Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with transmission

Is This Really Death Metal... For My Car?

Rewind — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 12:31:41 -0800

While performing routine maintenance on my car, my mechanic noticed a hum coming from the (standard) transmission. He then changed the transmission fluid and noticed pieces of metal when draining the old fluid out. Crap. This car only has 85,000 miles. How many more can I realistically get out of it? The car in question is 2002 Ford Focus, which has had a not insignificant amount of work done on it over the years (particularly around the tires, wheels and clutch) because a) it’s a cheap car manufactured with cheap parts and b) I’m primarily a city driver who drove the thing hard in its early years (when I was younger and just as stupid.)

When I asked my mechanic how long he thought it had, he was somewhat noncommittal and said, “Maybe a year. Maybe more or less.” I understand him not wanting to give me a definite time because it’s probably a hard thing to pin down, and he probably doesn’t want me yelling at him if it turns out he was wrong. While I’ve never noticed the hum he alluded to, I also fully admit that I’d have no idea what to listen for. To me, car acceleration sounds like car acceleration. I trust my mechanic implicitly, and don’t think for a minute he was trying to get me to spend more on additional work. In fact, based on the transmission issue, I ended up not replacing my timing belt, thinking it would be wasted money if the car only has a limited lifespan.

So, I guess my question to you mechanical folk out there is if you have any type of experience with this and if so, how long did the car last, and do you have any additional insight you think might be useful? I’m actually reading some information online which says that metal in the transmission drainage is actually normal. I’m tempted to trust my mechanic on this, however. At the root of all this is me questioning whether or not I should buy a new car. Eventually, I’m going to have to, of course, and now seems like a great time to buy one given the economy and some of the deals I’m seeing, but not if my current car still has a reasonable amount of miles still left on it. Thanks in advance.

1996 Dodge Stratus transmission stuck in limp drive mode.

isopropyl — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 02:32:29 -0800

1996 Dodge Stratus transmission stuck in limp drive mode. My girlfriend bought this piece of junk and has been nothing but problems. On a recent trip a wreck less driver stopped abruptly in the middle of a 7 lane highway and forced me to stop and quickly accelerate to switch lanes to not die. Shortly after i was unable to go faster than 38-40 mph without red lining. The engine persisted to overheat but we eventually got it home. I changed the transmission filter and replaced the current fluid with ATF +4 as suggested by the web site. This didn't fix anything and after extensive research i am almost certain it is stuck in limp drive mode. Supposedly the transmission was rebuilt less than a year ago but two mechanics also gave us the go ahead on this death trap. The engine is a V-6 and I believe it has a 41TE automatic transmission. I need to fix this!

Combining partial bittorrent downloads.

pompomtom — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:54:21 -0800

Can I combine two partial bittorrent downloads? (OSX Leopard, Transmission) I have two part-downloaded files, each obtained with Transmission, on different macs. I'd like to combine. Is there any way to do this that doesn't involve the data going out over my 'net connection to the swarm? It's the end of my billing month, and my data allowance is all gone.

What's the best way of dealing with a housemate with BPD who is concerned by me spreading cold-sores to her?

severin — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 06:19:30 -0800

What are the chances of getting cold sores about two weeks after a friend of mine had an outbreak of cold sores? And how should I deal with the concerns of my housemate (who has BPD) who thinks I may spread it to her? Today I went around to a friend of mine's to help her with some housework. My housemate was a little concerned that since my friend had a cold sore about three weeks ago, that I might catch it and bring it back into our household. I tried to assure her that (a) I wouldn't kiss my friend, and (b) that even if I did, the chance of getting a cold sore was slim, since the blister was long gone. Is this correct, though? If I did kiss my friend, and she hasn't had a blister for a couple of weeks, what would be the chance of getting a cold sore? Also, I did eat dinner over there and used her cutlery. What kind of a risk did I run by doing that?

When I returned, she was livid that I went over there in the first place. She didn't trust that I hadn't kissed her, and said that her boyfriend wasn't happy either, saying that it would affect him if she got cold sores.

Now, this is where the question gets a little tricky. My housemate has Borderline Personality Disorder.

In the heat of the moment, I told her the chances for her getting a cold-sore from this were zero percent (probably a mistake to say that), and I told her that I wasn't happy with her boyfriend for saying it was a valid concern, because it wasn't. That was also a big mistake for me to say that. She's in her room now.

I was wondering what would be a good way to approach the situation from here on in, and what would have been a better way for me to have approached the situation from the start?

Can I get H1N1 from grading papers?

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:25:48 -0800

Are student papers a possible vector for H1N1? Is there a way to sanitize them without destroying them? I'm 9 weeks pregnant, and TAing a class at a university that's already had several hundred cases of H1N1 identified. I'm doing everything I can to avoid physical contact with students (and they've been told by the university to stay home if they're feeling sick), but I'm going to be grading, by hand, lots of assignments and it occurs to me that sick student's snotty hand ->paper ->my hand->my eyes/nose is a possible transmission source. I'll be getting vaccinated ASAP, of course. But in the mean time:
1) Is my concern realistic?
2) If so, are there practical ways I can sterilize student assignments without destroying them? Or measures I can take to minimize transmission risk?

(Anonymous because we're not public about the pregnancy yet)

Sorry if this sounds crazy. First time preggo, first time flu pandemic, trying to be reasonably cautious.

in cars

bunny hugger — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:35:19 -0800

I am disappointed in my relationship with my 97 Honda Civic. Maybe you can give me some advice. YANMM. I’ve tried to talk it out, but it's just not hearing what I'm saying... I've got a 97 Civic AT (106K mil.) and after filling up with what I think was some questionable fuel a while back, it has started to “slip” when I go into 3rd. It feels like something is "whirring" trying to find itself. Once past that bumpy spot, it runs great. I have had regular maintenance on it – flushings, fill-ups, tuneups, etc. I even added some Lucas transmission fix to my tranny fluid (which is pink and not burnt). Also, when low on gas, I have trouble starting it. Could it just be my fuel line, or is the transmission in the crapper?

What's the best way to learn to drive stick in Toronto?

Dasein — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:41:03 -0800

I'm in Toronto and I'd like to learn to drive a manual transmission. I don't want to ask anyone to lend me their manual-tranmission car because of the wear and tear I might inflict on it, and you can't rent stick-shift cars (as far as I know) for exactly that reason. So I'm considering paying for lessons. My question: does it make sense to spend more money for lessons from a dedicated learn-to-drive-manual outfit like Shifters, or should I inquire with a regular driving school like CSS about individual lessons? Or, alternatively, do you have any other suggestions?

Butterfingers

TungstenChef — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:20:10 -0800

I spilled some transmission fluid into my engine compartment and now it's smoking. What can I do? I am an enthusiastic but clumsy home mechanic and I was topping off my transmission fluid after fixing a leaky line. What must've been a few tablespoons spilled and disappeared into the engine compartment. It quickly started to smoke so I shut the engine off and mopped up what I could reach. Is there anything I can/need to do? Will it eventually smoke off, start on fire, etc?

The Chrysler Ratchet

jmsta — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:49:26 -0800

Why do early to late 90s Chrysler/Dodge vehicles with an automatic transmission make a very distinctive ratcheting sound when slowing down? This has been driving me crazy for years... I first remember hearing it when I was a freshman in high school. and still to this day when i'm walking through a parking lot and hear that sound I immediately know there is some dodge type vehicle near me. I've noticed it on Lebarons, New Yorkers, Dynastys, Caravans, Basicaly every dodge/chry that is not a truck... to my knowledge no other make of vehicle makes this sound. What is this sound and why is it there?
I hear it much less now days and I have an 07 Caravan and it doesn't make the sound.

What's the shift pattern on a 1980 Toyota pickup?

attercoppe — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:14:11 -0800

What's the shift pattern on a 1980 Toyota pickup? The 4-speed shifter, not the 4WD.

Do I own a car that truly cannot be repaired?

starscream — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 10:23:05 -0800

Is my Audi unrepairable? I have a 2003 Audi A4 1.8T with a CVT (GGT) transmission that's messed up. When driving, the transmission 'slips' and occasionally freaks out and pushes the engine to 7k rpm's. Sometimes it drives fine, but when it freaks out... it freaks out and therefore it's unreliable and undrivable. My Audi dealership replaced the Transmission Control Module and this behavior still happens, so they say that the whole transmission needs to be replaced. I called Aamco and they also told me that it needs replacement as there are not parts made for my transmission. A call to an independent shop netted similar info.

Is my Audi's transmission truly unrepairable? Or am I getting the wrong information? Is there anyone in the greater Los Angeles area that can repair it? Do I have any other option than just waiting to pay it off before getting rid of it?

The transmission replacement price is $6500, and it seems absurd that a major car company would build and sell something that can't be repaired.

I wish I could simply sell it or scrap it, but I still owe three years payments on it...

My hairdresser has HIV.

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:14:16 -0800

My hairdresser just learned that she has HIV. Should we do anything differently? My beautician still intends on doing hair, and I still intend on being her client and supporting her however I can. I'm not paranoid about being infected with HIV, but are there any precautions I/she should take? I'm thinking no--apart from not coming around her when I'm sick--but just thought I would ask. I'm sure I can talk about it with her, but at the time it was more about listening and being there for her, not asking about technicalities. Thanks

No car, no job

PinkButterfly — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:45:13 -0800

My car is about to die, but I'm in jeopardy of losing my job very soon. What do I do? What really hurts is that I spent about $1800 on my car recently.

I have a 1998 dodge stratus with about 180,000 miles on it, so it has done a good job for me, but now is not a great time for it to go.

I thought I had at least another year out of it, but two different mechanics told me the transmission seems to be on its way out.

In October I replaced: fuel pump, water pump, serpentine belt, timing belt.
Total: ~$1600.

I also bought new tires shortly after that. ($300)

When I bought the new parts, the car was running fine. The mechanics said it was running strong, seemed ok (for its age) and didn't see any major repairs on the horizon.

Hmm.

So here we are about 4 months later and my car is taking much longer to shift. The same mechanics who, 4 months ago, said my car seemed ok, say my transmission is on its way out. They aren't suggesting I pay them to replace it, but telling me, sorry it's time to buy a new car. I trust these mechanics and I don't think they lied to me in the fall?

They say they don't know how much longer the transmission willl last. It could be a year, if I baby it, or it could go next week.

But, I may be about to lose my job. My company is doing furloughs currently, but I was close to the last hired and well....we know how that goes.

My car is paid off.

I don't want to be stuck with a car payment and then no job (but I also don't want to buy a Hyundai...) and I also want to try and recoup some of the money spent on my car if/when it dies.

What should I do?

A relative told me to sell the car before it dies, as is, but I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Is there a way for me to get money from the repairs I just did (and my new tires) to offset the cost of a newer car? I don't have all of the cash to pay for a used car outright (no plans to buy a new car).

Thanks for your advice :(

Worth the trouble to try to sell my car piecemeal?

Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 11:32:54 -0800

[Posted for a friend:] I posted this a while back. Today I was talking with someone about the car, and he offered me $400 for it. He's coming back by on Monday. Quick recap: it's a high mileage 97 Hyundai Sonata with a busted transmission. I could try to sell the car piecemeal and might end up getting more money if I did it that way (everything but the transmission is mechanically sound, the tires are new-ish, the radio is new, etc.), but who knows how long that would take. I'm thinking that it's not worth the hassle but I don't know for sure. I'd appreciate some additional perspective.

I have been exposed to herpes 2, info please?

Waterbear — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:16:47 -0800

Herpes. I have just found out today that a very good friend of mine just found out that he has HSV-2 (genital herpes). He has never exhibited any symptoms, apparently he is what's called an asymptomatic carrier. He found out about a month ago because his new girlfriend had an outbreak (apparently she is not an asymptomatic carrier). He did some digging and figured out he probably contracted it sometime in 2006. Unfortunately, said friend and I slept together on a drunken night (when both of us were single) in spring 2007. We did not use a condom (please, I don't need to be beaten up about this, i know).

I have had a boyfriend now for about the past year and a bit. We sleep together frequently. NEITHER of us have expressed any outbreaks (or noticeable one, at least) of the virus. Needless to say, with this news, we are both freaking out. I feel beyond awful.

I spoke to a nurse at a sexual health clinic and she told me that unless there is an outbreak and they can swab one of the sores, that blood tests are not reliable because some people have hsv-2 antibodies because they have been exposed at some point, but may not even be active carriers. She told me if i hadn't had an outbreak after over a year and 1/2 of exposure that i shouldn't worry. I'M WORRIED SICK.

Does anyone have any experience with this type of thing? What should I be doing? I have an appointment on Friday to speak with my doctor. I feel so awful that I could have infected my boyfriend too. Please, if anyone can give me any info that woudl be great.

NOTE: I have no way of knowing if the friend was having an 'outbreak' at the time we slept together because he does not exhibit symptoms.

Why won't my car go in reverse?

orrnyereg — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 12:02:42 -0800

Please diagnose my car problem! My 2000 Dodge Neon has stopped going in reverse. It's a 5-speed manual that has worked fine until about a week ago, when it began randomly refusing to go into reverse. Previously, I could eventually get it to work by messing with the gear shift long enough. Now I can't get it to work at all.

You guys, I know NOTHING about cars. I am also flat broke. Does this mean I need a new transmission? I realize you need to have a look at it to know for sure, but what does it sound like to you?

Halp!!

Where can I find information about the US electricity market?

theexpgen — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:43:16 -0800

I would like to learn more about electricity markets, electrical infrastructure, utilities, transmission systems, generation technologies, applicable regulations, etc. Where can I find up-to-date and comprehensive information on these topics? One good book that covers it all would be ideal.

I'm not afraid of technical information, but I'd prefer something that's mostly conceptual in nature.

In short, I'm looking for a primer on today's electricity system. How does it work? Who owns and operates it? How is it regulated? What's good about it? What's bad about it? Where is it headed?

Tranny problems (no, the other kind)

Nonce — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 07:57:16 -0800

Should I replace the transmission or replace the car? My 1997 Hyunday Sonata's transmission gave up the ghost. It no longer has reverse, and it only kind of shifts into second gear very hard. I took it to a local shop and to the dealer. The local shop thinks I should rebuild the transmission at $2,400. The dealer wants to put in a remanufactured transmission at about $2,700. Both of those options are insane and off the table because the car is worth less than $1,500.

Back in reality land, there are three options that I am aware of:

1) Junkyard transmission

If you think this is the way to go, how can I avoid getting ripped off? I saw this writeup when searching online, but it's almost entirely Greek to me in spite of being very clear and presumably helpful. If there is any geographically specific advice, I am in Northern Virginia, but theoretically could drive to Maryland or elsewhere in VA to pick up a part.

I don't like this because the shop will charge $450 or so to install it, and it's a gamble anyway. How can I make it less of a gamble?

2) Replace the valve body assembly

Apparently, one thing that is *for sure* wrong is that the solenoids are gone. A new valve body assembly (with new solenoids), available only from the dealer, costs about $650 and two hours of labor to swap out. Then I'm left with the same transmission I started with, which has 165,000 miles on it.

There aren't any flecks of metal in the transmission fluid. There is some sludge that the mechanic said is generally expected to build up with age, but also is not a good thing at all. Everyone says there is no way to tell how much life the transmission has left in it without taking it apart and inspecting it, at which point the labor charge becomes prohibitive.

3) Getting rid of the car

How would I do this? How much can I get for it?

Please help me figure out what to do. I hate the idea of gambling close to $1,000 on the car without a reasonable expectation of success (options 1 and 2), but I also hate the idea of selling the car for a lousy few hundred dollars because of this problem when it is otherwise functioning just fine.

Is my transmission dying?

geos — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 05:09:20 -0800

Is my car transmission dying? It is a 93 Camry with an automatic transmission. When the car is cold, if you try to accelerate the car shudders and seems like it's about to quit entirely and if you baby it, it will keep going. But after driving for awhile it seems to go fine.

"Do I need a new transmission?"

girlmightlive — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 10:34:44 -0800

Have you ever had your car's axle stuck in the transmission? What did you do about it? I drive a 2001 Kia Rio. The driver's side front axle is stuck in the transmission and, after taking it to a local mechanic and a national chain mechanic, I'm not sure if I should get a new transmission or just live with the clicking noise the car makes when I make hard turns. That what the national and local places told me are my options, respectively.

Both said this is rare. On the off-chance that any of you have had this issue, how'd you deal with it? Thanks.

Vrooom. Put put put put put.

gauchodaspampas — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:47:19 -0800

Is my car broken? I somehow managed to stall my automatic transition. WTF? Is it a crazy fluke, or possibly a sign of trouble? The car is a 2001 Subaru Forester. I was running quite late, and was driving in a way that is probably not good for transmissions when this happened. It happened when accelerating from a stop. I wasn't over accelerating, but rather, gave a teeny of gas in anticipation of the car ahead going, then rolled on that a bit while they got going, then tried to accelerate a bit more when they got going, but stalled (that is just my best memory of the sequence of events).

So is this a bad sign. I've never stalled an automatic, or heard of anyone doing so. Have you ever stalled an automatic? Was it a sign of things to come? Were you driving stupidly as I was?

How do I find the lack of radio waves?

mdbell79 — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 06:06:24 -0800

What town in the United States has the lowest amount of detectable radio waves? Obviously, there are a lot of places (or used to be, anyway) where you can't get anything to come up on the radio dial. Which of those places would have the absolute least radio? As in, even though there are maybe hundreds of remote locations in the US (and let's say the continental US, because Alaska is probably the winner here anyway) where it's impossible to pick up anything listenable, would there be any place where there wasn't any radio that could even be detected?

Is there even a way to find this out?

Even better, is there any way to find out what the answer would have been in 1970? 1980?

I'm thinking mainly commercial AM/FM radio, and I don't even have a clue how to start looking into this. I figured that if anybody could help me figure it out, it'd be the metafilter crowd. If you need more information about what I'm looking for before you can help, I'd be glad to offer what I can. This is research for a project I'm working on, and although it's not vital it's a detail I'd like to be able to incorporate.

Torrents are slowing down my Firefox!

zardoz — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 05:54:58 -0800

Whenever I run Transmission on OSX, my Firefox browsing slows to a trickle, or simply stops altogether. I have an iMac running OSX 10.5.3, and I use Transmission to download torrents, and less frequently Limewire. About a month ago I moved to a new house and a new ISP, an DSL line with a 4500 kb/s download, and about 800 up (in Tokyo). My download and surfing speeds aren't as fast as my previous place, but it's still quite fast.

Recently, though, whenever I fire up Transmission and/or Limewire, my browsing just stops. Sometimes not completely, but only if whatever I'm downloading is itself just a trickle. (This isn't OS specific: I use BootCamp and have the same problem when booted into Win XP, using uTorrent and FF). The strange thing is this problem just cropped up about a week ago, and surfing while downloading worked fine when I first got the connection going.

I've read some other posts about this problem, but still can't figure it out. I've installed Carrafix, for example, but at least at the time of this writing (and perhaps never), I don't understand it. I'm only moderately computer literate and the whole "bandwidth throttling", "bottlenecking" stuff is new to me.

I don't really know what to do. Others have suggested cfosSpeed, but it's Windows only and I mostly use OSX--is there a Mac equivalent to this program? Any other tricks or suggestions?

Mechanical transmissions

Krrrlson — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 10:25:43 -0800

Mech-E-filter: Can someone point me to a comprehensive online resource or tutorial with an overview of mechanical power transmission mechanisms? I'm interested the transmission of rotary motion as well as conversion between rotary and linear motion. Textbook recommendations welcome, but I would really prefer something I can access right away.

I can has 1st geer? Corolla transmission only downshifting to 2nd gear!

cowbellemoo — Tue, 20 May 2008 15:45:08 -0800

My '93 Corolla (AT) isn't shifting into 1st gear. What's the likelyhood that this is a simple or very expensive repair? It's happened a few times over the last few years, but hasn't persisted as a problem after parking and starting up or shifting into reverse/back to drive. Today, both to and from work the problem persisted. Shifting into reverse results in a thump while the car jerks a bit, but only once did 1st gear come back (it refused to go into 1st shortly after). The O/D light blinks, which I'm sure might tell me more, but I don't have an owner's manual. Shifting into "2" or "L" doesn't seem to help, but I really have no idea if that's likely to force it into 1st. Once the car is going 15-20 mph, everything is fine. So I'm only having to give extra gas when starting up from stop, a pain when turning or going up a hill.

I'm going to take it into the shop on the weekend if the problem persists, but I'd love to know in the meantime if there might be a simple fix (busted sensor, low fluids?) or how much a repair might cost if the transmission needs real work. Can anyone tell what's going on?