GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I just stumbled onto this forum while looking for more information about my Vibe, and I'm really enjoying looking around. I'll probably mostly lurk, but I thought I'd introduce myself, as long as I'm here.

I have a 2009 Vibe that I have owned for about a year and a half now. The previous owner was a friend of mine who bought it new and crashed it about a week later. The insurance company paid to have it rebuilt, and she swears it doesn't run as well as it did... I haven't noticed any problems with it, though, so I'm thrilled to have it! She gave it to me for the cost of the taxes because of the crash, and it's probably the nicest car I've ever owned.

It has over 100k miles on it now, so I'm starting to get to the point where I need to do some of the less-frequent maintenance, and I want to attempt to tackle it myself. I'm just tried of being cheated and condescended to. Even buying parts can be annoying...

So this weekend I'm going to be attacking the transmission fluid. It seems pretty straightforward, so we'll see what happens.

PS: Any ladies out there doing your own routine maintenance? I'd be curious to know your experiences. I tried to learn on my old Chevy Astro, but it was hopeless. I just wasn't strong enough to loosen bolts for even the most basic things, such as oil changes. I'm hoping I'll have a slightly better experience with the Vibe!

Well, just in case you are getting older like me, or if you ever sell your house and don't have the capacity to store tools any longer, like me, the best place to find a mechanic you can trust is: http://www.repairpal.com
Click on the 'Shops Near You' section near the bottom of the page to find a great mechanic with lots of references, all under the watchful eye of the Repair Pal system.

Just please make sure you are draining and feeling the transmission fluid not the engine oil.
I heard on one of those radio shows were they have a mechanic on and people call in to ask for advise.
This one person called in and said her and her BF wanted to change their own engine oil and they
drained the auto tranny fluid instead of the engine oil. So they added more oil to the engine so
it was way overfilled and then drove off. SO To much engine oil and NO tranny fluid.

Long story short they caught what they drove it to far because it wasn't shifting right when they drove it.
So they drained the oil and put tranny fluid in it. The tranny needed rebuilt but the engine was ok.

So the engine is more black and the tranny fluid is more red.

And have fun working on your car. And I am not sure but your auto tranny might not have a drain plug. You might
have to drop the hole tranny pan to do it.....

Welcome to GenVibe! I'm a female that does all the maintenace on both our 09 GTs. Oil changes, tire rotations and installing some aftermarket mods as well. I've never had a problem getting any bolts or anything loose, so you should be alright. Post some pictures of your Vibe when you get a chance !

@Caretaker: That is great! I'm sure there will be things that are beyond my capacity, so I'll check it out.

@korax234: That is the best thing I've heard all day. I lol'ed for real! XD I'm at least not /that/ clueless (plus, I tend to over-research, because I'm just like that...) I at least know that the oil pan has an oil filter right next to it! Hahahaha! I actually just finished the job. I didn't strictly /need/ to drop the tranny pan because there's a drain plug, but since it has 101k miles and the previous owner obviously hadn't touched the transmission fluid, I decided to go ahead and drop it so I could clean it out really good. I took it for a test drive and so far so good. Nothing exploded, at least! And it's shifting beautifully now, so I think it was a success.

@vibenvy: Very impressive! That encourages me. :> I was really pleased with my experience on the transmission fluid. It was SO much easier than my old Astro van! Now I'm kind of embarrassed I didn't tackle the oil changes before, at least.

And I'll post some pictures the next time I give it a bath. She's a bit dusty right now (hard to avoid here, even parked in a garage!)

mysteriousem wrote:@vibenvy: Very impressive! That encourages me. :> I was really pleased with my experience on the transmission fluid. It was SO much easier than my old Astro van! Now I'm kind of embarrassed I didn't tackle the oil changes before, at least.

That's great that you did the transmission fluid on your own! I took my Vibe to a local trusted mechanic to do a drain and fill earlier this year because I was leery of messing with it myself.

Oil changes are super easy though. Letting the oil drain is by far the longest part of the process. Is your Vibe a 1.8 or 2.4?

Mine's a 1.8. :> I'd actually say that if you can do an oil change, you can definitely do the transmission fluid change as well, unless you want to flush it (in which case you need the special machine the mechanics have). After researching and thinking about it, I decided the flush wasn't really necessary... I'm just going to do a second change of the transmission fluid after my trip in January, after the old has had a good chance to mix completely with the new.

Really, the hardest part was just getting under there and getting the pan off. I found that some of the bolts were hard to reach, and there were a LOT of them. I wouldn't say it was difficult, but it was messy and I /am/ awfully sore today from messing around with all those bolts! XD

If you do decide to try it someday, don't be like that one YouTube guy. Pull that drain plug to get rid of most of the fluid before you drop the pan. Avoid the Niagara Falls of oil. lol!

Thanks for the advice! Time constraint was my main reason for taking it to the mechanic.

Hi, mysteriousem!
I am glad you fond us! Post a picture of your Vibe. I find it cool that you do your own maintenance. The maintanance index could be of help to you: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=44875.
I also know about the sore body after a good amount of wrenching under a car. I recently did the clutch hydraulics on a Mazda B 2300 truck. You have to drop the whole transmission to get to the slave cylinder on that truck.
In case you like facebook banter there is a GenVibe group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Genvibe/?ref=bookmarks

Kind of late here .... but WELCOME to GenVibe A woman who's not afraid to get dirty and mess with mechanical things .... Nice !!! Post pics of your ride when you find some free time and update your profile .... We'd be curious of your whereabouts

tpollauf wrote:Kind of late here .... but WELCOME to GenVibe A woman who's not afraid to get dirty and mess with mechanical things .... Nice !!! Post pics of your ride when you find some free time and update your profile .... We'd be curious of your whereabouts

Thanks!

To be honest, I don't think a fear of getting dirty is the biggest thing that keeps women from learning about cars. Women have to wade through a lot of stupid before meeting cool people like y'all...

Wanna know a fun drinking game? Pick any given car show on television. Take a drink any time the word "girl," "woman," or a reference to female genitalia is used as a synonym for "weak" or "stupid." You'll get plastered in no time.

Bonus points: Take another shot every time a guy expresses sexual attraction to a car.

Anyway... I do need to get around to getting pictures, don't I? I keep forgetting and it's night time right now But I'll update my profile tonight and try to remember to get a picture tomorrow.