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95 Impreza... no 4th gear when cold?


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I understand the 4EAT tranny in our daughter's 95 Impreza has a self protection feature which prevents it from shifting into 4th gear when cold. I just wanted to check to make sure that's correct.... our 90 Legacy should have the same tranny, and I've never noticed it in that car.

 

The Impreza will run fine thru the first three gears for about 5 or 10 minutes, then will finally start shifting into 4th. Is that normal?

 

thanks!

Mike

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Its not a self protect, its to help the engine and tranny warm up faster for emissions and such.

 

It's normal, just be nice to it for the first ten minutes or so.

 

nipper

 

Thanks for all the replies! I'm already having to replace the fuel filler tube where it's leaking like a sive, and then I noticed the tranny... thought we might have picked up a lemon. Good to know the transmission is acting normally!

 

--Mike

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I understand the 4EAT tranny in our daughter's 95 Impreza has a self protection feature which prevents it from shifting into 4th gear when cold. I just wanted to check to make sure that's correct.... our 90 Legacy should have the same tranny, and I've never noticed it in that car.

 

The Impreza will run fine thru the first three gears for about 5 or 10 minutes, then will finally start shifting into 4th. Is that normal?

 

thanks!

Mike

 

I think that also the torque converter will not lock either until it's warmed up a little.

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sounds sort of normal. not sure if different years have different responses but 10 minutes seems a bit long considering it hasn't been brutally cold in morgantown yet. i have a 97 impreza OBS and it has not seemed to take that long to shift into 4th, but maybe i just didn't notice. i'm in morgantown now as well. if you ever needed me to look at something for you we can probably arrange that. if it does the same thing every time, then you don't have anything to worry about, if it starts changing and acting differently then that would be odd.

 

i would check the fluid level and flush/replace the ATF as well if you have no idea when it's ever been replaced before.

 

does this car have an external/alternate transmission cooler on it? that may delay it getting the temps up in the winter?

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I think that also the torque converter will not lock either until it's warmed up a little.

 

As i have noticed my torque converter only locks after 20 to 30 minutes of driving with speed above 75 km/h. This is done by keeping 80 km/h (+- 2500 rpm in 4th with not locked TC) then when TC locks the rpm drops to +- 2250 r) If i now give little extra throtle the revs dont increase (a lot like 250rpm) but more in a slower way, it feels if the engine is directly driving the wheels. If TC is not locked the revs increases somewhat 250 rpm. I expect this to be normal to the gearbox, also the longer warming up time. (on outside temperatures of aroun 10 C). am i right ???

 

And when it doesnt want to go to 4th i never pass 2500 rpm to treat it well as just common sense that it cant be good to go higher.

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