05 Vibe - Possible Tranny Problems?

[creo6746]

I have an 05 Vibe (automatic) with 59k. In the morning when I start it up and put it in gear and go the RPM's rev up really high but the car doesn't go, once it warms up I have no problems. Today when I was almost to work stopped at a stoplight, when the light turned green I pushed on the gas and the same thing happened.Anyone else having this problem?? Or have an idea on what it could be?

[lovemyraffe]

Did you check your tranny fluid? That's the first thing to look at.

[creo6746]

Yeah just checked it - it looks fine. We just had the transmission flushed a few months ago.

[lovemyraffe]

Were you on a hill?

[creo6746]

Nope - flat surface.

[jake75]

Bob and Ray once said that the #1 reason for needing an alignment was having an alignment. Maybe the same relationship holds for transmission troubles and transmission fluid flushes.

[lovemyraffe]

And your tranny fluid is full?

[creo6746]

Yep it was at the normal level - and no discoloration or anything like that. I love my Vibe and I'm not ready to give her up yet, but if it is the tranny it might just be the best thing.

[lovemyraffe]

The tranny in the Vibe/Matrix/Rola is known for going out but not at 59k. Go to a parking lot/quiet street with a hill, point the nose uphill, leave the car in drive and take your foot off the brake. Your tranny should give some resistance. It might just be a freak thing that happens once. Watch it, if it continues to do it have it looked at. I know my 05 auto started to act funny for a few days, then went back to normal.Good luck.

[creo6746]

Thanks. My driveway has a pretty good slope to it so I'll try that. After I had my wreck in that car (I rear ended someone....whoopsie ) 2 years ago, I've noticed that my Vibe doesn't run as it used to - already had the fuel injector replaced and a few other minor things - grrrrrrr.......

[lovemyraffe]

When I get back to the shop today I will ask about it. Keep me posted

[creo6746]

Thank you - my BIL who owns an auto repair shop is looking into it also - unfortunately he lives in another state which does me no good - LOL - but at least I know I can get a "base price" from him if it is the Tranny and then show that to the dealer.

[lovemyraffe]

My f-i-l owns a tranny shop that I work part time in. If the tranny is bad, you'd be lookin to start around $2500

[gr8vibe]

Well, this may not even be near the area of the vibe but my 94 merc cougar had that EXACT same problem! Mine was automatic. The RPM's would shoot up and I would just sit there! In drive! So long story short, i had a cracked block in the engine, leaking oil into my coolant resoivoir and ugh, it was a mess! but THANKFULLY I considered, and selected the vibe for my new car! So now its the dealerships problem. thats my story.

[creo6746]

These are TOTALLY the times when I wish I would of opted for the extended warranty on my car.....*sigh*

[creo6746]

Is the tranny in the 05's GM or Japanese??

[lovemyraffe]

It's all Toyota

[Digger]

I thought the power train was 70,000 or 7 year warranty.

[jake75]

7/70 was Chrysler - they changed to 3/36 about 2005 because they said their research showed it was not important to buyers - then changed to Lifetime because who knows. The 7/70 was transferable for a fee. The 7/70 is only for the original owner so it does zip for resale values. Car marketing types are stupid.Pontiac was 3/36 - then changed to 5/60 I think but that was probably after Creo bought his. Just maybe GM would do something for Creo - like at least split the cost - as a tranny should last at least 60,000 mi.I still suspect the tranny fluid change was the culpret.

[blue_can]

Take it to a transmission place and have them check* The line pressure at idle and at stall* The stall speedTo me the most obvious reasons for this could be Low line pressure (stuck or malfunctioning regulator)Sticking forward clutch piston (probably jamming piston or leaking seal)Somthing stuck in one of the the valve body passages Worn clutch discs or steels can show this symptom but unlikely at your mileage.The two tests I mentioned should help with figuring out what's going on.If you did the flush without cleaning out the magnet and replacing the filter as someone in an earlier post said that could have been the cuase.

[Petrucci914]

What he said. Clogged valve body or stuck solenoid.

[blue_can]

I believe a stuck solenoid should not cause complete loss of drive. The way it is designed if either of the shift solenoids are on or off you will get some kind of gear (failsafe). If the pressure control solenoid is stuck there will be no boost pressure but there should be some baseline pressure. The car should move but will slip between shifts.On the other hand if the pressure control solenoid is stuck in the high pressure position there will be very hard shifts.But something in the valve body is definitely a possibility.I've had problems in other cars with things like this and it usually was caused by seomthing jamming a part of the transmission. When the transmission heated up the expansion caused the part to get free and work normally. So it does point to something jamming due to possibly friction material or some other broken part which would be obviously more serious.

[ColonelPanic]

Quote, originally posted by creo6746 »These are TOTALLY the times when I wish I would of opted for the extended warranty on my car.....*sigh* The transmission died on the Vibe I had at 60,000 miles... I had the GM extended warranty on it which covered everything. The service mgr said it cost $4,000+ in parts but I don't know how much it was going to be for labor on top of that. Everybody here is always so against getting the warranty since these things are Toyotas but it paid off big for me. Yours not moving sounds a lot like what mine was doing... It had some serious pressure issues. I was sitting there with it in drive, pedal to the floor - hitting the rev limiter constantly - and it doesn't even budge. Once it finally decided it would move, it didn't leave first. It also made a lot of whining, sounded like I was strangling a goat when I tried to put it in gear or when it was in gear idling. It all started with a harsh 1-2 shift. Was still on its original fluid.Dealer said it barely had any pressure and the codes from the computer (although it NEVER lit the check engine light) were showing multiple shift solenoid failures. There wasn't anything left to save in the tranny, not even the case.. it attacked itself with all kinds of shrapnel from whatever it was that died. Hope you can get it resolved... I'd stay away from the dealer if it needs to be replaced, they want more than an arm and a leg for transmission parts for these things.BTW, are you sure they used the proper T-IV fluid when they flushed previously?

[blue_can]

Sorry to hear about your transmission. These transmissions (made by Aisin) and in all Toyotas are quite reliable but sometimes a part can fail and this can then migrate to other parts of the transmission and wreck the whole thing. Beyond a point it is better get a new transmission rather than to try and fix the old one. Rebuilt transmissions can be a problem also – sometimes they die after the warranty on them expire (typically they give a 12K warranty).I had a similar experience to you which I’m describing below.I own a 2000 Chevy Metro – the automatics in these are also made by Aisin. Earlier this year it all started when I tried one morning to reverse. There was no reverse. I was able to get reverse back by stepping on the gas. It then went straight to second. This started happening quite frequently. I immediately recognized this as a sticking 1-2 shift valve. I had a spare valve body so I rebuilt that and dropped the pan to change out the valve body. I realized that there was something bad going on since the fluid was really black. I did not see any metal pieces so I just cleaned out as much of it as I could and put in the spare valve body.Things were not much better after that. This fixed the missing reverse but the car would flare like crazy in between shifts. I checked the line pressure and there was no boost pressure at all. So I rebuilt the original valve body and reinstalled it. Still no boost pressure but it came back after the transmission warmed up. I also sent the fluid to a test facility for analysis but they did not find anything too bad with it.Next it started making a funny noise every time it went into third. I sort of realized it was dying but limped around in it when I was driving it. Finally quite close to home third disappeared along with reverse. I realized the direct clutch had some major problem. Got the car home and I could hear a ticking noise inside the transmission. At that point I realized it was toast.I removed the transmission and once I disassembled it realized what had happened. The thrust bearing between the front planet carrier and ring gear had broken. This then went into the direct clutch and was grinding down the clutch discs. That was the reason thet fluid had gone dark. It also had deformed the snap ring until finally the clutch plates popped out rendering the direct clutch useless. The metal also went into the valve body causing the valves to stick.I spent two weeks (all my spare time outside work) rebuilding the transmission. I stripped it down to the bare case and rebuilt everything including the valve body. I also had the torque converter rebuilt. It only cost me $300 but a lot of my time to do this. I have fixed transmissions before but this was the first complete teardown I did. Now it runs like new with all problems gone.But that’s why you have to pay so much to get this kind of work done. If anyone has a transmission that this happens to and the car is relatively new I would try to get a new transmission – I don’t really trust the rebuilt ones.

[creo6746]

OK so get this...we took the Vibe to the dealership on Friday because on Thursday it would not slip into 1st gear at all and they hook it up to the diagnostic machine and no codes came back to say anything was wrong with the tranny or anything else. So the mechanic checks the tranny fluid level - it was TWO QUARTS LOW!! We just had the tranny flushed like 3 months ago by what I thought was a pretty reputable national business chain. While I'm thankful for the 75 and not the 2-3k bill from the dealership, you can bet that I'm going to be in touch with this national chains corporate office and come heck or highwater, they will be sending me a check.

[Petrucci914]

Didn't we tell you to check the fluid levels right away? Usually to flush the tranny they need to put in more fluid than it can take so I find it hard to believe they would have it low. Did this guy do the fluid level reading while it was running? It HAS to be checked while running or it'll look way low. If he did that wrong you're now stuck with a tranny overfilling with fluid......not good.

[blue_can]

Quote, originally posted by creo6746 »So the mechanic checks the tranny fluid level - it was TWO QUARTS LOW!! I see that earlier in this thread you said that the fluid level was correct. Low fluid will of course result in loss of hydraulic pressure so hopefully nothing overheated or suffered from lack of lubrication during this time.

[creo6746]

Next time I will have someone who is qualified to look at it for me - the person who looked at it for me said that it looked fine and that the level was correct, so I took their observation at face value.The ol' Vibe seems to be running WONDERFUL now that it has the correct amount of fluid no delayed shifts into first when I started it up this morning.

[blue_can]

It pays to learn to do some of these things yourself - don't have to rely on what other people say and you can check the fluid level anytime you want. That and also getting a basic understanding of how your cars works as a unit and how the individual components work like the engine or transmission is all useful info when you are dealing with repair shops. For transmissions if the vehicle is out of warranty I would recommend taking it to a transmission place for work - most general mechanics do not have a good understanding of how transmissions work and may even give you incorrect info (seen that on another forum).

[jake75]

Quote, originally posted by jake75 »Bob and Ray once said that the #1 reason for needing an alignment was having an alignment. Maybe the same relationship holds for transmission troubles and transmission fluid flushes.AM I A GENIUS OR WHAT!