Is it the end of my AT?
 

Good Afternoon Fellow SVXers,
I have a simple question for you. This past week the AT on my SVX has started doing something very weird, and since I never understood how AT trannies work I have no clue on the extent of the damage:

The car starts fine and I can shift into Drive/Reverse no problem.
I can drive the car at low speed no problem, it appears that the car switches to 2nd gear as well, it's hard to understand but it seems like the problem is in 3rd gear. Basically anytime I find myself driving over 30/40mph, the rpm needle just revs from about 2500rpm all the way to about 4k (without pulling) and starts pulling again only past 4k. In other words I find myself cruising at 40-50mph at a high rpm, it's like if it doesn't want to switch to 3rd (or 4th?) gear. I wouldn't say that she's slipping because past 4k rpm she pulls hard all the way to redline, seems like I am in PowerMode although the green LED doesn't light up.

What do you think this could be? If it's a simple fix I would love to fix it so that I may drive it a little longer before my 5mt swap, however if it's more complex I guess I'll either have to do the swap now or sell the car because I don't feel like wasting any amount of money on an AT which I hate to begin with.

I've been carefully driving her around trying to keep the rpms under control, but now of course she's doing something like 5mpg due to the high rpm issue. The tranny fluid is fairly new.

Any advice?

Thank you in advance!

-Walter

You will want to check the adjustment of the band brake.

David, you're right, I am finding dozens of threads with similar descriptions, but I am having a hard time finding an actual description on where this band brake is nor how to adjust it... I'll keep on searching, if you know of a particular thread that has this description please let me know.

Thanks!

-Walter

AT fluid level ok
 

Hi,

as the fluid is described as "fairly new" you might want to check the fluid level
first thing (while the engine is running).

good luck

Marcus

David is right. I didn't even think of that. The brake band is located at the top of the transmission on the driver's side. I will try to dig up pictures but in the meantime try pming svxfiles for a writeup on how to adjust it. It is a fairly simple job but it take patience and long arms with skinny fingers. I will try to pull up photos now

Tom

straight from svxfiles' locker

Pictures and rough instructions

http://www.subaru-svx.net/photos/fil...iles/24959.jpg

Hope this helps

Tom

Looks like you will be riding the Ducati.
 

It would appear that the high clutch is slipping. It starts in 1st, changes into 2nd, slips in 3rd to high rpms, goes back to 2nd.

I would say the high clutch has gone. I can't see it being anything else.

Harvey.;)

Correct me if I am wrong but I have had an auto take a dump on me more than once... 3-4 means your high clutch is going. 2-3 means your brake band is slipping and could be as simple as an adjustment. Thats jsut what I know

Tom

If the brake band slips Tom there won't be 2nd or 4th gear. 3rd gear would be there. What is happening is, when the high clutch comes on for 3rd, it just slips, so you lift the foot, and the box goes for 4th. Which is the band on, plus the high clutch. The high clutch slips, that just leaves the forward clutch and the band, no high clutch. This puts it in 2nd gear.

Harvey.;)

Tom and Harvey, your exchange of posts is quite interesting.
I unfortunately have to admit to something that might support Harvey's theory (you guys are gonna scold me for this)... :(

As some of you might have noticed from a recent thread I started in the Classifields, my AC Compressor clutch gets stuck. Basically I would be cruising with nice AC blowing on my face until all of a sudden the air is no longer cold, and in Miami that means that in about 30 seconds you are drenched in sweat. So I taught myself a little trick that would fix my AC problem while cruising:

- Turn Off AC
- Put transmission in Neutral
- Turn off Engine
- Turn Engine back On
- Put in Drive
- Turn AC back on and... voila'!
Cold air would start blowing again. I attributed it to the fact that this little trick would cause the AC Compressor clutch to start again.

...and YES, this revving problem first showed up right after I had just fixed my AC issue on the highway... :(

I now assume that this must have been the cause of the failure, what do you guys think? If that is the case, was it worth it to damage a clutch to get AC back? NO. Would I have done it if I knew how ATs work better and suspected that something could have happened? NO.

Oh well, drive and learn.

-Walter

Turning off the engine while moving is the same as towing the SVX with all wheels on the ground. Not recommended for long distances but fine for short distances at slow speeds according to the manual.

Oh crap... I did it for short distances, but I can assure you it wasn't low speed, it was highway speed, about 50-60mph... so besides the tranny, what else could I have damaged? The Diffs?

:(

-Walter

Diffs would be safe. The problem is that when the engine is not running the ATF does not circulate keeping the tranny cool. Heat + Tranny = bad.

Yeah what David said....the heat is probably what did your transmission in. How long have you been doing this little a/c trick? Sometimes once is enough depending on how hot the transmission gets.

I do that religiously due to an intermittent binding issue I still have. My car still runs 100% shutting it off will not roast your tranny if it is only off for a second or two

Tom