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.
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.