BigSteve

I keep reading on different places in this website that the subaru tranny is weak and won't handle much over 300 horses. Is this true? I thought mitsubishi was the only one with a crappy tranny. What would it take to make it handle more power and still be reliable? Is swapping a 6 speed in place the only way to truely make it handle higher horsepower and still be reliable?

ShotgunTC88

I stand accused.........

I think its in most cases driver ability and not pushing your tranny beyond its capabilities.

I would like to have seen it made a tad beefier, But hey, ya cant have it all, And this car is the closest for the money!

.02

Shotgun

IllNastyImpreza

eh....heres the story on the tranny. even though your WRX or 2.5rs are sapposedly "tuned" for racing.......they are no where NEAR the same cars that they race. your body is heavy.....your engine is stock.....and everything on it was built to "resemble" the rally car. In reallity.....it will stand up to ALOT of abuse put on it for a LONG time, reamainging STOCK that is......once you start to pull off the generic "factory" parts, and add your "race" parts, the other parts of the car that you DONT change SUFFER dramaticly. is the stock tranny weak? NO not at all.....but its not meant for 300+ horsepower....its meant for 227.
L
ets say you throw a bigger turbo and intercooler etc etc....and are running 350 horses. Your car(and performance) will suffer due to the fact that your gear ratio's are not set up for a car that powerfull.....you will redline 1st gear WAY to fast.....and "o ****" its time to switch to 2nd....so you SLAM it in 2nd. your sychros are NOT ment to be slammed like that. its a STOCK tranny.

I Blew the sychros on it (car was completly STOCK) because i shifted as fast as i could every time i drove....and now with 40k miles on it i finaly learned that it is not indeed a racing car. so .....shift slowly .....or revmatch PERFECTLY......(if your redlining, its VERRY hard to revmatch perfectly =))

just remember....a transmision can be shifted without a clutch and cause NO DAMAGE only when (and BECAUSE) the engine speed and drivetrain speed are exactly the same. that is what your sychros do(along with the clutch).....they speed up ....or slow down the other side of the drivetrain to match the other =)....and if you are shifting too fast when they are not at equal speeds your sychros will NOT be able to mesh fast enough. good luck and happy shifting =)

WRXSTIle

The 5speed isn't all that better but if you are looking to make it stronger you could send it to a place like Level10 to beef it up. I think COBB also offers tranny mods.

kenchan

its much harder to drive than other MT's ive driven in the past.
after driving my wrx, if i drove my mazda, i dont even think that
the mazda's a MT....is carefree, worry free shifting each time

where as the wrx will require at least some concentration
if you want to shift smoothly each time.