Subaru Repair: 1998 leg gt auto shift problem, legacy gt, shift problem

Question
HI,
My 1998 legacy gt wagon 114000m auto has a problem holding 1st gear and not shifting into 2nd. Has never happened when car is cold, only when it reaches operating temp. If I put the selector in 2 it always shifts into 2nd when selector is manualy placed in 2. But when I move the selector to 3 it seems to "miss the shift" and drops to neutral. It also seems like it needlessly downshifts on the highway, not into 3rd, but the torque converter locking and unlocking? I have to rev over 4000 rpm, let foot of gas, and then manaul select 3rd while engine decelerates for it to "find" 3rd. It seems like manual selecting gears fixes the problem as the tranny will shift properly in D after driving it like a "manual." Even on short 10-15 min. drives. To add to the confusion, a year ago this started happening and right after the starter went bad. I had the battery disconn. for a few days, replaced starter, and the car shifted fine for about a year. Replaced trans filter/fluid a year ago when it started right before the starter went. It didn't help. It seemed like having the battery off did. Thanks for your time.

Answer
the transmission computer is what you would call a learning computer. When you disconnect the battery, it is clearing the memory in the computer. Also by selecting the gears manually you are selecting diffent clutches in the transmission, as opposed to it being in D. So it could be a few different problems, from a bad to computer, to bad clutched or solenoids.