Member Profile- 2007 3.0r-b sedan 65Z 6MT

[bigBADbenny]

Shifter Shaft Seal Failure

Accelerating hard from the traffic lights and shifting quickly from first to second got me a nice strong burning gear oil smell (this happened at a similar time to the oil line failure- no idea why the car decided that month was the month it didn't want to hold fluids anymore)!

Thankfully this occurred not far from home, and a quick inspection showed only a small amount of gear oil leaked onto the hot exhaust. Limping the car home and getting underneath it showed the rubber section of the shifter shaft seal was torn, and on hard acceleration the gear oil sloshing to the back of the gearbox would leak out and splash onto the exhaust.



A replacement seal didn’t take long to arrive, and with the car up as high as possible on axle stands the work could begin. The gearbox undertray, exhaust, heat shield, tail shaft, gearbox support and shifter linkage all had to be removed just to give me a closer look. While people online stated the seal is removable with the gearbox in the car, I couldn’t find a way that I was confident wouldn’t scratch the sealing surface or damage the shifter shaft.



I ended up pulling the rear casing off the gearbox, which meant I was able to correctly press out the old seal, as well as inspect the internal condition. It also let me have a look at the centre diff- as this is a DCCD unit I was definitely keen to see what it looked like (even if it was ultimately pretty unimpressive looking)!

The shaft seal replacement was uneventful, but what was really annoying was trying to get all the internal oil trays lined up again. The stock gearbox used an oil pump, but the replacement gearbox relies on splash lubrication, so getting these trays lined up was critical. Trying to hold these in place, as well as correctly routing the DCCD wiring and holding the split shaft bearings in place was difficult, and ended up taking many attempts. I found a trick using petroleum jelly to hold it together; testing this in a gear oil sample showed it dissolved completely with no signs of incomplete mixing.



Eventually it all came together, and with the sealant dry everything else could be reassembled and the gearbox filled with oil. This seems to have fixed the problem, and the back of the gearbox has remained dry since.

While everything was apart anyway I took the opportunity to rebuild the shifter linkage. I have replaced the bushings in the past, but had noticed these were already showing signs of wear, so I had another set waiting for the next time I was in there. I had never removed the lower shifter pivot, however, and the grease in that was pretty crusty. The pivot cup hold-down has an o-ring in it for some compliance which was quite crushed- replacing the grease and the o-ring, as well as the new shifter bushes, has really improved the shifter feel.



I haven’t seen too many examples of this seal failing, and I am not sure why this one decided to. The kms are relatively low for the age of the box, so potentially it had sat for a while, but since installing it has done numerous track days and lots of other driving with no signs of failure. Who knows.

Wow and kudos for ruling your mechanical “setbacks”, or as I refer to my own: mechanical “opportunities”

The post is serendipitous for me as I need to do all the gearbox linkage knuckles and bushes, and I’m not sure what I’ll find with the audm my07 STi shift knuckle double roll pins. There’s an awesome Corgiwerks post I’ll dig up for context.

But the point being, it’s potentially good practice to replace this seal when doing a major overhaul and clutch job?

If the box was fully dropped then removing the rear section might be unnecessary?

[JezzaH6]

Wow and kudos for ruling your mechanical “setbacks”, or as I refer to my own: mechanical “opportunities”

Hahaha opportunities is a great word to use here- and it is a great opportunity to learn something new. Just wish it didn't all happen at the same time

I’m not sure what I’ll find with the audm my07 STi shift knuckle double roll pins

Have done these more times than I'd like to admit, and honestly haven't really had any issues with them. Take the time to get things out of the way to make your life easier, and have a few different sizes of punches, and a relatively small hammer, ready to go and they should just come straight out. Even easier if you can find a set of longer punches.

But the point being, it’s potentially good practice to replace this seal when doing a major overhaul and clutch job?

If the box was fully dropped then removing the rear section might be unnecessary?

I would 100% recommend replacing this seal if the gearbox is out. It is possible to do with the box in the car, but it's way more difficult and time consuming. I would still do it by removing the rear section of the gearbox- I'm still not confident that it could be removed with the shaft installed without risking scratching any of the sealing surfaces. With the gearbox out of the car though it could be stood upright on the bellhousing when reassembling- this is the way the gearbox is assembled in the factory and means gravity is holding all the oil guides and bearings in place, which would make it incredibly easy to line everything up again.

The part that makes it difficult in the car is gravity is pulling the oil guides and bearings out of alignment, whereas with the gearbox standing upright gravity is holding these parts in the orientation they are supposed to be in.

[JezzaH6]

So it has been over a year since the last time I updated this page, and a lot has changed since then!



I bought another project car- and not a Subaru to the surprise of many! I ended up getting a 1999 Mitsubishi Pajero iO, short wheelbase with the venerable (not) 4G18 1.6L SOHC lump and 5 speed manual transmission. I got the tiny little 4x4 cheap with a very smokey engine, but it ran well enough to make it the 35kms home before the low oil pressure light came on, thanks as it turns out to a stuck oil pressure release valve.



The interior of the car was disgusting, so the entire thing got stripped out and cleaned. It had been heavily smoked in and generally neglected, so it was nice to get it cleaned out.



The interior strip out happened while waiting for parts for the engine. Pulling it out revealed that it had probably never had an oil change in its entire 235k kms, as the engine was incredibly sludgy and filled with burnt oil deposits. Amazingly it made 170psi of compression on a cylinder missing 1/3rd of one of the compression rings!



The engine was completely stripped down, cleaned out with a large amount of carb cleaner and other solvents, and then reassembled with new bearings, seals, pistons, rings, gaskets and oil pump. This was my first time doing any sort of cylinder head work myself, which was really satisfying. The engine never looked like it had been overheated, and checking with a trusted straight edge revealed no warping in the iron block or the alloy head. Turns out you can still get this engine in BYD vehicles, fresh off the showroom floor in China, so parts were incredibly cheap and easy to find. This was by far the easiest engine I have ever worked on- it is very simple and laid out quite well, aside from some parts compatibility quirks between the FWD and RWD engine orientation.









The oil pump, even though it had the same part number printed on it, had a different size drive. A check through the local wreckers with a bunch of similar engines revealed 3 different sized oil pump drives, all sharing the same part number. I ended up fixing this with a metal 3D printed spacer, which has worked great for the 30k kms I have done in the past year in it.



I have always enjoyed going off road and camping, and have been wanting a vehicle to be able to do this for a while now. The car is now set up with a lithium auxiliary battery, and is wired up with enough power outlets to keep an entire campsite happy- I can draw a combined 3.2kW from all the outlets I have added! Totally unnecessary, but nice to have regardless. A flat floor replaces the unusable rear seats and allows me to actually move stuff around. I have never really been a fan of marine carpet in cars, but after doing marine carpet in the back of this thing I get it now- it's durable and easy to clean.





The car came with some decent off road rubber, but I wasn’t a fan of the driving dynamics with the heavy steelies. CJ Lancer stock Enkei’s fit these things perfectly, though, and save almost 7kg per corner. Turns out only the early version of these wheels are actually Enkei's; the later ones are cast in China and devoid of all Enkei stampings. I also managed to get my hands on some OEM iO wheels with decent enough tyres to daily drive on- these are pretty quirky!





I have been on a few trips in it now, including out to Big Desert where the light weight lets it perform amazingly well in sand, and out to the high country where the short wheelbase allowed it to be really capable on the uphill, but surprising scary going downhill. It has a proper transfer case with 2WD High, 4WD High LSD Centre Differential, 4WD High Locked Centre Differential and 4WD Low Locked Centre differential, and live rear axle, and has surprised more than a few ‘real’ 4WD’s out on the tracks. the fact that it can be driven in '4WD' (actually more like a Subaru AWD with its viscous centre LSD) on asphalt means it can be driven fairly hard on some interesting roads, although there is a noticeable loss in power when 4WD is selected thanks to all the extra drivetrain loss. I enjoy driving offroad as much as I like the track work; it is just as complex as you have to pay attention to wheel placement, tyre speed, suspension loading, weight transfer and traction to name a few. The speeds are a lot slower, but this is offset by the amazing places it allows you to visit.

I genuinely like driving this thing; the lack of any drivers aids (not even ABS) and its general terrible-ness gives it a charm that a lot of other cars just don’t have- it is just really fun to drive. It’s surprisingly practical and good on fuel to boot, and is comfortable enough thanks to the addition of heated seats and a good stereo and speakers. It struggles in 110kph zones, but it can do them, and it’s a great way to reset my standards after daily driving my Lib for so long. It is loud inside with minimal sound deadening, but has become my daily driver. Its geared quite low as it is optimised more for offroad compared to something like a RAV-4, sitting at about 3800rpm at 110kph, but that means its actually not that slow off the line and can catch unsuspecting people unaware at the lights (at least until about 30kph ). It has proper rack-and-pinion steering that actually feels decent enough considering the type of vehicle it is, and the independent front suspension means it handles 'ok enough' on the road. The low peak performance means it can be driven close to the limit (which is exactly where a car is the most fun) at or below-speed-limit speeds, which is probably why it is so fun to drive.

More power is on the cards, as the ability to travel to more interesting places without having to downshift to above 4000rpm for the slightest incline or headwind would be nice. A rear locking differential would be good to offset the lack of flex in the front McPherson strut suspension, and a small lift all round will help with the relatively low clearance, especially under the front diff.

Lib update to come.

[Yowie]

Great work - especially on getting the engine cleaned out and back together.