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Crackler

I have a 2004 legacy that over the period of a month or so, sometimes when you went to turn to key to start it would click and then nothing at all was like it had short circuited as no interior light or anything.
When I would unhook battery and rebook would get back and sometimes would start straight away but sometimes would need to disconnect the battery on a number of occasions.
Then one day driving along the dash went dead and I lost power. I pulled over turned car off and then back on. Started but when I put in drive or reverse all that would happen is the car would shudder like it was trying to move but nothing.
It sat for two weeks and then I restarted and it went ok so I drove it to get looked at and the expert said they need to change gearbox.
Didn't make a lot of sense to me as I was thinking at the very least something needed to be done with battery/electrics?
Just wanting to know what you may think so when I take it to someone else I am not getting something repaired that isn't required or not everything that is required.
Someone has even suggested to just change battery.
All help would be much appreciated.

Anon

Hi there,
You are correct, to me it sounds more like an electrical system fault. And hopefully not combined with a transmission fault.
Could be something as easy as a loose starter connection or battery clamp, or even a dead battery.
Also seems strange that the car shuddered and wouldn't move.
We might be looking at a few faults, hopefully just a battery or connection.
Maybe get a second opinion and explain exactly the faults and see what they say.