Freaking Vibe Problems at 80mph

[03VibeGT6Spd]

Today while crusing north on US-23 at 80 mph.I was crusing along with my family in the car and All of a sudden It start's making this loud grinding sound and the smell of burning rubber. I start slowing down to see what just happened and I hear a loud bang and the car jerks to the side.Then as soon as it started I was over, As I look in the rear window only to see a large piece of plastic about as wide as my car flying thru the air.I pulled over only to find my entire wheel well lining gone, ripped completly off the car.The I get back in and close the door and window control pops out of the door.(removed) is going to happen to this car next.Toyota Quality Sucks!Thank You!

[ColonelPanic]

That piece is really flimsy, man! I swear it is made from melted down milk jugs and dyed black. Mine was duct taped back togehter for the last leg of my Vibe ownership. lol! That one piece has been torn to shreds on many a'Vibes. And yes sir, my window control was hanging loose too. Nothing was holding it in down at the bottom since the clip broke.I'd say try to dump it if you're not happy with it. Find something you like, it works wonders for you. Trust me.

[P-Fernandez]

Mines kinda loose.. since i got the vibe.. ( its an 06 though)... i better check it

[03VibeGT6Spd]

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »I'd say try to dump it if you're not happy with it. Find something you like, it works wonders for you. Trust me. If I drive my 4x4 over it, do you think my insurance company will consider it an accident?Ya, I think it is time to replace it. I wonder how the new V-8 Impala is? A test drive is in my near future.

[ColonelPanic]

My parents have the last gen Impala SS, a 2004 with all of 5,000-something miles on it. It mainly sits in their garage collecting dust. It hauls man, supercharged 3800 V6. Smooth, torquey beast. Not a bad car... I've heard the new V8's will haul even more, although the end up with a lot of torque steer. Give them a try, it sounds like a lot of performance, a lot of room, and all for a pretty reasonable price. If you can spend $30,000. My family has had several W-body GM's, we've had great luck out of all of 'em. I'm sure this new Impala will be a great car as well.

[scherry2]

if that is all that happened count your blessings you could have ColonelPanic's car. did the window control just pop back in?as for the wheel liner. wow don't know what to say. I forgot to bolt my lower part back up on both sides and went driving , it does make a heck of a noise. mine has holes in it where it scraped thru but never came off. check out a junk yard you should be able to pick up one cheap.

[meistees]

my liner came loose and my tire wore a big hole in it when cornering on off ramp

[Nomad]

Is the wheel lines a known Vibe problem, or is this just a case of a lemon?

[burkeyro]

Seems to me that it's more of a Problem with the "Plasti" clips used to hold the majority of the stuff together - My clip broke where the Fenderwell meets the other plastic piece below - and I wore a hole in it just like Scherry2's did - haven't heard too many of them getting ripped completely off. Seems like a Common problem, I don't worry about it much cause I expect things like that to happen - all and all the vibe and matrix are a pretty cheap car which equals lots of plastic parts. Plastic is plastic, it flexs, bends and whatnot - if you look at it from a physics stand point:The Liner is basically a plastic AIR DAM - air comes into the front of the grill goes past the Fog light then has nowhere to go - enough force and the plastic clips will give out and the air coming through will push the liner into the tire.Now - after my holes were burnt into the liner from the tire and I replaced the plastic clips, I've had no problems.just my 2 cents on the subject.

[tangerine]

I had mine replaced 3 or 4 times, 1st time i thought I hit a skunk because it was flappin and smelt aweful, well I looked under the car saw nothing so went on to work. All was fine when I got to work and had more light since it was 4am, well i looked again after work didn't see it then I left work, heard it again and pulled over in a parking lot and looked everywhere...thats where I saw my well liner had come loose and i had burned a hole in it so I ripped it off, went to the dealer and had them replace my well and my tire for it eatting my tire up, then the other side did it and back and fourth. Wait till you see the problems that arise when you get your vibe up to 130 When we got rid of the limiter and opened her up when I still had it, that was the last tie I ever did it. at 130 my door ajar lights kept comin on and talk about wobble. EDIT: and the clip issue isn't Toyato quality its GM. problem with breaking clips has been a well known issue with GM since the cavaliers

[Jahntassa]

Haven't had either problem yet in my 03' GT with 41k on it..

[ColonelPanic]

130? 130????????

[scherry2]

Quote, originally posted by tangerine »EDIT: and the clip issue isn't Toyato quality its GM. well I don't know about that. I went to the GM dealer and ordered new fenderwell clips. and they received the wrong ones everytime they ordered them. so i went to the Toyota dealer and they had them in stock. the parts guy at the Toyota dealer said they have to replace them all the time.

[03VibeGT6Spd]

Today, I price the parts Gm $150 retail my wholsale price $130.00.Toyota Dealership retail $70.00