5EAT Ask your Questions!?!

the intermediate shaft is 700$ at the dealer , the planets are 80$ each and bearings and pins. so about 1100$ from the dealer.

you can get a used trans from car-part.com or a similar place. for 300-1000$

So the center diff in my 5EAT took a dump, and one have suggestion on the most economic way to replace this?

I feel for you, having spent 10K on 2 x built 5eats I just think they can not handle my power level.....but stuff it, 24 psi tomorrow :-)

My 5EAT shifts mostly fine... better when cold, onset of delayed 2-3 and 3-4 when up to operating temperature. Fluid's been 3x flushed/changed with Amsoil. I believe having the valve body (VB) solenoid/spools clean + quicker hydraulic circuit activation will prolong my clutch paks. I don't 'race' or hold shot launch the car, just spirited driving and I know the period between shifts under power is chewing up my clutches.

Does Climber-D or someone else still offer the VB upgrade? I don't really have the time necessary to rebuild it myself, and haven't had a response in the original VB thread.

So, next question on a center diff failure: How does one clean shredded diff bits out the valve body?

Dealership found a fairly cheap used transmission, but refused to swap the valve body due to the amount of metal shavings in the pan. I foolishly though it was a CV joint (just had the boots replaced a few weeks before) and drove the thing over there. Planning on having the VB swapped while the bushings are put in next month, so need to prep the thing.

Well there is a screen before the valve body. So there would be very few particals

And i have blown up 3 center diffs and still on the original valvebody i just pulled the metal bits out of the oil pan and put it back together .

The only dammage i had to debris related was the front speed sensor that got a tooth stuck to it because its magnetic and it got broken off when the reluctor wheel past by it.

franks_ster, that's good to hear! I haven't taken the valve body out of the bag to see what shape it's in, but it sounds like they just didn't want to mess with it.

Did you replace the tranny filter? They didn't charge me for one, so I presume they didn't.

Apparently one of the speed sensors got destroyed in mine as well, they had to replace one of them when they put the new tranny in.

I received this question in PM, so thought I would post the long answer to it here as well for now.

...found a comment that seems to say the 05 and 06 transmission are not the same.

 

Turns out the transmission I got for my 05 Outback is actually from a 06 and I am getting codes P0735 for incorrect 5th ratio.

 

At this stage, I don't know if I got a bad transmission or have other issues. Your comments about the 05 06 'barrier' was intriguing.

 

Can you share more of what you know. Thanks

Happy to try to help out where I can with this:

So you put a 2006 OBXT 5EAT into a 2005 OBXT 5EAT?

And the only CEL P0700 code you have is P0735?

P0735 directs to P0736 troubleshooting, DTC P0736 REVERSE INCORRECT RATIO

DTC DETECTING CONDITION:

Vehicle speed sensor, turbine speed sensor or control valve malfunction.

-Control valve = the valve body (probably not your problem).

-Turbine speed sensor = black plastic sensor behind the ATF dipstick tube, driver side, EASILY crushed or damaged during 5EAT removal or install, so you may want to visually confirm that is in proper condition.

-Vehicle Speed Sensor:

This is a bit of a complicated one, but this is likely your problem.

ECU VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor) data actually comes from the 4 ABS wheel sensors, processed in the ABS computer. So if you accidentally damage one of those sensors, you could get P07XX codes.

However, there is a sensor (actually two but disregard the 2nd one since it's internal and the same from 2005-2007) on the outside of the tail housing that is referred to as a VSS sensor (actually picks up rear drive shaft speed, almost the same thing).

2005 5EATs have two-piece tail housings. 2006-2007 have one-piece tail housings. During this tail housing switch, the external VSS sensor moved. To make it worse, I suspect the rear VSS sensor's trigger wheel is also different from 2005-2006, either in location on the output shaft or/and in teeth or geometry. I have not actually confirmed this, despite having a pretty decent collection of these tail housings (the center diffs like to blow up when used in specific ways).

Now this is where it gets interesting. IF you know what you're doing and have the means, you could hypothetically swap over your 2005 tail housing and center diff internals (specifically the part(s) by the pickups) and harness, and run the 2006 5EAT that way. However, I know of one person who tried this and eventually gave up after failing to get it to work. Being that he had a mechanic do the work, I never received great accountable feedback on the exact details of that experiment, just high level summary.

I suspect that if you had a worn out clutch pack or a blockage or blown seal of some sort, you would have a different CEL code (or more likely several codes). It's possible that could be it, but on this tiny bit of information I just don't get that feeling. I feel like you would have said something about it if it felt like more than just an unhappy TCU missing a single input.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you,

David

Ok, I have a new-to-me 05 OBXT with the 5EAT. I have a silly question.... is there a how to guide or best practices guide for how to use it? The manual is pretty scant with advice. I've googled around and searched the forums, there are some posts, but nothing is the definite guide to "how to drive the 5EAT". Questions I have are:

* what RPM range to upshift?

* what RPM range to downshift?

* do you let off the throttle when shifting? sometimes? never? always? What about in sport-mode?

* if yes to above, is there any need to even remotely try to rev-match?

* is engine breaking ok?

* best to go into neutral when at a light?

* is starting on a still start in second ok?

* how to best downshift to quickly accelerate when already travelling at speed?

* any other random tips or tidbits of advice such as how not to **** up a transmission worth more than the resale value of your 10 year old car?

I hate to say it, but I'm a little bit scared to use manual mode because the manual basically says "hit the up button to upshift, down button to down shift! kthxbye lol!!1!".

in a stock car its very idoit proof.

you can do pretty much anything and wont cause issues.

up shift at rpm you feel like accommodates the acceleration you want.

down shift at rpm that best accommodates the enginbreaking you want.

letting off throttle when shifting seems to confuse it , so try not to do that. just accelerate the rate you want and when the rpms reach whatever shift up with out changing throttle position.

it has all kinds of safety that prevent you from shifting in a gear that would over rev the engine. if what your doing is heating up the trans to much it will disable manual mode.

i doubt you could make that happen even if you wanted to on a stock car.

Ok, I have a new-to-me 05 OBXT with the 5EAT. I have a silly question.... is there a how to guide or best practices guide for how to use it? The manual is pretty scant with advice. I've googled around and searched the forums, there are some posts, but nothing is the definite guide to "how to drive the 5EAT". Questions I have are:

 

* what RPM range to upshift?

* what RPM range to downshift?

* do you let off the throttle when shifting? sometimes? never? always? What about in sport-mode?

* if yes to above, is there any need to even remotely try to rev-match?

* is engine breaking ok?

* best to go into neutral when at a light?

* is starting on a still start in second ok?

* how to best downshift to quickly accelerate when already travelling at speed?

* any other random tips or tidbits of advice such as how not to **** up a transmission worth more than the retail value of your 10 year old car?

 

I hate to say it, but I'm a little bit scared to use manual mode because the manual basically says "hit the up button to upshift, down button to down shift! kthxbye lol!!1!".

You're over-thinking it.

It helps to let off a bit when shifting, it shifts easier than just staying planted on the gas.

It's not nearly as "sporty" as you think it is -- it's not an SMG on an F1 car. However, the boost and acceleration are markedly different in manual vs sport mode.

05-06s will upshift for you at like, 6500-ish in Manual mode; 08-09s will actually let you wrap it out until you kill it/blows up.

Rev-matching?? It's a 5EAT, dude, what are you expecting, here? You can try to downshift whenever you want, but, if it's beyond the programmed limits of the trans, it'll just beep at you and not let you shift down until the revs have fallen far enough.

Engine "breaking" is never OK. You thought the trans was expensive? Ha! Try an engine rebuild! $5k is the foundation, right there. (More for you, Mr. Canada!) As for engine BRAKING, well, drive in Sport mode -- it does that when decelerating, automatically.

You really can't break the trans in these. There aren't a whole lot of threads or instances where someone's borked a perfectly good 5EAT without setting out to do so or doing something they should have known would result in catastrophe.

Based on your questions, I have a feeling you'll find out exactly where its limits lie.

You're over-thinking it.

 

It helps to let off a bit when shifting, it shifts easier than just staying planted on the gas.

 

It's not nearly as "sporty" as you think it is -- it's not an SMG on an F1 car. However, the boost and acceleration are markedly different in manual vs sport mode.

 

05-06s will upshift for you at like, 6500-ish in Manual mode; 08-09s will actually let you wrap it out until you kill it/blows up.

Generally agree with your comments, but at least for '05, this is wrong. My '05 will happily bounce off the rev limiter in any gear as long as I like in manual mode (well, I know for sure at least 1st/2nd/3rd - have never had it near redline in 4th/5th). I think you actually have it reversed - I seem to recall hearing that '07+ will upshift for you (and do rev matching on downshift?).

Generally agree with your comments, but at least for '05, this is wrong. My '05 will happily bounce off the rev limiter in any gear as long as I like in manual mode (well, I know for sure at least 1st/2nd/3rd - have never had it near redline in 4th/5th). I think you actually have it reversed - I seem to recall hearing that '07+ will upshift for you (and do rev matching on downshift?).

I may have that info backward. Thanks for the correction.

Yeah, expected something like that. I know from a additional TCU made for the old BMW 5 series e39 which solved the solution there, but nothing about Subarus

I assume there isn't something like this available? Sorry, dumb question. Never read much about the EATs...

I am working on it. I have all the parts and figured out how to do it but i am driven by nessisity and i havent needed to do it yet .

I have a thread called stand alone tcu that has the info that i have.