GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Want to drop the pan and clean the magnets on my vibe. I looked at the kit at autozone and oreillys. The gasket was rubber and I am not a fan of rubber OR cork I like composite.
It's a 18 bolt pan vin is a 8 code for 8th digit if I am not mistaken. I don't really care about replacing the filter it's just a mesh screen.
Have about 90k and so far I have drained and filled every 20k and the fluid looks pretty decent. So will this gasket work?
Fel-Pro TOS18741 Trans Pan Gasket this one is less than 10 bucks. I don't really want to get the factory one and have to spend over 20 but I really don't want to do this again for another 10 years either.

Fel Pro is a good brand. You can also do silicone make-a-gasket, which is what they used on the engine oil pan.

Why composite? I think OEM is rubber- is yours leaking?

You could use a thin coat of gasket sealant to hold it in place while replacing the pan:
http://www.permatex.com/products-2/prod ... ing-detail

No leaks at nearly 90k
I thought the gasket from factory was composite
I have had excellent luck with composite gaskets and moulded rubber with steel core reusable gaskets like you see on gm cars. But darn near every cork gasket and floppy rubber gasket I ever used had some degree of seepage in a much shorter time frame as compared to similar time and milage. Not that the composite don't ever leak just not nearly as quick or often

My Filter was a filter not a steel mesh and looked rough (150K miles on it). Anyway I got a Beck-Arnley and it worked fine. I did it in the past 2 months.

Salsa Guy wrote:My Filter was a filter not a steel mesh and looked rough (150K miles on it)

The AWD (U341) has a filter. The FWD Auto has a screen.

Really. Learned something new.

Mine is just a base model fwd
With what I recall they called the power package
Auto Trans
Auto door locks
I didn't want moons and tunes
a sunroof is a water leak waiting to happen as far as I am concerned in the Pacific Northwest
Plus I need all the head room I can get.

I guess I will just roll the dice on the felpro

I used the Wix kit and it had a rubber gasket.

For the money, it's your choice as it sounds like either will do the job.

Be very careful putting the bolts back in. Others have snapped them by over-torquing. Before I dropped my pan, I bought a ¼” drive torque wrench that did inch pounds. I'm having trouble finding the torque spec for your pan- I used 48 inch-pounds on my AWD.

Found this post on ToyotaNation: http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/132-9 ... ement.html

You can replace the strainer if you want- it's what comes with the FWD kit.

I was a gm certified tech for 8 years
I have done literally dozens of Trans pans just never on a vibe which is a little odd cause I own one. I suppose that is why I am picky about my choice of gasket. I allways use a torque wrench.
I usually put the gasket Inplace started the bolts by hand then used a cordless drill to snug it up
Then dialed the drill up a notch or two and did a alternating pattern to cinch it down evenly. Them out came the torque wrench if I had my drill set right I would have about 3/4 to 1/2 turn before my inch pound torque wrench reached the proper torque also again using a alternating pattern. Now the above sounds complicated BUT I assure you it is super fast and starting the bolts by hand ensured the bolts weren't cross threaded.

I don't really expect to find much in the way of debris or gunk. I have drained and filled the Trans every 20k miles, the fluid is bright though not like new it is not dark. I seem to remember a technical service bulletin about pontiac vibes and "dark" trans fliud color. Something about the toyota clutch material being dark and would make the fluid dark. so people thought it was burnt. It was not burnt just not normal when compared to a hydromatic trans with the same miles. If my screen looks like crap or I can't spray it clean IN PLACE I will go get a new one. It's only 14 bucks. But if it is only a mesh screen I don't see the point of replacement kind of like replacing the oil pickup screen when you reseal a oil pan. If it was taken care of it won't be funky or gunky so no point of replacement.

That's a cool way to re-install the pan- I'll try that next time.

Good luck with the pan drop. Let us know how it goes...

...I'm looking to do mine this coming week...1st time filter change...I'm using the Wix package. Do I need to use any sealant on the gasket?

Nope. But with that being said, I always use a VERY thin layer of "Permatex Copper Spray" gasket on everything I do involving a gasket. At the very least, it'll help keep the gasket in place while it's being installed.

So I dropped the pan last weekend. There was typical fine particle black junk no big chunks the magnets looked to be at capacity if that makes sense i doubt they could have held much more.
I am glad I just got a gasket the filter was definitely just a strainer so at this Many miles I think it would have been pointless since I have done 3 quart drains every 20 k miles so far anyway. It was nice getting the funk and gunk off the magnets and out of the pan.