Hey everyone, this is my new ride. My 2003 Subaru WRX. I bought it from a buddy in October of 2008 for $9,000 with a blown transmission. I have had many troubles getting it on the road, but once it is, is gonna be worth it.

I sold my Miata for $800 cash, there started to be a lot of problems with the car, and I got hit 3 times in 2 weeks, none of them were my fault (Someone cliped my front end, someone backed into my passenger door, and third was a hit and run done while I was sleeping) so basically the body of the car was perty messed up.

I took that $800 cash and bought a new transmission for the Subaru, and started the job. When pulling the old transmission out of the car, I lined them up next to eachother and I saw that the new transmission I just picked up was missing the axle stubshafts in the front, which should of made me think that it was a bad transmission from the start. After a month of dealing with the guy at the junkyard (either getting a swap for a different transmission, or getting him to pay for the subshafts to be put in) I just gave up on him and decided to re-build it myself. I ripped apart the old transmission and took the shafts out, and rebuild the new one with the shafts in it. Everything looked great after that, we put the transmission and got it running, I loved it....

After about four days of driving, I was just cruzing... All of a sudden I hear a huge BOOM under my feet and I skid to a stop.... I knew what it was right away, my transmission blew... I was so pissed, words cannot describe.

I got it towed to my house and let it sit for a couple of days, then I started trying to see what eactily went wrong. First of all, the rear mount of the transmission, the bolts in there snapped off so the transmission dropped about a foot out o the car. I got the new bolts and put it back in, then something wierd started happening. I could drive the car for about 3 feet, then all four wheels would bind up then release and making me skid. But it did not do this while it was in the air.

Then I started thinking it was the driveshaft, that when the transmission fell out it bent one of the U joints. So I tried dropping the driveshaft out and driving it off the front 2 wheels.... It drove fine. So I dropped $400 on a new lightened driveshaft and put it in...... Nothing... At that point my original fears started to become reality. I put it in my garage and jacked it up and started pulling off the transmission again...

After pulling the transmission out, I saw the huge hole in the side of it (no pictures, sorry) it was about 2" by 2" wide and long. So, instead of dealing with it again, I just took it to my buddy who owns a tranny shop in San Marcos and let him deal with it. Turns out what the problem was, when I rebuilt the transmission, I didn't put a washer in properly... 1 washer not even the size of my hand caused my positraction gear to blow up (which could explain the binding of the rear wheels, and when there was no driveshaft, there was no resistance)... He just finished up working on it, and I got it back, all thats left to do it turn my flywheel, put the new clutch in and then start putting the transmission in as well... Wish me luck :D

UPDATE (March 18,2009) - Just went to the subaru dealer, ordered some new parts for the car (A speedo sensor, the wires and a new oil seal for one of the axles. (It broke). Ran me a quick $150, and having just lost my job I don't know how much I can spend. I put the clutch in as well, just waiting for Subaru to get the parts delivered so I can put the new speedo sensor in and put the transmission in. Then I gotta go to the DMV and re register it and smog it as well. So hopefully by Monday at the latest (the parts are comin into Subaru on friday)

UPDATE (March 30, 2009) - IT FINALLY RUNS AGAIN!! I love it, all that hard work and waiting has finally paid off. I can hear the rumble of that 2.0L again and it sounds amazing. I havent updated in a while, I got the car running on march 30 (thereabout) but I am actually updating this page on April 11'th... Other mods I have put in the car so far.. I dropped my nitrous kit in yesterday, but for right now it is mainly for show because I don't wanna pump nitrous through an engine with a fresh transmission without even 500 miles on it.

Pictures will be up very soon!

 On the next page are more picts and info about this project.