GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

vibedrivermatt

Old thread I know but I'm bumping becuase this is an interesting topic. I know how tight to torque my wheels as I change them twice a year. I used to use a torque wrench but that takes a long time. Lately I can guestimate pretty well when I have about 80 90 ft lbs. One thing that irks me is when I f...

vibedrivermatt

I have had bad experiences using cheaper tires. Lately I only buy continental. Cheaper tires tend to wear down too fast and have a higher chance of going flat. The conties last way longer. There's Michelin, Good Year etc...

I order from discount tire direct too. Nice tire website.

vibedrivermatt

I'm curious what the average life of a starter is on these vehicles. I have a 2007 vibe with just over 100K miles. So far it has been reliable with no issues. The other day it refused to start while I was at a mall Tried multiple times and could only hear clicking. The mall is within walking distan...

vibedrivermatt

Glad to read you bought the car. My 2.4l has treated me well. The 2AZ-FE is the camry engine. It's known for legendary reliability. Mine drinks a little oil too in between changes. No big deal. I've switched to mobile1 high milage oil. I guess it has some extra additive in there.

vibedrivermatt

The car is back to running great now. I'll finish off with pic of starter chucks. That was fun. :roll: I appreciated those guys for lending me their time.. I swept my friends garage for him after that was done. Least I could do right? The car was in his garage for about 3 days.. when things were get...

vibedrivermatt

Things started going more in our favor at this point. Here's the new flywheel and pressure plate. I torqued the flywheel on nice and evenly with my digital torque and gave a little blast to brake clean to clean the packaging residue off. The one pic shows the green jack which we used to temporarily ...

vibedrivermatt

Here's closer pic of the transmission. There still one peice of the starter in there! We had to gently pop that out with a hammer.. I ordered a new starter off Amazon for $80.

vibedrivermatt

So to get the trans out a whole bunch of stuff needed to get taken apart. At this phase I became more of a helper with the job. Doing a full clutch job was going past my skill level of what I can do on my own. I had two very talented guys to do the job here. One was former pro mechanic. He was givin...

vibedrivermatt

So at about 107k miles my clutch was slipping. The clutch would hold well enough to still drive but it would slip the whole way until it got up to speed. It didn't feel nice to drive the car like this. It's a weird feeling of being disconnected to the road. The clutch replacement was necessary to co...

vibedrivermatt

Hello, I found some pics from the clutch install we did on my 09 24.l vibe. This wasn't a fun. It's really tight underneath the 2.4l vibe. There's wasn't a lot of room for our wrenches. We also did this laying on our backs as it was a diy situation with stands stands. Heres the pics!

vibedrivermatt

I just checked mine 121614 on the odo. Its a 2009 2.4l. My car has lower than average milage becuase of my job on a tugboat. It sits in a parking lot for 6 months out of the year. You see, we work for 14 days and then have 14 days off. Or you could say we work for a fortnight like in that popular ne...

vibedrivermatt

Hey joatmon you've been here a long time dude! Well, I'll be picture posting over in the repairs section. It's been awhile. That should be fun. I don't want to make detailed how-tos but just show some pics of parts going on car. I need new front shocks installed too. My struts are shot. The cars a l...

vibedrivermatt

Nice to see Storm. She's lives in a garage. That's nice. My Earl Grey is an outdoor cat... I mean car. We struggled to find a name fir my vibe. We were stuck between old Grey and Earl Grey. We like star trek so Earl Grey was what we settled on. The 2.4l with manual is nice. When i give the gas it go...

vibedrivermatt

Awesome! Glad to know people are still using the site. I've been a longtime member since 2008 but took a long break from visiting. I was getting bored of a few of the other websites that I frequent like reddit amd decided to pop on here. I still have my vibe. It's a 2009 2.4l. She's still running gr...

vibedrivermatt

If youre still visiting the site in 2024 please reply and post something. I'm curious about how many users the still frequent the site.

vibedrivermatt

Did you ever get you clutch pedal fixed? I see the OP has just bumped the post so I'll add my two cents here. I believe it's time for a clutch replacement. From what I've read r/ask mechanics reddit many were saying this could be an issue with clutch slave/master cylinder. Another commenter suggeste...

vibedrivermatt

Yeah we somewhat looked at the Rav4, but was a bit on the bigger side for our needs. Lots of Rav4's out there too BUT very few Corrolla cross hybrids in the upper trim level, and even fewer in the Acidic blast two toned color, which we want. Should be able to get one in the next month or two. Nice....

vibedrivermatt

Hi the site isn't what isnused to be. Many of the users have moved into different cars and no longer post here. I also no longer post here frequently but used to post quite a bit back around 2009. Anyway, concerning the TRD parts for your car, these are for the most part no longer available for sale...

vibedrivermatt

You could get a new corolla hatch. The 2022 year was the last of the manuals. man I missed those. They're still out there used rhough. The new ones all have CTV transmissions. They have a toyota 2.0l which is supposed to be pretty good. It actually has slightly higher power output than my old 2.4l v...

vibedrivermatt

I think the pads might just be stuck inside the brake shoes. Maybe you can find a towing strap, hook it to the front tow point of the vibe and give it a little tug with another car or truck. That might break the shoes free inside the drum.

vibedrivermatt

Caretaker wrote: ↑Mon Sep 27, 2021 2:43 pm Well, if you have the Maxx Ever Start battery from Walmart, it was rated one of the best just a few years ago.

well, I hope its fixable. im going to recharge the battery.

vibedrivermatt

I probably should have just wrote those all down and pasted them but you get my drift.

vibedrivermatt

I had pics here before but theyre not necessary.

vibedrivermatt

I think the car needs a new ECM

vibedrivermatt

I have a bunch of lights on the dash and my battery is dead. I lost power steering and then needed to get jumped at a gas station.

vibedrivermatt

I bought those pink phonebooks too. It was kinda steep $150 for the 3 book set but i figured it would pay for itself when my vibe needed a clutch replacement. Im just at over 90k now and shes ready for a new clutch soon, especially with the way ive beem driving it anyway. Im needing to baby it now w...

vibedrivermatt

I don't think that's it. Look at the second picture. That shows shearing bent _into_ the oil pan compartment, not outwards, as it would be if it was just the rod coming loose. I'm suspecting an impact from something underneath, then when the oil blew out - it ate itself. You may be right. I just ga...

vibedrivermatt

Welcome back! Im in a similar boat as you. I too bought a 2009 in 2008 . The only difference is that i kept driving my vibe all these years but just took a break from posting. As for upgrades, i recommend the TRD strut brace if those are still out in the wild. Not sure if you can find one but I thin...

vibedrivermatt

Wow ive never seen a sploaded vibe engine! They must have forgot to put oil in it. As many of us 2.4l owners have experienced, these tend to drink oil. So, if you had one of these, never checked the oil or never changed the oil, eventually it would drink all its own oil and run dry, which i could se...

vibedrivermatt

There are many who've been on lowering springs for 100k+ miles. I've had them for probably 40k miles with zero issues. The bigger concern is using quality struts when lowering. Yes, well it could be that you first and second gen vibe owners had better options concerning suspension stuff. There were...

vibedrivermatt

I dont want to be a party pooper but i feel lowering springs are a bad addition to the vibe. This is just my opinion and some other vibe owners may be happy with their suspension upgrades. Its just in my experience i had two broken front TRD springs after a few years of using them on my 2009 vibe. I...

vibedrivermatt

My 2.4l base also consumes oil between changes but its no big deal. The engine is still running great at 91,000 miles. It seems to drink about a quart every 5k.. i just top-er off when needed.

vibedrivermatt

From what youve described, you got an excellent deal on the car. These wear a pontiac badge but theyre really toyotas underneath. The parts are interchangeable with 09 matrix and not too tough to get. Generally, things rarely break on these cars anyway. 👍🏻 Mainly, all ive ever had to do is replace b...

vibedrivermatt

Looks great. How is it equiped?

vibedrivermatt

Hello, congrats and welcome! I got the springs trd but later went back to stock. They really just made the ride worse. Being such a small car it sorta has a bumpy ride as is. the trd strut brace ia really nice though. The trd torsion bar looks nice but im less certain it does anything. Lately mines ...

vibedrivermatt

I know im late to the party but id like to throw in my two cents. I think the hydraulic on these cars likes to be driven a certain way. 1500 to 2000rpm is way to low for shifting imo. That stuttering you descrube just sounds likebthe engine getting bogged down by the flywheel. Im aways always shifti...

vibedrivermatt

I remember this strange sound from the dashboard of the vibe after I put a few tens of thousands of miles on it.. to me it sounded like a pebble being shaken in a paper cup.. I've since ignored it and learned to live with it.. lately my vibe is sounding like a creaky old sailing war ship from an era...

vibedrivermatt

I agree with the comment about there being something on the road that could cause it to be slick.. its pretty hard to get the rear of the vibe to kick out. it has a tendency to understeer in most situations. it can be fun sorta if you manage to make oversteer happen though. Dont lift! haha I've rece...

vibedrivermatt

hey I know im late to the party here.. yea at the very least the bracket is toast..

vibedrivermatt

Whoops double posted.

vibedrivermatt

Oh ya I have progressive. They are pretty good. Well, I'm not into modding so much lately but still into doing regular maintenance stuff for my vibe. Ohh I do want to buy some nicer lug nuts. I'd really like to get some good mcgard ones. I want something that doesn't rust so easily. There's a mod! :)

vibedrivermatt

Hey! Yea it's been awhile. Well I haven't done any mods lately. Im in the process of going back to my stock springs. I just got a bit tired of the harsh ride.

I have this snapshot thing plugged into my car now. Uhh that's like a sweet car insurance monitoring device mod. Lol.

vibedrivermatt

Aha! My car has been doing this too. Im glad other people are pointing out what could be causes. It first happened last winter but has done it again twice recently. It appears to me that when these light up the systems turn off. I get the check engine, vsc and traction control lights all at once. li...

vibedrivermatt

Hey Goodluck with your brake upgrade. Looks good!

I might have to find some good rotors at some point. My oem ones have a tough time with road salt.

vibedrivermatt

Yea, the brakes seem to rust very fast. I also had an issue with the caliper pins drying up on the front but I thought it was because I monkeyed around around with the caliper pins and put the wrong kind of caliper lube back in. They were fine after I found the correct caliper pin lube. It's a grey ...

vibedrivermatt

The only thing I could think of is that it may be a good idea to do both rear hubs and to make sure you buy the approrate hub/hubs with abs sensor. Im sure more people will chime in on this. :D removing a hub sounds kind of hard. Personally, that may be a thing I'd have a mechanic do but, if you can...

vibedrivermatt

I just did mine today with Black magic pro shine interior protectant. I'm a big fan of this stuff. :D I got a tiny bottle of this stuff several years ago and I still have a lot left. The results are good whenever I use this stuff but it does have a smell that some may take issue with. Personally I'm...

vibedrivermatt

thats nice that getting that done free of charge.

yea, I replaced all rotors and brake pads around 35,000 miles. my car is out of warranty so I had to pay for parts.

vibedrivermatt

Careful with those hankooks in the winter, they have the traction of hockey pucks on ice. Unstoppable in the dry and wet though! Oh I had noticed they seem to have more of a summer tire look just by looking at the tread. but thanks thats good to know. I also noticed the hankook tires made a bit of ...

vibedrivermatt

yea, I just got new tires. My RSA's were definitely done. One of mine had a slow leak as well but I had done one of those repair jobs with the black sticky strips when a nail got in one of my tires.. I think my car is at 37,000.. but this isnt an accurate measure of the miles I had on the RSA's beca...

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