No Luck

[sking23]

I am having absolutely no luck out of my 2003 vibe. I bought the car in February of last year. I drove it until May 26th when the motor blew up. It sat untold I got my taxes back and replaced the motor. Drove it for 2 weeks an My transmission went out on Thursday. Luckily I a able to sale my crutch car ( A little cluncker I got on payment for 300$ until my vibe was fixed.) To replace My transmission. I do not dog my car or run it crazy. It Is for general use for everyday driving. So I do not understand what is going on with my car.

[tpollauf]

WOW ... It sounds like your poor Vibe was a disaster just waiting (for the next owner) to happen Unfortunately for you .... you were the next owner If I had to guess, the prior owner KNEW that some serious issues were just over the horizon and they "unloaded " the car to avoid any costly repairs. That is LOW and cold and I could not do that to anybody out there. Enough of my speculation, tell us what really happened. Any signs of trouble prior to the engine failing? Total mileage on this Vibe? What part of the country do you live in? Do you plan on keeping it once the tranny is fixed? It just doesn't sound right that all this could go wrong so close to each other. Any enemies out there wanting to see you discouraged (x-girlfriend, coworker, etc). Something doesn't sound right here

[sking23]

WOW ... It sounds like your poor Vibe was a disaster just waiting (for the next owner) to happen Unfortunately for you .... you were the next owner If I had to guess, the prior owner KNEW that some serious issues were just over the horizon and they "unloaded " the car to avoid any costly repairs. That is LOW and cold and I could not do that to anybody out there. Enough of my speculation, tell us what really happened. Any signs of trouble prior to the engine failing? Total mileage on this Vibe? What part of the country do you live in? Do you plan on keeping it once the tranny is fixed? It just doesn't sound right that all this could go wrong so close to each other. Any enemies out there wanting to see you discouraged (x-girlfriend, coworker, etc). Something doesn't sound right here

I have suspected that there was something wrong with the car prior to me getting since the day my motor blew. Prior to the motor blowing up not here was no prior sign of anything wrong with it. I didn't even make it to the 3000 mile mark after My second oil change. (I DID A OIL CHANGE WHEN I FIRST GOT IT AND THEN CHANGED THE OIL AT 3150) the body has 117,000 miles but the motor and tranny now have 68,000. Considering I plate it smart and got a year's warranty on both tranny an motor yes I will keep it until my warranties are up then sell it if I have anymore trouble out of it. I live in Ohio an luckily I am only 2 1/2 hours from a major used part place.. an they are fairly cheap. Prior to my tranny going yes I had signs of it going bad because I didn't have first gear. It wouldn't shift into passing gear. Definitely no ex girlfriend because I am a chick lol and That I can think of I don't have any enemies that would mess with my vehicle.

[vibolista]

That's the bad part of buying a used car, unless you know the car's history. My wife bought a 1 year old Saturn SW2 Wagon with 33,000 miles on it in 2000 from our local Saturn dealer. It consumed oil at the rate of 1/2 quart between oil changes and was told that Saturns do that. By the second year, it was using a quart between oil changes.

Then one night I decided to change out the speakers in the front doors and found silt inside the doors. No wonder the speakers sounded bad. I traced the silt line and it covered the bottom of the dash and most of the engine. The car had been in water, from the bottom of the rear doors on the driver's side to the top of the hood on the passenger side.

Found the spark plugs completely packed in silt. Had to vacuum them out before I took the plugs out to replace. Plug wires were pretty gross too. Dealership said they didn't notice any of that... even though they had done a "44 point inspection".

The engine finally seized at around 48,000 miles and had to be replaced. I found a used engine with about 40,000 miles on it and installed it. Our Saturn's still running, and now has 165,000 miles on it. Not burning oil, but it does have some strange electrical gremlins, probably from the immersion. We use it mostly during Winter as our sacrificial anode car to the salt gods!

Stuff like that happens. It's a chance we take anytime we buy a used car. If you fix your Vibe properly, it should last a long time. They are basically a tough Toyota Corolla.

Hope you can get it fixed. Good luck!

[kc6yot]

Wow that sucks, I have bought three Vibes and all I have do to keep them running is change oil, all the filters and put gasoline in them. All three run like a dog hit in the backside with a big rock, they just purr at 3000 rpm going down the highway. Even the AWD gets 29MPG or better, hope you get it running the way it should and it doesn't cost you an arm and a leg to get there. Mine are dang good cars, would recomend them to everyone looking for a small compact. With all cars there are some dogs out there, folks that do not do the required maintenance and over the miles little things become big things. Good luck!