Last photo

Additional photos of bracket

As a follow up to several PMs I have received about the custom bracket I had made for this project I wanted to share a few pictures of since it is now out of the car. I do not have an technical measurements on the car as it was done by hand and used the engine/trans/transfer case as the template. I ...

In 2003 and 2004 both the AWD and FWD cars had cable driven throttles. 2005-2008 were electronic throttle. This difference requires different wiring to the transmissions. Hence, you will need to find a 2003 or 2004 MU5 transmission for your 2004. With that said, I have had good luck using Car-Part.c...

My 03 was wired with a full range input for the fronts (4 wires) from the OEM head unit to the amp, then the OEM amp output had 4 full range outputs (8 wires), front woofer (2) and front tweeter (2) with the filter built into the tweeter (as Derf indicated). What I did was take the 2 output channels...

I tried adjusting sound quality (bass to the max and reduce treble to lowest level) and still no bass. This car does have the factory amp under the front passenger seat from which the speakers are fed. 2003 and 2004 models with Moons and Tunes pkg were only 6 speaker units. 2005 was the first year f...

I did several drop-ins on the vibe and as long as you have a few things out of the way, like the radiator, it's not too bad. The only mount to line up is the front mount on the engine. The trans housing bolts are a little tricky but doable. What worked for me was to loosely attach one of the starter...

He is the history as it was told to me by my daughter: All was working as well as the 11 year old system could - so it had bass. Then while out running errands she said it was fine when she got out of the car and wasn't when she returned. This was about 2 weeks ago. She did nothing to the settings t...

Good excuse for me to get a new tool - a laser temperature sensor. Thanks!

This is a weird one that I can't find anything on this forum about - perhaps because I am using the wrong search terms. But the 03 with moons and tunes has no bass sound at all. Volume is still good, it just sounds horrible. I checked the under seat amp to make sure it was getting power, checked bal...

Well I went ahead and put the car back on the ground to test other fixes on the road. Based on some self designed tests I did it would appear I am being a bit paranoid. The car rolled easily and was a breeze to push around the driveway. The test drive also went well. I will, however, change the gear...

It was an easy fix. I will take pictures tonight when I ge home and post them. However, while finishing up that project I accidentally knocked it off the workbench to the garage floor. The shock of the impact seems to have freed it up. Obviously It's still going into the recycling pile.

Sure enough the chain tensioner was the culprit. I pulled the original and it was frozen; I could not get the indexing pawl to move. I replaced it with a new one ($25 from Autozone) and after checking timing following the release procedure I fired up Frankenvibe and after about 10 seconds it quieted...

In chasing down several issues with my daughter's "Frankenvibe" I was working on a full rear brake service when I noticed that turning the hubs took a considerable amount of effort (on jack stands with both rear tires off and brake drums removed). I then checked the rotation with the car i...

I have not pulled it yet but likely will to make sure it is extending all the way out. I will also see if I can get a look at the guide to see if it has any damage. Thanks!

I have an 03 1ZZFE that was making noise from the front of the engine. I removed the serpentine belt to eliminate the belt tensioner and water pump (which is new). the noise was still present. I removed the cam cover and checked the deflection of the chain between the cam gears. By eye it appears I ...

I did the manifold gasket on my daughter's 03 this weekend. with the recent cold snap here in the Midwest she had the CEL light come on. had the codes pulled and got the P0171. She was also getting crappy MPG and a healthy shake at idle when in gear. The new gasket went on with ease. I also did a go...

THANKS! I have not tallied up all the receipts but I am figuring I have just less than $2K in it, including the car. I had a few unexpected expenses like a replacement radiator and water pump. We still have a way to go to get it to "John" spec (I could be accused of being a perfectionist)....

The now running Franken-Vibe running Christmas errands! Still a few minors jobs to do but overall the darn little thing just keeps going! Thanks for all your help and support! Merry Christmas!

IT'S ALIVE! It started on the first turn of the key. The only hick-up was with the power steering fluid taking it's time to flow through the system. I took my daughter on a short drive around the block and so far so good. No surprises. The tranny behaved normally, there were no strange noises from t...

PROGRESS!!!!! I final got some time to focus on this project. Since I last wrote, I was struggling with making custom bracketry for the AWD differential. That was solved by having a custom bracket fabricated by a local guy who was very talented and cheap. The next order of business was to drill hole...

I have a medal fab guy coming to the house today to see if he can create something that connects the top of the AWD diff to the bell housing bolts. In the meantime I am going to take a stab at drilling a tapping bolt holes (inside the blue circle). No worries on previous posts. This is how we all le...

I got these pics off EBay Motors. Although the blocks in the pictures are upside down you can see the difference. The red circles show where the threaded studs are cast into the block, while the blue circle show where the right side bracket would bolt up. The FDW block pictured here is also slightly...

Progress is being made. Both engines have been removed. However, to my dismay I discovered the block castings for FWD and AWD cars are different on the 1ZZ engines. :x AWD cars have 2 extra threaded studs just above the freeze plug at the back of the engine to accept a cast iron mount bracket that c...

Upside down? LOL! It looks normal to me on my side. Maybe the admins can take a look at that.

I have another technical question: Does anyone know how many bolts are holding the fly wheel to the torque converter? I want to make sure I get them all....

Thanks all! So far I have begun the process of taking the donor car apart. Unfortunately the photos of my progress didn't come out. But here are two pictures of the donor and the new car.

Thanks guys. I pick up the AWD car tomorrow and will begin the transplant over the long weekend. I am going to start with option 2 and hope I can find and get to all the bolts and bits. I will be taking my time so that I can clean up the bay in the new car while I have the room. I am also going to d...

Fortunately my daughter walked away from her totaled 2003 Vibe this past Friday. So I now have an opportunity to build her another one on the cheap. After seeing the damage to her Vibe I am convinced another Vibe is the way to go. It was SMASHED!!!!! and she walked away. Anyway the engine is still s...

The salvage yards where these parts were found are within 2 hours of me. I think both are fairly large and likely have this information handy. The one that I plan to visit first has both manual and power doors in their inventory so I could check there. Thanks for the info!

All, see my post here viewtopic.php?f=33&t=41184" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. I don't see as much activity in the "Exterior" section of the forum so I thought I would try here. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Great write up and pictures! I did this on my daughter's 03 a few weeks back without any real issues. I did have to employ a puller to get the coil freed from the compressor, and I had some thread issues on one of the long bolts that hold it to the block, but nothing insurmountable. THANKS!!!

I am looking for decent salvage doors (passenger side) to replace the smashed up doors on my daughter's 03. I found a replacement front door that is set up for power and a replacement rear door that is manual. Both are the same color as my daughter's car so no paint work (hooray!). All the guts in t...