Transmission issues?

[Admeco]

First time posting here.
2009 base Vibe, 1.8 L, FWD, manual transmission, ~130k miles, purchased at ~80k miles.
Recurring issues:
-Ignition coils, replacing them one at a time much earlier than expected miles
- Rough start. It always turned over, but might crank for 5 seconds. Previous mechanic suggested it was a fuel pump that lost its seal, requiring longer for the fuel to get from the tank to the engine
-A semi-regular rough idle

Two months ago, on an incline at 75mph on cruise control, the RPMs suddenly raised dramatically (odometer and engine noise), while the car's speed slowed. I took it off cc, and as long as I didn't accelerate on inclines and kept the pedal at a certain point, the car could maintain speed. The problem got worse over time. I assumed the fuel pump had finally given out, so I had it replaced. The car ran very smooth for a month. The problem slowly returned, but then got worse where acceleration would be very slow and mechanical power weakened on flat surfaces as well. A light chunk or shearing sound also began irregularly from the engine. I guessed that sound was a piston turning over without fuel, that the fuel wasn't getting to the engine? Two months after the initial incident, and a short road trip of the same symptoms, the car barely rolled to my AirBnB and now no longer moves. The engine starts fine, all gears appear to engage, the clutch feels good, no lights or codes, but no movement.

My assumption is that the motor in the new fuel pump was shorted again by an underlying electrical/ grounding issue (the ignition coils?), which then starved the engine of enough fuel that the transmission just went. I'm not a mechanic and that is a very uneducated guess. The car is currently with a shop and I'm not confident of what they'll tell me.

Any ideas?

Updated: after reading more about transmission symptoms, I never had any issues shifting gears at the shifter, there were no other noises, but the dramatic increase in RPMs while losing power suggests the gear slipped out near the engine?

[joatmon]

Welcome to genvibe

RPMs going up with no acceleration sounds like a clutch problem to me. They wear out, after 13 years, yours is probably due.

A less likely problem would be a broken CV joint, but those are pretty dramatic and sudden, like flipping a switch, yours sounds like it got worse progressively over time.

You said the engine starts fine, I assume it runs fine still, so I wouldn't worry about fuel pump or electrical issues causing the lack of movement.

[Admeco]

Thanks for the quick reply!
Clutch was replaced maybe 40k miles ago. The clutch still feels good too, can manually change gears easily.

Doesn't reek of transmission?

[Admeco]

The mechanic in this small town is saying it's the clutch, not transmission. Significantly less expensive, but odd. I must not know all the pieces of a clutch.

Why would the car go back to normal for a month after I replaced the fuel pump, then get worse again? This is a two-fold problem, clutch and a fuel line?

Parts and labor put full clutch replacement at $1400. Reasonable?

[Bookworm]

Frankly - coincidence, or you simply had more power, and it compensated for the clutch plate going. Maybe one of the fingers started to break off.

$1400, while it sounds like a lot, isn't. A new 5 speed 'transaxle' from Toyota costs roughly $2000. So he's either quoting rebuilding it himself, or a used tranny.

A used one still goes for 600 on up.

If he's going to be messing around in there, and you can afford it, you might want to have him change the motor mounts as well, at least the PITA rear one.

[Admeco]

They're just replacing the clutch so far. $1400 was just for the clutch.

If it was only the clutch, I don't understand why it returned to normal after replacing the fuel pump. The clutch is definitely a problem, but i suspect there's a fuel system issue too somewhere, hopefully not around the transmission.