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Well I think the wagon blew up. Pulled out of the Dulles toll booth and hit 2nd gear and bang. I hear what sounds like half dollar sized pieces of metal spinning around. I pulled over and noticed the noise only when the clutch pedal was up. I think she is canned. Really not happy right now. Trying not to think about the repair bill right now.

Does it idle okay? More likely than not it's the transmission or one of the three diffs.

Sorry to hear about the bang, but the good news is you're even closer to Andrewtech right now!

Idles normal and there isn't a CEL.

my guess would be transmission and/or diff.

Well, one good way to tell if it's your second gear is if you can still get the car to move any in other gears. BE CAREFUL when doing this though since you could cause more damage if you drove it for long periods. If the car doesn't budge in any gear, it's more than likely the diffs.... or you've gotten teeth from other gears stuck in other gears.

Good luck man. Let us know the prognosis!

Well it drove for a couple hundred feet in third gear. I called Mike at Beyer Subaru and he said they should be covering it. I know the guy and he seems to be one of the few good guys out there. I didn't beat on the car, it was never tracked or autocrossed. Should find out whats up on Monday when they open her up. I'm tempted to see if it just a gear or two if they could swap 1-3 with the leggy GT gears.

Let's hope for the best.
If they do swap gears it will likely only 1-2. You usually have to swap in groups of 2 (1 & 2 or 3 & 4).

Bluestreak2006 wrote:I didn't beat on the car, it was never tracked or autocrossed.

Unfortunately that only counts for so much. According to my driving, my car should be a flaming heap of scrap, but it trudges on!

And good luck!! Keep your head high.

Well like Darren said its 1-2. 2nd lost a tooth and caused some damage to 1st. Got the thumbs up today that its covered under the factory warranty.

That's awesome news! Glad to hear they're going to warranty it!

just about the best possible outcome, no? glad things are being taken care of.

I am very VERY glad to hear this.
You may want to ask if "better gears" can be installed under warranty if you are willing to pay extra for the parts.

Glad the warrany is covering it!

I'm thinking that I'm either going to start a PPG or STI 6spd fund for when this happens again. As much as I love my wagon I'm also toying around with taking it back to stock and getting the car I should have started out with(STI).

Or you could just drop the 6SPD in there and have a great Wagon!

Very happy to hear they are covering it!

I personally say PPG since that is likely the route I'm going.... but to be fair a 6-speed will cost you about the same, will give you almost equally strong gears, will be quieter, will give you the LSDs, will give you the DCCD, and is a little easier to do.

I've just always kind of had a soft spot for PPG gears.

Just saw this, so glad to hear that it's being covered under warranty.

Sabre wrote:Or you could just drop the 6SPD in there and have a great Wagon!

Very happy to hear they are covering it!

This. Do it. Now. Then sell it to me to finance your STi.

Dave, are you saying that a PPG gear set and install cost the same as a full 6 speed conversion with all the additional gear that the conversion takes?

Mr Kleen wrote:Dave, are you saying that a PPG gear set and install cost the same as a full 6 speed conversion with all the additional gear that the conversion takes?

Yep... And he's just about right too. I priced out both when I had my WRX back in the day.

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IIRC, PPG 1-4 are like $5000 installed, byot. Then you still have regular WRX axles, hubs and diffs.

You can get within $500 of that with a six speed swap from a junker donor car and you'll have better axles and diffs (3 in the 05+!!)

A PPG gear install done properly (and not even dog engagement) is big $$$$. The gears alone can cost you around $3500-$4000 new. Dog engagement moves that up even higher. To upgrade the diffs to LSD you are looking somewhere north of another $3000. And you will have a mechanical center diff as opposed to the very sexy electronic one you get with the newer STis. And that's not taking into account any other upgrades you might want. And ALL this is assuming you do the labor yourself. Andrewtech is one of the best on this side of the country to install gearsets and their prices are pretty good from what I hear. But a lot of labor at a "pretty good" price is still not cheap. A used PPG stright cut synco box will run you betwen $3500-6000. I was looking at maybe going the used route myself as they are a pretty indestructible build unless you do something monumentally stupid with them. This might be an option if you really want to go PPG.

Compare that to an STi transmission. On average you can get a whole swap (tranny, linkage, driveshaft, axles, hubs, rear diff, etc.) in for around $6000-7000 (and we're talking possibly even with the brembos) depending on how good of a deal you can get. And that's something a lot more common knowledge than rebuilding a transmission. Granted you can incur extra costs like if you want to go with an aftermarket DCCD controller with the yaw sensors and such (I think those run just under $800). You can shave money by not swapping hubs and doing a hybrid axle job though the 5x114 setup is certainly nice and there is plenty of documentation why it is more desirable than the 5x100. Basically the summary is you get a lot more bang for your buck going this route.

As far as HP ratings go the PPG gears can hold a little more than the STi gears and can handle tourque a little better but unless you are going for big power or are using it for full race applications the difference shouldn't really sway your decision. Both are likely more than adequate for your needs. You get the crazy sound that you either love or hate with the straight cut gears or you can go with the helical and it's much quieter. You also get the added option of dog engagement but then you need to upgrade some other parts besides adding the dog engagement rings. Also dog engagement is not very street friendly. That is unless you like having to rev match downshift constantly. If you go the PPG route a good set of straight or helical cut syncros will do you well though.

Do NOT get suckered into the RA gearset. It is junk and cannot hold much more than the stock WRX gears. I know you didn't mention them but just in case it was in the back of your mind or you came across it in your research. Just say no.

Put it this way. The smarter buy would be to do an STi 6-speed swap. Am I going to go that route? Likely no. I have my reasons for wanting to go PPG. Am I going to recommend others go that route? Certainly.



To contradict my previous post since I'm giving real advice this time. Do an STi 6-speed swap. My .02. You'll probably be happier with it in the long run.

Yeah I didnt even consider RA gears. Its seems they have just as many failures as the stock gears.