Hello, I'm going to look at a 2004 Vibe today or tomorrow and I only know a little bit about these cars, so any feedback would be appreciated. It has 84,000 mi. on it and is a manual transmission base model.
1. Are all of the manual transmissions for this year faulty? As in, it's not a matter of "if" but "when" it will fail.
2. What are some common issues to look for when I check the car out. Are there any particular sights/smells/sounds/etc. to be aware of?
I do believe the faulty bearings are all across the board, including related Toyota models. From my own experience, the tranny failure issue is probably more of a question when than anything else, but I still wouldn't let it stop you from buying one. I own a 2005 Corolla with the same 5 spd and it waited until it rolled over 200K miles before failing. I put a new (remanufactured) tranny into and I expect to get another 200K from the car. It shouldn't be very hard to get your hands on a good used one either, since they're relatively abundant from being used in so many different cars.
Josh
2005 Vibe GT ~ Platinum
2006 Vibe ~ Lava, Base, Auto
2005 Corolla S ~ Silver Streak Mica, Manual (Wife's) A common mistake that people make when trying to design something
completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
Dealer or private party?
If private party, ask for a service record to see if fluids were changed out regularly. Regular trans fluid replacement is the key to keeping the early 5-speeds running.
If it's dealer or there are no service records, assume nothings been changed out besides the occasional oil change and price accordingly.
Welcome to genvibe, congrats on your interest in a Vibe, we're rather fond of them here. Good luck on the search.
As a victim of the 03 5 speed, I'd be cautious about an 04 5 speed. The factory maintenance schedule for an 04 says to replace the manual tranny oil "only if your vehicle is used to tow a trailer" This would mean that almost anyone who owned a vibe and strictly adhered to the factory maintenance schedule would never change the tranny oil. I wonder about the actual cause for the bearing failure, and am not convinced that regular oil change would prevent it. In mine, I went through an extended period of hypoermiling, often coasting in neutral down hills, I wonder if that somehow was bad for the bearing, perhaps something like unloaded activity let normal vibration chatter the bearing away. Probably not, but a tranny was an unexpected expense, so I wonder what I might have done to cause it. I've replaced that Vibe with an auto tranny 03 Vibe, so I don't wonder about it much anymore
At 84K miles, depending on how it was driven, it may need a new clutch sooner rather than later.
With any 11 year old car, there may be things go bad with it, but other than the one you asked about, there's really no major failure prone parts.
A common minor failure is an electric motor used to switch a flap from fresh air to recirculate, a gear int he motor assembly can strip a tooth or two, which is noticeable if you switch to recirculate (or fresh, depending on the position when the tooth stripped) and there will be a loud knock or tap, recurring every second or so, inside the dash. So , be sure to hit the recirc switch and make sure you don't get that sound.