2011 outback transmission issues

Asked by GuruHP8S Apr 20, 2017 at 09:54 PM about the 2011 Subaru Outback 2.5i Limited

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

I have a 2011 Subaru Outback. The car has 208,000
miles on it. I drive a lot of highway miles 100 a day.
The other day the AT oil temp light came on with a
cluster of other lights. Called a dealer in Columbus.
$200.00 to look it over. Long story short either a
new transmission  for $8 k or reman for $3,000 or a
torque converter for $3,000. When I asked about a
transmission fluid change the response I got was
perplexing. Well I would not do anything yet, we are
not sure what exactly is wrong, the lights may not
come back on after reprogramming. So the higher
priced items would have been ok to do? The other
issue I am having trouble is at 194,000 I had
another shop replace some belts and other things,
the shop guy suggested I call and see if anything
needed be done with the transmission, the dealer
said nothing needed done fluid was good for life. I
asked for his definition of life, he stated till the
wheels fall off.  Just my general knowledge finds
this hard to believe, and more frustrating after
reading posts here my assumptions are right.  My
car has always ran fine, no noises from
transmission, no hard shifts, no symptoms of bad
transmission. The only thing I may have missed, or
being hyper sensitive too, is sometimes the car will
fill like a tire is out of balance. Right now I am
planning on going to another dealer who is known
to change fluids at 120,000 intervals. Any thoughts?
How would some of you proceed? Sell it as soon as
code is gone? Need advice. Has been a good car
until now.

3 Answers

Life is when the car is not worth the $8,000 for a new transmission. Some Subaru dealers understand the need to change the CVT fluid - every 50,000 miles is probably the best.

2 people found this helpful.
86,775

GuruHP8S - SO, it's confirmed ? You need a new transmission at 208,000 miles? Well, you certainly went a very long distance, pretty hard to complain about this. Yes, trade the car to the dealer if they will take it. Good luck.

48,660

Hang on, guys. This chariot's only 6 years old, so it's perhaps prudent to spend cheap money ($100) draining and refilling the CVT. Drive awhile and if there are ongoing complications get a secure diagnosis of whether you need a torque converter or not. You've already replaced t-belt (and maybe pulleys?),so if head gaskets are clean and you don't also need brakes and tires ($1500) then I might chase a clean used CVT for $1500+$500 installation or replace the TC for same ($3k is much too high, btw). If you need a bunch of peripherals AND a TC or whole CVT THEN punt. Tossing it because of 200k would be insane if you just need a fluid change!

2 people found this helpful.

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