04 Pontiac Vibe transmission fitment A246E/ A245E?

[cgeorge95]

Morning! This is my first post, I've been lurking for a while. I have a 2004 Pontiac Vibe 1.8l 1ZZ-FE, FWD 4 speed automatic A246E transmission. It was my dads vehicle since new, has 250,000 miles on it, and one day he went to pull out of work and in R/D there is a loud grinding sound. Sounds like the input shaft / torque converter splines are stripped, flywheel broke, or another internal failure of the transmission. The engine starts and runs great still.

I'm looking to just swap out the transmission from the junkyard ($100, $25 core), this is gonna be a budget project. That's all it needs and that's all I want to throw at it, maybe a cat to fix the CEL. What I need to know, (and yes I've searched, can't find definitive answers) is what transmissions will fit and function as normal with this engine.

From what I've read it looks like the A246E only came equipped on the 03-08 FWD vibes, 03-08 FWD matrix', and 94-99 Celica ST 2.2L's is that correct?
Will the A245E fit perfectly onto a 1ZZ-FE engine without any mods and hook up just like the A246E / Start up with no issues and not need reprogramming? If so then that opens my window for transmission's greatly.
Are there any other transmissions that will fit or am I limited to only A246E transmissions?

Any advice / knowledge would be appreciated! Thanks!

[jayoldschool]

There's a ton of info out there on this. Don't search for the codes you have, search for "C59". Better yet, search for "C60 swap". I replaced the 5 speed with the stronger 6 speed, and many others have too. It's a straight bolt in, and I would highly recommend it.

[cgeorge95]

The C series are standard transmissions I was looking for the fitment of only automatic transmissions. I just edited my post and clarified that it's an automatic.

[jayoldschool]

My apology, I naturally assumed it was a manual with problems. I'm not familiar with the auto codes.