4eat longevity tips?

[Fishy]

Hey peoples,
We just bought the Missus a 94 turbo legacy wagon and it's only got 145,000kms on it. The car has been dealer maintained and has $9000 in recipts in the glovebox of everything from oil changes to timing belt and CV joint replacements but no mention of tranny.
My question is this: What should I do to ensure the longest possible life out of the tranny in this rig? so far the most helpful thing I've read is to instal an extra tranny cooler and I'm going to look into that. What else should be done? fluid flush, drain and fill, internal filter, external filter, etc???
Help me out oh knowledgeble bretheren of the Subaru persuasion!

[Brat4by4]

Well, the absolute best thing you can do for you tranny is to get a 3" turboback exhaust system for the car, along with some suspension bits.

Ok, just kidding. The best setup I know of for a tranny is to have a large tranny cooler with a tranny fluid thermostat (can't think of what they are called, its not thermostat), so it can keep it in the optimum operation temperature in whatever conditions.

Other suggestions will have to be from automatic owners. And welcome!

[Subaru_Nation555]

Its my understanding that with basic maintence Subaru trannys can last over 200,000 miles. My advice is simply to keep the fluid fresh and clean. Get it flushed and refilled if you just bought the car-who knows how old the fluid in there now is. Since heat is an automatic trannys worst nightmare, an external cooler might be a good idea but you're probaly okay without it.

Also about the tranny filters, I think that its not really necessary to replace them as they are only there to catch large particles.

[tris91ricer]

Tranny cooler is good, but just take notice of the fluid everytime you change it. PLEASE CHANGE THE FLUID AT THE RECOMMENDED INTERVALS. I can't stress that enough. On older cars, you just have to keep up on their fluid levels. Also, look into replacing the tranny filter. To get acclimated, try searching for information about that, using our search function.
And, not be an asshole, but if that's a picture in your sig, it's gotta go --bbs rules. Check the Site and Forum Suggestions for more details.. We just agreed (not all of us..) that it's best to leave our sigs as text or links.
Welcome, and thank you for joining us, you'll learn TONS here about your turbo wagon, and subarus in general.
Good luck!

[scottzg]

Run the tranny until it dies. Then do a 5mt swap, and keep the power at a reasonable level. Bam! 200km tranny.

[Fishy]

I've done a tonne of searching and reading on here and have mostly just gathered that an external cooler and fluid changes are the only well known helpers for the tranny. I'll check the manual to see when they think I should change the fluid when The Wife brings the thing home again sometime.

I thought I read somewhere about a shift kit or valve body adjustment that firms shifts up a little too. firmer shifts = less heat = longer life ... has anyone done anything like that with their autos?

I'd LOOOOOOOOVE to just run it till the tranny asplodes and go 5spd but Mrs Fishy isn't having much love for driving standards.

sorry about the sig pic guys. I got all excited about the fishbaru logo I made that I wanted to plaster it around everywhere it has since been removed from my sig.

[206er]

the "filter" is really just a mesh screen in the trans, and it is close to the bottom so cleaning it out would be a matter of dropping the pan and removing like 6 screws I think it was. or just have em do it if you get the trans flushed.
some 4eat's come with external filters in line to the cooler on the radiator, but not all. mine has one.

[Legacy777]

The add on filter was one of those recall items that dealers did when the cars came in for service.

So if your car never went to the dealer for service, or you dealer wasn't so hot....it probably didn't get the kit.

The kit is pretty cheap actually.

[IronMonkeyL255]

Opie got the kit put on mine when he replaced the tranny.

How hard is it to install a tranny cooler? I was already thinking about this.....

[Legacy777]

It shouldn't be too difficult.....however I haven't installed one. Hardest part is finding a cooler to fit in front of the a/c condensor, and bolting it up some how.

[isotopeman]

Run the tranny until it dies. Then do a 5mt swap, and keep the power at a reasonable level. Bam! 200km tranny.

200km is not very far at all - about half a tank of gas.