GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Let my brother drive my car to learn manual, and he stalled it terribly, although it was only in first. Tried to get it home and would start shaking terribly. Looked under and the CV axle had split in half. We through a new cv axle in there and it seemed to be driving fine until it bind up once again. Looked at it and the cv axle had popped out and was twisted up as shown in the picture. Any ideas? Do you guys think that the trans/differential is completely messed up?

Car is a 2003 Pontiac Vibe base 5 speed. It has about 165000 miles on it.

Welcome to genvibe

can't remember for sure, but I think different 03 Vibe transmissions might have slightly different CV axle lengths, and perhaps your new one was a little shorter than it should have been and got popped when taking a hard turn.

But that is really just vague conjecture

Do you think it's possible that my trans mount/motor mounts went bad and that is causing too much movement with the engine/trans which is causing my cv axle to pop out?

joatmon wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 10:03 am different 03 Vibe transmissions might have slightly different CV axle lengths, and perhaps your new one was a little shorter than it should have been and got popped when taking a hard turn.

Agree with J-mon. When you replaced the original one, did you (or whoever did the work) actually compare the shafts side by side to make sure they were the same length? Base, Gt & AWD trim levels all take different length CV shafts and it's possible you were sold the wrong one. Just my input.

Oh as far as beginners learning to drive stick for the first time, the Vibe is an excellent vehicle to learn from as the first gear(s) are easy enough to where stalling SHOULD be minimal! I had to learn on a 1963 Plymouth Valiant, slant six with "3 on the tree" (3-speed with steering column shifter) back some 45-50 years ago I actually miss that style/arrangement of driving. It was fun

We did not compare the original one, now that I think about it that was the first thing we should've done. It sounds right on paper, but that doesn't explain why my previous one had split in half in the first place, just by my brother stalling. I feel like there has to be some sort of exterior reason why the cv axle has a lot of pressure on it which is forcing it to pop out and break.

I don't know why the original one broke. I guess it could be coincidence after 20 years, or maybe he was extra brutal. I stalled my 03 5 speed more than I'd like to admit

In the 03 Matrix parts pdf it shows a bunch of different axles, even different ones for with or without ABS, although I don't know what the differences are between the various part numbers. These are Toyota part numbers


Do you have a part number for the one you bought?

sucks cuz its not a cheap part.