SVX Tranny Weirdness & Other Woes

LarryIII · #1 11-17-2004, 05:46 AM

First, let me start about what went on with the tranny in my '92 SVX (SVXY) last night coming home from work. The trip to/from work is 33 miles, one way, mostly expressway. I left work at 5:00 pm (rush hour) last night and as usual the 'Blue Route', I-476S was stop and go traffic. It is my usual practrice to keep the tranny selector in 3 below 60 mph. I did that again last night.
After about 30-40 minutes of stop & go traffic, the roads opened up and I accelerated up to 70-75 mph. I selected 'D' but the tranny stayed in 3rd gear and would not go into 4th gear. I kept playing with the selector all the way home but the tranny stayed in third gear. This morning when I used the car to go to work the tranny was fine. It went into 4ht gear . The car has the ATF filter kit with synthetic ATF & conditioner in the tranny. the ATF is also run only thru an ATF auxillary cooler only. I checked the ATF this past Sat, and it was fine (color was mauve-purply pink)There was no 'dreaded' tranny flare or anything else. In all my years on SVX boards I never heard of such a thing.

If anyone has experienced this please post about it. Thanks.

Second, after supper Monday night, Rosie said that her car wouldn't start. He car is a '94 SVX (PEARLY). This car is a 'garage queen' and hardly ever goes out (I need to run it more). Anyway I went into the garage to put the charge r on it and discovered that the positive post on the battery was thoroughly coved in corrosion. I started cleaning it with a wire brush an vacuum and the clamp around the post came apart. I now have a 2-piece or segmented clamp (heh heh). I will try to buy a new clamp this weekend at PEP boys and adapt it ti the cable. Right now the battery is totally disconnected and the car is in the garage.

Earthworm · #2 11-17-2004, 09:56 PM

Good luck with your 92. Is it still the original tranny?

As for the 94, have the battery tested. It might be time for a replacement...either that or it should have been disconnected if it wasn't going to be used for some time.

TomsSVX · #3 11-17-2004, 10:34 PM

is that a good idea to run it strictly on an external cooler? I bought a 5 pass aftermarket cooler think it was enough, i nixed the stock cooler. A few months later my trans burned up. I am currently running them in series w/ no problems....yet

LarryIII · #4 11-18-2004, 04:57 AM

Last night The SVX did the same on the drive home. It would not go into 4th gear. When I got home I checked the the ATF. It is definitely darker than when I checked it last Saturday. It is still pinkish-purply but now has a medium brown tinge.
I'm lucky. I will drive "SUBYDOO" ('97 SVX) for a while until the ATF is changed out in "SVXY". I will also change out the ATF filter cartridge. I have a couple of "just-in-case" spares. This will probably be done Thanksgiving weekend. I hope it forestalls a complete tranny collapse.
Maybe I should fill the tranny case with leftover cranberry sauce.

Rotorflyr · #5 11-18-2004, 06:08 AM

Larry,
If your going to use the cranberry sauce, make sure it is mashed up really good, if the chunks of cranberry are to large, it will cause the tranny to over heat almost instantly.......

Seriously though, I hope the fluid change does the trick and that there isn't any real damage to the tranny.

TomsSVX · #6 11-18-2004, 03:38 PM

you also might want to clean out the origonal trans cooler and run the two coolers in series. the colder the better i say when it comes to atf. if it takes a while for the fluid to get to running temp oh well, its better than burning up your transmission.

SSSVX · #7 11-18-2004, 10:57 PM

Larry, knew you have been taking care pretty well of your trannies such as changing ATF every 5000miles?

Keep us updated and good luck to your SVXY.

LarryIII · #8 11-19-2004, 05:42 AM

I just posted the following to John Shotsky (moderator of the Yahoo SVX Club/ Group)......
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
John,

The ATF was last changed in Oct. '02 at 107,800+ miles. So it's 2
years and ~31,000 miles. The 2 years is way too long so it's my fault. I thought that it was only 1 year.
Last night I drove "SVXY" to a local Shell station to gas him up.
Shell sells premium gas at 7 cents off on Thursdays. The price was
$2.099/gal. Anyway the tranny worked fine last night. Like I said
in a previous post. I'm lucky. I will drive the '97 SVX on a daily
basis and limit the use of the '92 SVX until I can get the problem
resolved. If the tranny is going bad, I see three options: (1) A
Subaru rebuilt replacement tranny, (2) a Level 10 super duper
replacement auto tranny, or (3) a manual (5 or 6 speed) tranny replacement.
Each course of action increases the price and 'downtime ' from 1 to 3.
I'll keep everyone on both sites posted about this.

Larry III
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Earthworm · #9 11-19-2004, 11:28 AM

I vote for turning it into a 5spd. It's not as though you'll be unable to drive an SVX during the conversion.

n00b on demand · #10 11-19-2004, 12:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Earthworm
I vote for turning it into a 5spd. It's not as though you'll be unable to drive an SVX during the conversion.

Hey Larry, I vote for 5 spd too.

Uncamitzi · #11 11-19-2004, 12:39 PM

If I remember right (

) 4th gear is more of an "overdrive" and the tranny temp has to be up over 130 f before it will shift. it could be that your two coolers are keeping the temp below the need temp to shift.

Just my .02 cents

n00b on demand · #12 11-19-2004, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Uncamitzi
If I remember right ( ) 4th gear is more of an "overdrive" and the tranny temp has to be up over 130 f before it will shift. it could be that your two coolers are keeping the temp below the need temp to shift.

Just my .02 cents

Yeah i also thought the same thing when i saw the post originally. Might be something to look into. Do you have a tranny temp gauge?

Earthworm · #13 11-19-2004, 02:56 PM

Actually all it needs to reach is 50°F before it will shift into 4th. The tranny must reach 150°F before the torque converter will lock.

n00b on demand · #14 11-19-2004, 03:03 PM

When the temps here are around 50 or under it takes at least 15 or 20 mins for my TC to lock up because of my tranny cooler. Doesnt bother me though as im not worried about losing gas.

#15 11-22-2004, 05:20 AM

Wow, that seems kind of long. Maybe they're on to something here Larry. It takes mine about 2 miles in cold weather. If you do replace it, go with SOA. I've got about 40K on it since, and haven't changed the fluid yet: it looks and smells clean. The tech,
"guaranteed" It would outlast the rest of the car! (replaced at
107K) Although having said that, I drove past Level 10 last month,
on my way to do some downhilling on my bike. Nice country up in them there hills of NJ. Must only be a few hours for you. Nah, go with SOA.....you know how I like to drive!