Subaru 5-Speed Center Diff Replacement

[@czcrossman]

This video was awesome thank you. This is the exact problem my 2016 Impreza Sport is having. Works fine until I’ve been driving 30-45 min or more, then after the diff fluid warms up any time I make a sharp turn, left or right, forward or reverse, it makes that very loud and haptically noticeable click/clunk sound. I have every tool known to mankind but unfortunately my new house doesn’t have a garage, so I’ll have to wait for the weather to cooperate. As soon as the weather is nicer I’m gonna use this video and swap out the center diff in my 5 speed. Thanks buddy!!

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

Good luck man, hope everything goes smooth!

[@slickraft]

Hint: Should have left several loose bolts in the tail piece before using the slide hammer so the part would come off in a more controlled manner. Thanks for the video. Getting ready to do this repair on my Bugeye wagon at 200K miles.

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

Yea that would have helped. Good luck with your bugeye! ... I've also got a bugeye wrx that will be in an upcoming video

[@roscoefunnydog]

Funny enough, same car and same problem 😂

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

You get it fixed?

[@slickraft]

@@TwoFourSevenDIY Yup. Easy job actually. Only pain was paying for the dealer part $$. I wasn't willing to DIY experiment with draining and refilling the silicone fluid in the diff as my WRX is a daily driver so I only wanted to do the work once.

[@dancarter482]

@@TwoFourSevenDIY Just doing my Legacy : wound a whole forester trans' in four years ago, now the C. dif' has given up, got a replacement to go in the original Legacy box so swapping everything back. Forester is lower geared - great for towing but terrible top-end and mileage! Great video, thanks.

[@glennhollowell2514]

Nice work guy. Appreciate the good lighting, sharp focus, and concise narration.

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

Thanks for the comment! Glad you enjoyed it.

[@1lopull]

I had an input bearing failing on my 5spd, but I went a different direction. I did a 5spd-to-6spd swap which of course meant changing out the rear differential. Literally bolt up modification, no customized building. Best thing I'd ever done for the car. The gearing and shift points seem better for my style of driving in MO/KS/CO.

[@Christosan88]

Great video. Clean organized garage, concise clear info. Great job, I learned.

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

Thanks!

[@robertgrant6837]

Just completed the replacement of the viscous coupler on a 2018 Impreza 5spd which was burnt up by the previous owner with non-matching tires. 2 items stand out on the repair (1) the pin on the shifter shaft would not come so after a few hours of frustration I went to O'Reilly auto and bought a $25. chisel hammer and took the punch tool that came with the tool put it in a vise and ground the point off until it was large enough to drive the large pin out ---the small pin came out quiet easily--- the pin was a real bitch to get back in on the assembly but the chisel hammer worked. The other pisser (2) was getting the rear case to split, after a few hours of beating I gave up and used the old standby trick the trusty screw driver both big and small. After removing the case I took a file and cleaned up the bruises caused by the screw drivers which by the way were not that bad---about 15 minutes with a fine file and the repair was made on both faces. The gasket I had bought from Subaru which was ordered to match my vin-- was not even close so Permatex RTV was applied and I only did the case surface with a fairly liberal coating---and did it squeeze out nice when tightening the case bolts. The total repair time including driving the car in and jacking etc all time to complete the repair and test drive with just under 11 hours. Without the chisel hammer and using screwdrivers I would not have been able to do the job. If you have the funds and don't want to deal with the frustrations I would highly recommend giving the job to a Subaru shop. The trans oil used was used was Royal Purple Class GL-5 W75-90. Now that I have done the replacement once and now some short cuts I would do it again---the first time around is always and learning experience and there no bolts, nuts or parts left over.

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

Yea sometimes things can go not according to plan. But I'm glad you got it done!

[@jonahreimer7920]

im in the process of dong this right now and having difficulties getting the rear case to split without a slide hammer going to try this

[@joecollins8878]

Great job on the video. The process was pretty much identical on my 2017 Impreza. I left the front half of the exhaust on the vehicle. Plenty of space to work around it. The crux by far was removing the slider pins in the shifter linkage. The slide hammer to remove the case was unnecessary for me. The case came off relatively easily with a little bit of effort. I also reinstalled the bracket with the rod that one of the shifter linkages connects to, which allowed a surface to bang on with a punch to push off the case.

[@hanchua]

clicking sound resolved on my 2018 Crosstrek 6MT. Thank you!!!!

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

No problem, glad the video was useful to your situation!

[@facundosanchez7877]

The best explanation I´ve seen regarding this stuff. Regards from Argentina. BTW my Forester has the same issue

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

Thanks man! And I hope you get our Forester fixed up!

[@MrSoulMonk]

Great video! Thank you! The diffs seem to go bad on a lot of these vehicles. My 2010 Legacy is in the shop for the same issue at the moment.

[@iroekyjHD]

i found the end discussion pretty interesting, I recently replaced my transmission due to some bad bearings combined with a binding center diff -whats weird is that my center diff was only binding when cold and NOT when hot, would hear a loud crack when reversing in the morning and the car would also feel like the Ebrake was slightly pulled lmao

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

Weird, never heard of that symptom before, glad you were able to determine it was the diff and get it sorted out

[@iroekyjHD]

@@TwoFourSevenDIY I disassembled it further since I left the previous message and have a new transmission now - the circlip on the center diff had been eaten by the gears and ruined everything in the tailshaft, broke all the gears and everything -pretty sure what I was hearing in the morning and feeling was bits of gear or cir clip getting wedged in other gears and cracking teeth off. Everything was replaced with OE. Clutch and flywheel are exedy name brand now and everything has been great so far Thanks again for the video.

[@iroekyjHD]

For anyone reading this, if your center diff is leaking you should find dark black fluid and flakey metal specs in your trans fluid, I recommend that anytime a Subaru of this generation makes noise you pull the tailshaft cover and inspect the center diff and all bearings before pulling the entire trans -apparently it's common that the clip holding the back of the diff together fails which can ruin your entire transmission if you continue to drive on it

[@edherdz9663]

Thanks for the video

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

No problem, glad you liked it!

[@robertgrant6837]

I will attempt to repair the coupler and if successful I will have a spare for when I screw up in the futuere.

[@strykerentllc]

Excellent video tutorial 👍

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

Thanks!

[@kakeetoalex9924]

Good video.. thank you sir!

[@guylr7390]

Well done.The bolts are 10mm with 14mm heads.

[@brandonhayes1988]

Good vid thanks man

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

Glad you liked it

[@federicoesposito7938]

Excelente video, muchas gracias!

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

Thanks!

[@hanchua]

informative video and well explained symptoms for failed center diff. is the center diff come a whole or components? check with my local subaru dealer, they sold me separate parts for the cylinder and the other components inside. when you got your new is it the whole round thing? thank you.

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

I was under the impression that the center diff was not rebuildable and the whole unit had to be replaced. Maybe I was wrong. Anyway, I didn't buy a new one I used the one out of the original 5 speed that had a failed shaft bearing.

[@hanchua]

@@TwoFourSevenDIY thanks for all the information. Educational and informative content. looking ahead for more videos.

[@bekawe8885]

No mention of the important spacer ?????????????????????????

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

What spacer

[@bekawe8885]

@@TwoFourSevenDIY Hi, the spacer on the shaft just before your hand at 27:26. 👈

[@bekawe8885]

​@@TwoFourSevenDIY Hi, the spacer on the driven shaft just in front of your hand at 16:19.👈

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

I'm applying rtv at that point. Video is a couple years old but to the best of my recollection there was no spacer involved during this repair.

[@bekawe8885]

@@TwoFourSevenDIY I'm referring to the spacer between the lower gear and the center diff. Anyway, your video is a great help and motivation to start such a job. ThanX!👍

[@bmeyerink]

Thanks for the great video. Do you know the torque specs for the 14mm bolts for transfer case?

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

You're welcome. No, I couldn't find a specific torque spec for them, just tightened them down good and tight

[@bmeyerink]

@@TwoFourSevenDIY Ok thanks

[@jimness306]

I am wondering if you found any torque settings for the nine 14mm bolts that hold the center dif housing to the main box. Also what kind of torque do you give to the drain plug?

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

I could not find specific torque values for those. I just make sure they are good and tight, no issues so far.

[@bekawe8885]

40Nm

[@wei2c00l]

Wow, great explanation on the issue. I have the same problem on my forester. is this a immediate fix issue or can it be driven as its not really affect daily drive. thanks in advance.

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

Im not a professional mechanic ... but I would say its not something that requires an immediate fix. But I wouldnt let it go forever either, I would say that the binding would put undue stress on axle/trans/steering componants.

[@Mr_BUSINESS_24_7]

Why must it not have friction modifiers in the gear oil ? isn't the viscous coupling a sealed unit with its own silicone fluid inside the sealed unit ? Also, with the center diff bearings subject to all that excessive force when the diff was binding... ...why wouldn't you change the other (3) center diff housing bearings too ?

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

Refilling with the proper oil isn't about the center diff, the syncros in the transmission don't mesh properly if you use an oil with lsd friction modifiers. If you were concerned about the other bearing, you could absolutely change them if you wanted to. In my case, I didn't feel it was nessessary so I didnt.

[@John_Benson]

So I’m having the exact issue on the same car with the same wrecker trans a few months after install. I see you also used the smurf blood and I’m wondering if that has a compatibility issue with the center diff? Or if we are both unlucky!

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

Thanks for commenting ... very weird that you ended up with the same scenario. It's hard to know for sure what caused it but I do think it's just a bad luck scenario ... I've done a ton of research on the surf's blood and didn't come across anyone mentioning it not playing nice with the center diff

[@johnbliss5474]

Are these much different from automatic center diffs?

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

I've never messed with Subaru automatic transmission but I would assume that the setup would be driierent from the manual gearbox

[@colebraman597]

Hello. Planning to tackle this job. Did you have to replace the bearings on the input and output shaft as well? I am having clunking but no whining

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

I did not replace them, mine seemed healthy I didn't have any reason to feel like they needed to be replaced.

[@colebraman597]

@@TwoFourSevenDIY awesome thank you!! What about the shifter linkage bushing? I’ve heard you need to replace that when removed. Just trying to have all my parts ready

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

You shouldn't have to but it is a great time to replace the shifter bushings if you've got high mileage and feel like your shifter feel isn't as tight/crisp as it used to be

[@colebraman597]

@@TwoFourSevenDIY thank you for your help!! Much appreciated

[@colebraman597]

@@TwoFourSevenDIYwondering how you attached the slide hammer? Did you use a standard 5/8 18 slide hammer?

[@JoshuaCox-hh8mi]

I bought a paper gasket for my t case cover, should I use silicone instead?

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

I would use RTV if it were me

[@robertgrant6837]

great video, I have the same problem with my 2018 Impreza base with 5 spd manual. Can you tell me the Subaru part # for the center dif?

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

38913AA102 appears to be the p# for a 2018 Impreza 2.0L 5MT Sedan

[@robertgrant6837]

@@TwoFourSevenDIY thanks for the part number---coupler ordered---does the bearing on the front/top of the coupler come with the new part?

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

If we are thinking of the same bearing ... yes I'm pretty positive it comes installed on the bearing.

[@robertgrant6837]

@@TwoFourSevenDIY Thanks for the quick reply, I pick up the parts tomorrow---I went with a paper gasket instead of liquid gasket---that way I can get it apart if I mess up the install or the dif fails.

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

The liquid isn't hard to pull apart. I like it cuz it's a little bit of insurance that there won't be any leaks

[@jeffflowers729]

what's the problem with LS additive? You can use it in non LS rear diffs without doing harm. That's why it's in most of the gear oils. So what will it do in a gear box? EDIT: my owners manual doesn't say anything about specifically not using LS fluid. Just says GL5

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

The ls additive should not be used with synchronized gears

[@jamessuttles1824]

Good vid buddy I like that poster @mightycarmods. My car is doing the same thing after 30min of driving turning pops and binds bad so am guessing this is the problem .

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

Thanks! If you go ahead a replace the diff, be sure to leave an update on whether it solved the issue for you!

[@jamessuttles1824]

That was it buddy! I appreciate for sure a subscriber thanks!

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

Glad to hear it!

[@timothywright9781]

Do I have to replace the whole diff unit or can I just replace the bearing?

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

Are you referring to whether or not it can be rebuilt? From the research I did, my understanding is that they are not serviceable, the diff needs to be replaced.

[@20VA]

can you pull driveline out without draining transmission fluid ???

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

The driveshaft?, Yes you can. A little may run out if the car isn't perfectly level but 99% of it will stay in.

[@20VA]

@@TwoFourSevenDIY ... sweet ... because I don't want to drain tranny fluid until I remove all mechanical components ... just in case I have to put everything back you know ... that way I don't have to WASTE the new fluid just to drain it again in the near future ... ALSO ... do you NEED that slide hammer ??? ...

[@20VA]

​@@TwoFourSevenDIY ... also can you remove the dif without the slide hammer ???

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

The rear cover can be difficult to remove but you can get it off without the slide hammer.

[@ahmadlim3035]

Dear friend, what oil are you using for front diff? LSD gear oil or just gear oil? Thank you

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

In a 5mt the trans and diff are all one unit that share the same fluid. You want a 75w90 that DOES NOT have limited slip additive in it

[@robertgrant6837]

75W90 that meets GL5, the bottle/can must show that the oil meets GL5 specs.

[@robertgrant6837]

LSD oil will NOT work with the synchronizers

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

Precisely

[@liboy9844]

Is it possible to just overhaul or recondition the center differential? Thanks.

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

My understanding that the center diff cannot be rebuilt.

[@liboy9844]

@@TwoFourSevenDIY Ok thanks.

[@PeterPresti]

Yes. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iXnHcoaMeJWribc

[@jacobmartinez5673]

was the popping and binding after you turn the wheel and start to go. cuz i think this is starting to happen on my wagon. i think it’s the cv axles but it could be this too

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

I only noticed it in reverse with the wheel completely at full lock. The sensation was like the front inside wheel was "hopping" while clicking. If you are getting a clicking/snapping while making a forward turn from a stop, it's probably a CV axle, I had one go bad a while back and those were my symptoms

[@jacobmartinez5673]

@@TwoFourSevenDIY it happens on partially turning too.

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

Sounds more like CV to me

[@gettingpast4391]

CV joints click, center diff binds... totally different, very loud and disturbing thumps

[@ittotaq]

How do you remove the bearing race that's stuck in the transmission? The race that goes around that little bearing on the shaft

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

Hmm, I'm not 100% sure about that. I've never had a need to replace bearings when I've done this. Best guess would be a blind bearing puller tool. Sorry I couldn't offer more help

[@ThePestilentDefiler]

How long does this take?

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

I didnt really time it but with filming and just going kinda slow doin my thing, I think this was like a few hours of work. If you were determined and working fast, could probably have it done in an hour.

[@247jeffmarshall]

Would this be the same Center diff as a 2011 Subaru wrx 5 speed?

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

Sorry for the late reply, but yes the part number 38913AA102 does show compatible with 2011 2.5L WRX

[@chitboxadventures7225]

This may be a bad way to put this but my 01 Subaru Forester locked up during the snow, not the motor but the drivetrain after about 2 hours of driving, tires will spin with the open diff, but going into gear it dies and can not move without being drug, along with tires either spinning in opposite directions or staying in place flat spotting my tires!! Any info? Thanks and much appreciated

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

Rear tires are locked or front?

[@chitboxadventures7225]

All will spin as normal when jacked up, of course going opposite directions but that’s it, won’t engage and go the same direction

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

That's normal when In the air, it's the way the diffs work, if you jack the car up and spin one wheel forward the opposite side should spin backward

[@chitboxadventures7225]

That’s not my problem, I know that’s normal. But like I said when I’m gear or even neutral, it don’t/can’t move on its own power, drivetrain is completely locked

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

Let's back up. So when the vehicle is on the ground, the drive train is locked when the vehicle is running and you try to drive with it in gear. When you lift the vehicle off the ground the wheels spin free ... is this with the vehicle running and in gear or turning the wheels by hand?

[@bratishka93]

Do turbo and non turbo 5MT speed has same center differential? Talking about 2004-2009 years

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

Hmm, it looks like compatibility is hit or miss. Here is a link to the wrx center diff. It lists all compatible models ... see if your vehicle is here. Just click the "what this fits" tab parts.bestbuysubaru.com/p/Subaru__/Center-Differential/49248160/38913AA102.html

[@edfx]

With very sticky tires I have torque bind even with FWD car. So can I measure if center diff scientifically some how? Eg. jacking one wheel up and measuring the resistance with torque wrench?

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

I'm not sure on this one man. I'm not at all familiar with FWD setups. Are you sure you don't mean torque steer? That is common on FWD with high-ish hp and sticky or wider tires.

[@edfx]

​@@TwoFourSevenDIY Found out the figures. Center diff should slip 40Nm@100rpm. Mine is about 200Nm@1rpm. Way too stiff. Binds pretty heavily when turning but does not completely lock up.

[@logan6290]

I’ve got a loud banking/jerking once I’m in any gear and give it some beans which sounds like a cv axle but it’s not what could this be?

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

Without being in the vehicle and experiencing it, it's hard to say, based on that description it could be one of many things

[@logan6290]

How can I send you a video of what it’s doing on stands

[@logan6290]

When I turn it fully to the left or the right it makes this pop noise and occasionally going straight the worst is on turns so this would be cv axles and not the front differential correct?

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

@logan6290 Sounds like bad CV joint, yea

[@DaniiLBaybee]

As soon as I have the first line, I knew these were my people 😂😩 #subaruproblems

[@olds1964]

Great video but it would be so much better without the ridiculous music.

[@TwoFourSevenDIY]

Hmm. I'll keep that in mind. I generally throw music in so it's not just silence while I'm doing certain things