Does anyone else with a 2015+ WRX have an annoying rattle coming from the reverse lockout? I don't rest my hand on the shifter once I've moved it into gear, but I can hear a buzzing rattle coming from the lockout in 3rd and 4th gears occasionally. I tried using a syringe and fine tip to inject some thick grease into the space between the shift rod and lockout, which worked for a couple weeks. However, now I think the up and down motion of the lockout has worked some of the grease out and now it makes a gross sticky-smacky noise when moving the shifter to either the 1-2 or 5-6 sides. I tried an o-ring from an old RC car engine and that seemed to shim up the side to side play, but it tends to work itself up and out.
Does it seem to have excess play in it when you pull up on the lockout? You could maybe try adjusting the lockout adjustment tighter so it has a bit more tension on it. There should be a cable adjustment under the car on the driver's side of the trans.
No extra play when pulled up. It stops in the recess at the bottom of the shift knob and doesn't go any further. I didn't see any cable attached to the lockout. It seems there is a pin that is part of the shift rod and that is what is holding the lockout in place. I'm guessing it can be punched or pulled out. I can see a spring that is what seems to be supplying the downward pressure to the lockout. Is this cable on the outside of the transmission? Can it be accessed inside under the shift boot?
My BRZ has this come and go. Fairly common issue for them. Let me see if I can find the thread addressing it perhaps doing something similar will help you. Picture links are all dead but should still be able to figure out what he is going after just from the text.. http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50512
I think I am understanding the BRZ forum correctly. Sounds like they are doing what I thought I'd have to do and that is punch out the pin holding in the lockout, take the lockout assembly out, and shim up the slop with teflon tape. Looks like I have myself a weekend project. I am not entirely sure about using teflon tape as I worry the lockout sliding up and down on it will tear the tape or cause it to slip and move. I'll have to play around with it. But first, I may have to swap to winter rubber before Friday, if we are indeed getting some snow...
Haha! Yeah, I'm still looking at a j-pipe and tune eventually. Even there, I'd like to keep it as quiet as I can to keep my wife happy. I'm painfully dull and listen to MPR/NPR news radio so no reason to turn that up more than I need to. I did come up with a solution that eliminated the rattle and cleaned up the slop in the lockout. I used a 2" long section of heat-shrink tubing and gently heated it and slid it down the shifter rod so it acted as a shim. Applied some grease to it and the lockout now works completely silently.
