2009 Forester Transmission, sluggish?

[crazyman03]

I have one for everyone. My wife has a '09 Forester 4sp automagic 130k on the clock.

It shifts.... weird. I'm pretty sure it's always done it since we've owned it (bought it around 80k) 

1st gear is strong. Torque'y,  but when it hits 2nd it, for lack of a better way of saying it - lulllls. power cuts way down and it takes forever to get back up to 3k before it starts pulling again. Same for 3rd and 4th.

It acts this same way when you switch over to manual shift.   God forbid you have any load. We went up the mountains last weekend and it had troubles going up passes (in the mountains) and being in 4th. I have to hand shift back to 3rd and sometimes 2nd. I wouldnt say it was *loaded* per-se. maybe an extra 3-400 lbs?

-Justin

[somick]

That is pretty much how my 2010 drives.  The Sport mode helps a little but not much.  The manual mode does not help either.

[crazyman03]

I was afraid of that. 

Anyone know of an alternate Tranny, besides a 5MT ?

 

-Justin

[1 Lucky Texan]

you might contact user  '  west_minist  '  over at subaruoutback.org

 

or email him thru website - http://xtremeracingtuning.com/

 

he may be able to tune your car to alter shift points.

[wtdash]

Disclaimer: have not driven any Subaru this new w/the 4EAT or 5EAT.

Assuming this is a NON-turbo? Not an XT, correct?

I'd start w/the AT service - up to date?

You're in the high country so you're down on power anyway you look @ it, but I wouldn't expect 2nd to be 'that' bad. I'm confused as to why it wouldn't shift to 3rd in the mtns...see attached shows that 3rd should be good to 99 MPH (assuming that's Redline).

SOHC Boxers have  a  pretty flat torque band, so it shouldn't have a high RPM 'kick' like a DOHC or turbo.

You could try resetting the ECU/TCU by unplugging the Neg battery for 30 minutes (NOTE: you'll lose your radio presets,  MIGHT have to re-program your keyless fobs, etc.).

This doesn't 'fix' anything but If it runs better/different initially then you may a  problem....it'll revert back to the same behavior after a few miles. But these are generally reliable transmissions.

Go test drive another Subaru w/the same trans for comparison?

Edited August 3, 2018 by wtdash

[crazyman03]

An update:

From what I've read this is a common thing with this Fozzy. 

I tried driving around in just "sport" mode instead of hand shifting and it seems to be better - as long as you are gunning it and really want to move through the gears. The downside is if you're just leaving a light it holds the gears a bit longer and it sounds like you're trying to race the fellow next to you. That, and fuel economy goes out the window.

All I'm wanting is when it goes through the motions it doesnt drop 80% (bit of an exaggeration , but sure the heck feels like) torque on the entry of the next gear.

 

Meh. It seems, it is what it is. :-/

 

-Justin