New Member in Colorado! '06 Base 304K Miles

[gskatz2015]

I've been reading this forum a fair bit recently, looking mainly for the high mileage Vibers out there! Good to see a fair amount of people over the 300K Mile mark.

I have an '06 Base, and lucky me that my dad gave it to me when he retired and bought a new car. He worked for the Maine DOT and drove it all around the state for work, and put over 295K on it before he handed it off to me. Manual transmission, nearly all those miles were highway miles so surprisingly it still has the original clutch! I read so much about folks burning through clutches every 100K and I just don't understand those stories! You don't have to rev it up to 3500 when you're getting going from a stop.

I drove it cross country when I moved from Maine to Colorado last August, and somewhere in southern Missouri I crossed the 300K line! The picture in my signature is the one I took when I got to that mileage. But of course the odometer stopped at 299999. I knew that was coming thanks to the GenVibe forums! Currently I have about 304500 on it. Just recently drove the 1600 mile roundtrip from Denver to Vegas, she held up great! Had to get up the Rockies in 3rd gear going 40 with the flashers on, but she made it all the same!

The only significant problem it had was the known recall computer issue. Never been in any accidents. My dad treated it like a baby. He had 3 ford escort wagons before this one each getting over 350K, so I think he knows how to baby the transmission. 95% highway miles probably helped too. 3000 mile oil changes, alignments, and tire rotations have kept the suspension in great shape.

Only recently has the transmission been having a problem. If I downshift into 3rd when I'm going over 35mph I get a slight grind as I'm shifting in. It only happens if I'm not paying attention to my speed. Some of the stuff I've read on the interwebz indicates problems with a synchro? I'm really not car savvy in any way, but I think the reason this is happening is because when I was new to manual shifting, essentially when my dad gave me the car, I would downshift in order to slow down on the highway in an effort to save my brakes. I did this a good bit on the trip from Maine to Colorado. And now, probably 75% of my driving is in the city, so that definitely has an effect.

The last guy who inspected it in Maine said I need to use it or lose it!

Sorry about the tl/dr rambling post, but I just wanted to share my Vibe love in this community! look forward to posting more.

[808 Vibes]

Welcome

[trb]

Welcome, and that is great that your Vibe has over 300K on it! As well as it has been taken care of, it should last a good bit longer. If it is grinding when shifting, then yes, your syncros are probably going out. I would just skip downshifting most of the time unless you are going downhill and need to be in the lower gear to maintain the appropriate speed. Brakes are MUCH cheaper than a clutch, especially if you can't change the clutch yourself. Mine was about $250 complete with flywheel doing it myself, but the PO paid about $1,400 to have it done a few years ago. But as an interim "fix", you could change the transmission fluid if it has not been done in the past couple of years, using the correct fluid. Sometimes it can help with the shifting. I use Pennzoil Syncromesh manual transmission oil: http://www.monkeywrenchracing.com/produ ... ts_id=1352

Best of luck and many more miles in your new Vibe!

[vibrologist]

Welcome to genVibe gskatz!
Another point to the shifting: make sure the clutch is completely depressed when you shift. And make sure there is enough pedal play.

[mkowdley]

welcome!

[tpollauf]

Welcome to GenVibe!

[csxt8058]

Welcome aboard!! It's great to see the Vibe with that many miles on it still doing just fine.

JR

[Nasmfell]

Hi gskatz2015 Welcome.

[vibenvy]

Welcome to GenVibe! Thanks for posting a picture of your "new" Vibe right away! That's awesome to hear that it has 304,500+ miles and is still running great!

[gskatz2015]

Thanks all for the warm welcome!

@trb @vibrologist thanks for the information. I don't know if the transmission fluid has actually ever been changed. And yea I don't down shift to slow down anymore.