Is my transmission dead or is it something else?

[markg8]

2003 base Vibe 5 speed manual. 176,000 miles.

I was on my way to work yesterday morning and had just accelerated up to the 40mph speed limit and 4th gear from a stoplight and suddenly the car started slowing down. The engine was running and revved higher when I pushed the gas but the transmission wasn't engaged.

The shift lever and clutch seemed normal. It shifted fine, but wasn't engaging. No odd sounds, no pops, no grinding, no play in the clutch pedal or vibrations.

I pulled over and stopped. The car was still running. Still shifted in all gears including reverse. No difference with the car on or off.

So I had it towed to a shop and explained to them what happened. They said they'd look at it and get back to me in the afternoon. The guy called about 4 and said the trans was shot and it would cost me about $4000 to replace it. I asked him specifically what it was and he said it's probably got all kinds of broken parts, shafts etc in there and
it'd cost about $1000 just to take it out and open it up to look.

Wouldn't the trans make any noise if that happened? Wouldn't the shifter or clutch be hard to move or grind?

Could it be anything else? I'm not a mechanic but the sudden failure without any previous symptoms leads me to believe it's a solenoid or linkage failure.

I really don't want to junk this car or spend $4000 if it's something less catastrophic. Does anybody know what this sounds like? I need to make some decisions about what to do today. Thanks in advance.

[SSizler]

It is hard to say without seeing it, but your description makes it sound like a clutch failure rather than a transmission failure.
The clutch pedal can operate normal but the car won't move if the friction material is gone from the clutch disk.
That is what I would check first.
Hopefully someone else can reply with better information from personal experience.

[joatmon]

Welcome to genvibe

I agree with SSizler, sounds like classic symptoms of a bad clutch.

Clutches wear out. Don't know the history of the car, but if you've never replaced the clutch until 176K miles, you are much better at driving a manual tranny VIbe than I ever was.

2003 Vibes, including mine, could be prone to having a bearing prematurely wear out in the manual transmission. However, this was not a quiet failure. I can't remember anyone here reporting a 5 speed with "all kinds of broken parts, shafts etc in there " You need to find a different shop, either they don't know what they're doing or they are trying to rip you off.

There is one other possibility, less common than a clutch wearing out, but if one of the CV joints in the axles broke, then all of the torque from the tranny goes to a disconnected axle, none gets transferred to the wheels. If the clutch is bad, when in gear and you step on the gas, the engine RPMs go up but the speedometer doesn't. When an axle is broken, the RPMs and the speedometer will both go up, but the car still doesn't move (unless you have ABS, can't remember if ABS vibes drive speedo from the wheel sensors or directly from the tranny)

[markg8]

Had the clutch, transmission, and speedo-odometer spinner replaced in May 2018 by Pep Boys after they changed my trans fluid and put the nut back on the bell housing crooked and then torqued it down to stop the drip and cracked the bell housing. They gave me a new Beck Arnsley clutch, a junk yard trans, and I got a new spinner off Ebay as the old one had crapped out about 17000 miles before. I put AMSOIL low sulfur manual trans fluid in it too on the advice of ppl I read here.

Worked fine til yesterday. I think that clutch has about 37,000 miles on it.

[markg8]

Don't remember if it has ABS but I doubt it. This thing has crank windows so it's not loaded with options. I looked up where the ABS idiot light is on the dash on that other thread and put all this info into an email to the shop. They said they'd check it out.

I hope you guys are right. I've found plenty of used trannies for this thing online. Found a bunch of used Vibes with as much or more miles on them as I have on mine for more money than I spent in 2016 on this one.

Of course there's at least two youtubes from back in the day advising people to buy used Vibes instead of Matrixes because they WERE cheaper at the time.

Now I wait to hear back from the shop.

[SeattleJeremy]

If you are not hearing any nocking or grinding noises, then the transmission is likely fine.

It's time for a clutch. Mine lasted 199k miles because I did a lot of highway driving. Most people need a clutch between 125-175k miles. Well done.

[markg8]

I'm thinking it might be the axle. In any case I need to find a new shop. These guys haven't even looked at it yet and say they might get around to doing a cursory check today or maybe Monday. When he said maybe Monday I explained to him that time is of the essence. I rented a car til next Thursday and that's not cheap. The guy said they usually are scheduled out for a week or two ahead of time.

They're not really interested. I wish he'd told me that Tuesday.

BTW it had a new clutch 37,000 miles ago as I said above. It's never slipped, vibrated or anything else.

[markg8]

Just so you guys know you were right. It was the clutch. They replaced it for an arm and a leg. Now it runs fine. Thanks for all your help.

[joatmon]

Now it runs fine.

That's great news, and thanks for letting us know.

Cost more than you wanted to spend, but not nearly as much as if the tranny was bad. Hope you didn't have that first shop do the work for you