Good Time at Thunderhill (8/27) - Now where's that spare tranny?
08-27-2003 | 08:00 PM
#1
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Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 268
From: Cupertino, Duh?
Good Time at Thunderhill (8/27) - Now where's that spare tranny?
Hi Everyone,
It was good to see everyone out at the track at the same time. This is by far, the most Subies I’ve ever seen at any HPDE. Kudos to BAIC!
[Steve’s Eulogy]
Well the time finally came for my tranny to "retire". On 8/27 @ 11:50AM going into Turn 9 at Thunderhill, I tried to rev-match and downshift into 3rd gear but my transmission said "I've had enough". At that point it decided to spit all of its teeth from third gear throughout the transmission case. Luckily, I still had enough braking capacity left to safely exit the turn (guess how embarrassed I would be if I went off track with a passenger).
So I only got to run with the "Red" group for 2.5 out 5 sessions (not including the 50 minute enduro). Oh well, I could feel the tranny weakening dramatically over the past month (synchros were all crushed and it grinded getting into gear - even with a new clutch, fully depressed). I had lunch (since it was already paid for), watched one more session and headed home. It took a good 35 miles for the metal bits to settle at the bottom the case, but for the first 40 minutes of the drive home it sounded like I was in a tin can full of pebbles.
So before I conclude, I would like to highlight the accomplishments of my original 5MT:
- 40,068 total miles driven before breakdown, now its sits at home with 40,251 miles (the last 183 miles, it limped home at 80mph).
- Outlasted original stock clutch by 1 week
- 800+ dyno pulls in 3rd gear (Dyno Dynamics + Dynojets)
- Converted to 2 wheel drive FWD for 3 months and made over 250+ dyno pulls on Dynojet @ Mustang Ranch
- over 18 HPDEs in the past 18 months (moving from green group to yellow group and retiring in red group)
- survived 1 two day beating by the folks at Sport Compact Car
- survived countless "hot laps" throughout the southern Bay Area
First Owned - 7/18/01 @ 3:40PM
Retired - 8/27/03 @ 11:50AM
I'm working on converting the last lap of the tranny to .mpg ... I'll post the link to this thread. I just ordered my newly, used 5MT (500 miles or so on it). It should be here on Friday. I'll see if I can get it installed early next week. I'll open up the tranny and do a post-mortem on it (pictures will be included in this thread).
Safe Driving Everyone,
- Steve
It was good to see everyone out at the track at the same time. This is by far, the most Subies I’ve ever seen at any HPDE. Kudos to BAIC!
[Steve’s Eulogy]
Well the time finally came for my tranny to "retire". On 8/27 @ 11:50AM going into Turn 9 at Thunderhill, I tried to rev-match and downshift into 3rd gear but my transmission said "I've had enough". At that point it decided to spit all of its teeth from third gear throughout the transmission case. Luckily, I still had enough braking capacity left to safely exit the turn (guess how embarrassed I would be if I went off track with a passenger).
So I only got to run with the "Red" group for 2.5 out 5 sessions (not including the 50 minute enduro). Oh well, I could feel the tranny weakening dramatically over the past month (synchros were all crushed and it grinded getting into gear - even with a new clutch, fully depressed). I had lunch (since it was already paid for), watched one more session and headed home. It took a good 35 miles for the metal bits to settle at the bottom the case, but for the first 40 minutes of the drive home it sounded like I was in a tin can full of pebbles.
So before I conclude, I would like to highlight the accomplishments of my original 5MT:
- 40,068 total miles driven before breakdown, now its sits at home with 40,251 miles (the last 183 miles, it limped home at 80mph).
- Outlasted original stock clutch by 1 week
- 800+ dyno pulls in 3rd gear (Dyno Dynamics + Dynojets)
- Converted to 2 wheel drive FWD for 3 months and made over 250+ dyno pulls on Dynojet @ Mustang Ranch
- over 18 HPDEs in the past 18 months (moving from green group to yellow group and retiring in red group)
- survived 1 two day beating by the folks at Sport Compact Car
- survived countless "hot laps" throughout the southern Bay Area
First Owned - 7/18/01 @ 3:40PM
Retired - 8/27/03 @ 11:50AM
I'm working on converting the last lap of the tranny to .mpg ... I'll post the link to this thread. I just ordered my newly, used 5MT (500 miles or so on it). It should be here on Friday. I'll see if I can get it installed early next week. I'll open up the tranny and do a post-mortem on it (pictures will be included in this thread).
Safe Driving Everyone,
- Steve
08-27-2003 | 08:01 PM
#2
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 268
From: Cupertino, Duh?
I just converted the video to mpeg using the low quality mode, its frickin’ 14MB for the short video clip and 45MB for the clip that included the whole lap leading up to the trashed tranny. Can anyone help me convert this file to smaller mpeg format? Or host it?
08-27-2003 | 10:50 PM
#6
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Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 10,029
From: Sacramento CA
Car Info: 02 Impreza WRX sedan
Steve, just curious - were you using synthetic gear oil in the original 5MT? If so, which one?
You were fortunate to be able to drive your baby home. A flatbed from Thunderhill to Cupertino would be buck$.
--
0==Wingless One(der)==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush
You were fortunate to be able to drive your baby home. A flatbed from Thunderhill to Cupertino would be buck$.
--
0==Wingless One(der)==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush
08-27-2003 | 11:15 PM
#8
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Registered User
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 268
From: Cupertino, Duh?
Wingless - I'm pretty sure it was just the normal tranny fluid a Subaru dealership would put in.
ckevin - the 6spd is now in my race car ... just waiting for the turbo to get in and fabricate a few pipes for it.
ckevin - the 6spd is now in my race car ... just waiting for the turbo to get in and fabricate a few pipes for it.
08-28-2003 | 02:43 PM
#13
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Posts: 767
From: Petaluma, NORCAL
Car Info: 98 2.5RS WR Blue (breathin fire/not on fire)
It always sucks to see a fellow suby go down...but yesterday was awsome for those of our cars that made it through.....drivin home last night was crazy...six of us playin leap frog at ??MPH....
we drove to Vacaville for dinner and each of us had something wrong with their suby..
Bill = white smoke (turbo??) & fried brakes
Subydude = fried brakes & carpet pad scrathches
Justin = NO brakes & tweetie bird under the hood..HAHA
Andrew = the LOUDEST exhaust leak ever!!
Kevin = no tunes
adam = mystery car w/ no problems...mmm.....
Next event Sept 7 (NASA) Thunderhill!!!
see ya out there......
we drove to Vacaville for dinner and each of us had something wrong with their suby..
Bill = white smoke (turbo??) & fried brakes
Subydude = fried brakes & carpet pad scrathches
Justin = NO brakes & tweetie bird under the hood..HAHA
Andrew = the LOUDEST exhaust leak ever!!
Kevin = no tunes
adam = mystery car w/ no problems...mmm.....
Next event Sept 7 (NASA) Thunderhill!!!
see ya out there......
Last edited by RS TURBO; 08-28-2003 at 06:02 PM.
08-28-2003 | 04:27 PM
#14
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Posts: 4,074
From: BAIC Wagon Clique
Car Info: '02 WRB WRX Wagon
Andrew, did you find out what was causing that exhaust leak?
And yea I completely killed my front pads. Both sides. So I was doing a lot of downshifting to get home whenever traffic slowed up. Playing leap frog was fun though.
And yea I completely killed my front pads. Both sides. So I was doing a lot of downshifting to get home whenever traffic slowed up. Playing leap frog was fun though.
08-28-2003 | 06:01 PM
#15
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Posts: 767
From: Petaluma, NORCAL
Car Info: 98 2.5RS WR Blue (breathin fire/not on fire)
Andrew, did you find out what was causing that exhaust leak?
yeah..it's definitely the gasket between my headers and uppipe...no biggie..that damn HKS uppipe has been leakin for days....so it's a good time to fix two things at once...meetin subydude tonite to give him your pads and pick a couple of Helix (flex) uppipe's for kevin and I....late andrew
yeah..it's definitely the gasket between my headers and uppipe...no biggie..that damn HKS uppipe has been leakin for days....so it's a good time to fix two things at once...meetin subydude tonite to give him your pads and pick a couple of Helix (flex) uppipe's for kevin and I....late andrew