Noob, sort of...

[ShallowPockets]

Hey all. Picked up an 06 Vibe GT with 24k original miles on it back in February. Loving it so far....and here's why...I previously owned a 2006 Toyota Corolla XRS...phantom gray...picked it up in Feb 2007 with 6k miles on the clock. I LOVED THIS CAR!!!1!1 Until....October 30, 2010...when it was unceremoniously assassinated by a careless driver. It had 67k miles on it, 61k were mine. It was spotless, save for the massive accident that tweaked the body, left godknowswhat on the street, broke out the windshield, busted every piece of dash and pillar trim loose, and put the throttle body in the battery...I have photos, and I get a little sick every time I see them. I got a bit injured in that crash. At the time, I was thinking about avoiding death more than enjoying my commute, so I picked up a 2010 Tacoma doublecab. Soul crushing vehicle, it is. It was also wallet-crushing, as it was running about $80 to fill up every six days or so. I needed to be able to tow a kart trailer(something that, now, I can't do anymore because of the wreck) but not that badly. The Vibe literally costs half as much to drive, all things considered, as the Taco did. I'm addicted to the 2zz-ge/C6x transmission. I started looking for a Matrix XRS because I wanted my 2zz but with some cargo space...and all of them that I found had been rode hard and put up wet. I remembered the Vibe GT was the same car. Voila. Here I am. Came here to see about little things that kind of irk me about the Vibe, when compared to the 06 Corolla XRS. I've searched out some of them(like the horn, that will be replaced...SOON) but I've had no luck finding what I need on the others. I can also tell you the same things my TMMC-built Corolla did that the NUMMI-built Vibe does too, lol. Little window rattle anyone? Right now, I'm looking for:1. power port install in the armrest storage console. The knock-out plug is in there, but no port. My Corolla had the dash (cig lighter) port AND one in the armrest storage console. Anyone done it? Is it plug and play? Or, does the fact we have a household-type outlet on the dash somehow prevent a second cig lighter type powerport on the car?2. the shifter has a fair bit of slop at only 24k miles. The Corolla, with 67k miles had ZERO...and that was with a season or two of AutoX on it. This one is so bad I sometimes catch and hang on the gate between 1st and 3rd when shifting from 2nd to 3rd, but above all, it's annoying. In neutral, I can move it 360 degrees. The Corolla, with the same stock shifter, wouldn't do that. I keep seeing the brass/bronze bushings threads, but I don't know if that's my problem. Also, is there a good thread on dash removal to get to the shifter/cables? I yanked the Corolla's center stack to install an AUX emulator, but the Vibe's dash is a little different. 3. Anyone else have the exhaust gurgle on decel while in gear? It's a stock car, completely...does the stock exhaust really flow that well? The Corolla didn't even do it, lol. It still runs and idles fine(it is a bit slower on the uptake than the Corolla with the extra 350lbs or so) and it still gets really great MPG, so I'm not terribly concerned by it. Just found it odd. K, back to work. See you all around.

[joatmon]

Welcome to genvibe1. See item #1 in http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=25918 (See any others that sound interesting also )2. Could be bushings or could be tranny. http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=5923 has some info on pulling the center console from around the shifter. At some point we need to replace the missing pictures in that thread,so if you take yours apart, take pics 3. Haven't noticed gurgling, but that doesn't mean its not there in mine

[MrHatchWagon]

I noticed a gurgle in my base 5spd, but only because I had an exhaust leak around the flanges where the axle back connects. It made it very noticeable on downshifts

[vibenvy]

Welcome to GenVibe! Post pictures of your Vibe when you get a chance .

[star_deceiver]

Welcome to GenVibe!!!

[ShallowPockets]

Thanks. I'll post pics when I wash it. It's either been too cold, too rainy, or I've been too busy since I got it about five weeks ago. Pretty standard...silver, 17s, stock. A few scratches here and there, nothing bad for a six year old vehicle. The only real "mod" I want to do is to replace the headlights. They have yellowed and clouded...it was an Arizona car, figure the heat and sun did it. My Corolla's headlights were starting to cloud as well, at the top near the hood. Polishing is temporary, so I'm leaning toward replacement. The steering wheel has some fading at the top and the chrome on the shift knob is cracking like it wants to peel...the wheel I can live with, and my knob from my Corolla is sitting on a bookshelf in my house. Yes, I took it from the salvage yard, lol. You know the new, factory ones are over $100 from Toyota?! Seriously... I also have my K&N filter...there's a trick to these to keep the MAF from clogging with oil. I should do a quick thread on it in Maintenance, but it's so easy it's almost not worth the bandwidth. I spent about 7 years of my young adult life surrounded by Toyota Master Techs and MDTs and learned a few things about this car and their cars in general. I've helped rebuild a 2zz that was was poorly maintained by a Celica owner with too much faith in synthetic oil, we used to work out of my garage a bit.

[zaxellord]

Hi and Welcome