Planetary gears !$$#^!!
 

Sadly today I was advised by Subaru the planetary gear in my transmission is broken and the gears in there are missing teeth etc...his description of a possible cause.....it looks like someone has tried to tow whilst it was in Park!!...not to my knowledge !!!..and I don't drive the car hard not at all.....all I can think of is that it may have happened when the car was moved here by road transport...but he's amazed that it was driveable.. perhaps its only just now finally s--t itself...mind you just after a transmission flush....unfortunatelty thats all little comfort now..so now they are going to "price' it up, order the bits etc..tech is also worried about all the bits of teeth floating around in the transmission as well..

http://www.subaruparts.com/diag/?mod...category=162-1
I looked up the parts here are there any double ups on bits here, that I should know about ie you'll need 2 of those 3 of them etc...its not looking like a cheap fix here..they've done one rear wheel bearing which I haven't even paid for yet..where still going on from the same service visit for bindiing on tight turns !! we've found what's causing the binding..!!!

Dave Down Under:(

If you tried to tow it in park, you'd know it right quick. Also, I'm pretty certain that the parking pawl (which locks things up in park) would not screw up any planetary gear set.

A transmission fluid swap is a low risk affair. An actual flush on the other hand, is a somewhat risky venture. If they flush things with any pressure, or worse, if they back-flush things, any debris that may have been harmlessly lying in some safe little nook or cranny suddenly gets swooshed away by the fluid. Where it gets swooshed to isn't always known, but it's far from unheard of for those little nasties to get stuck somewhere bad instead of making their way out the drain hole. Usually nothing happens, but I found a few transmission shops that wouldn't do any flush for this very reason. They said it's usually harmless, but every so often...

The "towed in park" story makes me suspicious. Who's that stupid? (Nevermind, I'm sure someone is.) My point is that it's a pretty unlikely explanation that doesn't make sense anyway. I wonder, are the people who came up with that idea the same people who did the flush?...

It may not be related, but there's a strong case based on the circumstantial evidence.

Hhmmm, planetary gear broken. That sounds interesting.

Broken planetary gear causing binding in tight turns. Even more interesting.

Towing to another shop might be a good option at this stage...
Just get a fladbed truck for it. What subaru dealer did you go to?

How does the broken planetary gear exhibits itself - what gears do you still have? It should have at least 3rd going forward - in 3rd gear whole planetary assembly rotates as a whole.
Does it go in other gears? Which ones? Any abnormal noises and in which gears?

Yes, transmission flush is risky if transmission has not be serviced regularly. Removing transmission pan and looking for debris is not an unreasoable next step in this case. Removing valve body and cleaning it (can be done with the tranny in the car) is relatively low cost effort and it might help.

Towing in park might break the parking claw, but unlikely to damage the planetary gear. High speed towing with all wheels on the ground may damage the transmission though - not enough lubrication to rotating parts without oil pump running.

planetary gear
 

thanks for your input...to answer some questions..we'll never know what caused it to go..he said it was broken in half..i'll certainly get pics of it if I can..but this breaking has caused gears to loose teeth..I'm not sure which would have been first to go though..and yes believe it or not the car was driveable..going from Reverse to D there was major thump/lerch ..in reverse on a turn eg in and out of the driveway the car would brake by itself, all forward gears worked fine..but there was a werring sound when you backed off which seemed less when the brakes were applied just lightly brakes off werring again..anyway noises and driving issues are now identified, the cars is in bits in the local Subaru workshop, the guy is a master tech and only one of 2 in our State, and the owner of the dealership still has his own tritone silver 93 model SVX..SVX 01 plates that the dealer still drives from time to time, his std rims he had chromed himself and he replaced the interior wood trim because it didn't look high quality enough..the master tech services his car as well so hopefully I'll be in reasonably good hands..we'll see I'll keep thread updated ..as from what I can understad the Oz SVX has the VTD transmission for AWD which is different to the US unit..

David :confused: