GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Good day,

Yesterday I was traveling to work getting on the freeway on ramp. When my car went to upshift the car lost all power to the wheels but the engine rpm shot way up. The motor was running fine when I turned the car off. Now when I try to start the car the starting motor will turn at a constant rate but the engine will not turn over. If anyone could offer some input as to what may be wrong I would greatly appreciate it. The car has already had the motor and CV axle replaced.

Edit: Sometimes It will barely start to crank the motor but then the motor stops cranking while the starter keeps spinning.

Sounds like it could be more then one problem. More info is needed. What have you checked or tested so far? When the starter cranks, are there any grinding noises? Is the "Check Engine" light on? Any codes stored in ECM? How did you get it home when it lost power to the wheels? Is the battery charged and can supply power to the engine? What voltage are you reading at the battery? What voltage is at battery when the starter is cranking?

As Jolt mentioned, LOTS of additional info needed Taylor for us to help you out. For starters we'll assume your car is at 120-150k miles (had 89K miles when you bought it in 2017) and that it had it's original engine replaced recently. We haven't heard from you since the engine transplant to see if all went well I was thinking there is a BAD ground somewhere when the engine swap took place. Fill us in with more info so we can better help you. Also just curious how your Mechanical engineering schooling has been going? Are you a Kettering student?

How is battery? Alternator? Any codes? If so, pull them and revert.

Luckily, you're in Michigan so there are A TON of members around your area. Most have migrated to the Social Media that Shan't Be Named.

For loss of power to the wheels, first thing I'd check would be the tranny fluid level, since you said it was automatic. After that, then maybe a broken CV or axle, or a bad torque converter, or a shifter problem having it in neutral, or something terrible inside the tranny itself.

Seems hard to come up with a single issue that would cause both loss of power to the wheels and also unable to start. Not saying there isn't one, I can't see what it might be. Maybe if by some weird fluke the flywheel became disconnected from the crankshaft, since the flywheel is the only common point between starting and power transfer to the wheels, but that would be pretty bizarre