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4 Speed Tranny

1K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  adc 
#1 ·
Hello:

I am looking in to buy a Forester (w/o turbo) but this 4 speed tranny is bothersome to me. How these are trannys holding up and what is the RPM and noise level at freeway speed? How trannny behaves on uphill and downhill?
Any information would be appreciated.
 
#2 ·
In the NA(naturally aspirated) they may as well be a tank, they don't often fail catastrophically. In the turbos they hold up well to high horsepower but do have their limits, their weakness in this most often is the front differential housing which some times cracks.

Driving wise, it depends on who you ask. I like simplicity as it is usually reliable. So for me having only 4 gears is not an issue, there is less to go wrong. It doesn't offer the silky smooth operation of many of todays 5-7 speed plus transmissions of today, if you want that wait for the 2014 model year as it is rumored to have the CVT. Some will say it is slow to downshift on slowly increasing loads like going up hill, a double tap on the gas pedal and roll on will cause it to down shift if it is an issue. It Its has gone through some revisions, but is still based off its introduction version in the SVX in 1988 making it a 24/25 year old design. It is what it is, some can accept that.

The Misses and I don't find hers(2008 NA) to have any issues as far as drivability. Reliability wise, with some searching on here you will find most of the regulars preach doing a drain and fill on the fluid every 2-3 oil changes and this seems to keep them happy well into the 200K+ mileage.

There is a ton of threads covering many of these issues in the transmission section.

Moved the thread to the transmission section as I think it will get more traffic then "general" or "Forester Shopping". It also is some times slow around here Fri-Mon so give a chance for every one to pop in.
 
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