How much time is left on my Transmission?
 

Hello, I have a 1998 Subaru Legacy GT with a 5sp.
I recently took the car in for a few repairs and the shop is telling me that they think I only have about a year left on the transmission. They say this because they can hear a noise. Now I am not entirely sure what the noise is as I have owned it for 2 years and it hasnt made any new noises since I have been driving it.

Now I trust this shop quite a bit, they were able to diagnose a bad steering knuckle that 2 other shops were not able to. They said they could hear and feel slight issues the bearing and narrowed it down to a knuckle issue.

But, from what I can tell, the noise they are hearing reminds me of an old army jeep transmission or something really mechanical. I guess almost a whining noise. I only hear it in first mainly at higher RPMs but the shop told me that they hear it in 1st and 3rd but it goes away in 2nd and 4th. I have heard other older legacies making this noise too so I never really thought anything of it.

So, I want to see if this is something anybody else has experienced or if there is anything I can do to help it from failing down the road (ie tranny flush or any addititves) I have never really heard of the 5mt failing so I am not sure if they are looking to get some more money out of me or what? The shop also said it would cost around $2000 to rebuild or I could get a used tranny installed for a bit cheaper.

Any thoughts?

I wouldn't listen to the shop. change your gear oil with "uncle Scotty's cocktail" and call it a day. if it ever does fail, pick up a used trans off nasioc, rs25, here, legacy central, etc.

I would question their "knuckle" replacement. The only time a knuckle would be bad is if it was bent. I've never had to replace one because it wore out, it just don't happen. Most repair shops when they can't figure out the correct problem they just make you replace everything thats in relation.
The trans issue, if the fluids are clean and it shifts good then let it go untill you actually have a problem. Not knowing your miles I would say it could be a bearing but don't worry about it yet. Again a shop trying to upsell some work.

Cocktail crap this cocktail crap that.

Use Subaru Extra-S.

extra s is generic OEM fluid. doesn't work nearly as well as the cocktail.

This!

WTF is the cocktail?

Uncle Scotty's cocktail:
1qt Redline lightweight shockproof
1qt Pennzoil Synchromesh
2qt Castrol Hypoy C 80w-90

Mixing a bunch of different companies fluids could do more harm then good. You could have two or more chemicals that might counter react with eachother and cause them to be less effective. If someone needs such a concoction they have transmission issues that needs to be fixed not just bandied. I can't say this enough miracle in a bottle crap don't work.

Compare Extra S to a standard Gear oil. Not even the same thickness. Extra s Is almost like water. Cleared up sycro grind in gear 2 on the girls 90 legacy and cleaned up the syncro grind in gear 2 on the 93 SS.

Extra S is the tits. My father and I changed out the rear diff fluid on his 86 Conquest TSi with this, and it made the lsd wake up again.

And its gear oil, minus how shitty gear oil is to clean up

MMO is great stuff. for all kinds of different applications. id say it was the closest to miracle in a bottle that actually works. that and hair in a can. i havent used any concoctions for transmission rejuvenation, but im not going tosay they dont work, since a few flush and fills alone can make a trans start working better. why wouldnt filling it with chems made specifically for enhancing and soothing age knocks and stiffness help it overall?

and to the post below saying "mixing a bunch of brands", they're also all different weights. I'm running my own version of a cocktail since I couldn't find all of the proper ones in stores and it made my trans 10000000 times smoother and quieter.

I'm sure just using one brand of fluid would give the same results.

using one brand of fluid didn't.