the two years.

If you are really looking to do a 2014 > 2015 swap, I would sugest you do the same thing. Took me about 40 - 60 minutes, but now I am going to have an idea of what's actually different. I know it sounds like a boring hassle, but it's good to know if any of the internals are different. You can always swap the external sensors or a front or rear diff, but if some of the gears inside are different, you could have major problems.
 
I did a little bit of looking around at the subaru parts site. I'm trying to see if a local 2016 Outback CVT will fit my 2013. The big differences I've see so far:

  • The relay box under the dash in a 2013-14 vs a 2015+ is completely different.
  • The computers mount in completely different places. So presumably there are big differences in the wiring harnesses. But from what I've heard, getting a computer from a different model year will not work with your ECU. So this is more of a question of "How can I make this transmission work with my existing computer?"
  • Like previously mentioned, there are different final driveline ratios. That might be solved with swapping the rear diff with the transmission. Yeah, your speedo might not be 100% accurate after this, but who cares?
  • The parts site lists an entire oil cooler assembly for the 2015+ transmissions that are not shown in the 2013-2014 ones.
I'm going to do a line-by-line look comparison of the two transmissions today. Will post my findings in another thread when I'm done.
 
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