Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with transmission

Advice on a car purchase

dougiedd — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 12:08:09 -0800

Thinking of buying a 2013 Ford Focus Automatic. Big Manufacturer incentives right now. My one concern: lots of reports on car forums about transmission "shudder" that Ford appears to have blamed on programming alone for the last 2 years, but many owners say the reprogramming didn't solve things. I cant tell for sure that the most recent cars coming off the line are affected. Seems hard to get reliable information. Thoughts?

So much regret.

porpoise — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:51:09 -0800

Is it my transmission, my clutch, or something else? Shifting into 2nd gear from 1st, constant acceleration (gas pedal) but the car stutters (surges forward, almost stalls, surges forward, almost stalls with concomitant spiking of RPM). Background; I needed a commuter car but because of post-PhD crazy or early (but indigent) midlife, I got a 1995 Honda Del Sol that had been modified quite a bit. I cheeped out and had the muffler cut off and replaced with a stock, but left the intake and expanded manifold intact.

Last week, bottomed out, sheared off a chunk of the exhaust manifold and screwed up the headers. Got that fixed; much much quieter now.

Driving back home from work today, when shifting from 1st to 2nd (at 2.5k to 3k RPM) the car starts stuttering (surges forward, almost stalls, surges forward, almost stalls) until I goose the accelerator and get the RPM up to 4k and shift to 3rd, and it's mostly fine.

Doesn't happen all the time, but it got worse the closer I got home. It also almost/maybe feels like there's less torque at any gear/RPM.

Is my transmission going to fall out of my car or do I need to just replace my clutch? Or is the (still present) expanded intake not playing nice with the stock manifold/muffler?

Also, sometimes the shifter "sticks" when trying to go into 1st. It's usually better if, say, I'm on 5th, I work it down to 4, 3, 2, then 1 instead, but not always. Other times, it slides right in without a catch.

There's a transmission place a couple of blocks away, but my commute turns from 25 minutes each way into 1+ and 1.5+ hours by transit. Is there a safe way to drive my car for at least a couple of days (end of the week), or take it to the shop ASAP?

Grr. If it's the transmission, I'll probably have to just scrap the car.

Shingles exposure precautions?

youngergirl44 — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 14:10:19 -0800

Someone I was in contact with on Christmas has just been diagnosed with shingles. There was skin to skin contact, although I didn't notice any sores (but I wasn't looking for them). I'm concerned that I could transmit the virus to others - particularly some young children, elderly, and otherwise immunocompromised people I would be seeing at another family gathering tomorrow. Should I quarantine myself for a bit? My search so far hasn't turned up anything about an exposed person transmitting the virus, but I'm not sure that means it's not possible. I would call my GP, but the office is closed until Monday. I did have chicken pox as a child, if that's relevant.

How do I get the most mileage out of my manual-transmission car?

Scientist — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 07:21:15 -0800

Can you help me understand, once and for all, what I need to do to get the best mileage out of my manual-transmission car? This seems like it ought to be a really simple question and I feel a bit stupid asking it, but I get a lot of conflicting advice which to me is indicative of some kind of popular misunderstanding on the subject. Certainly my own understanding is rather hazy. I feel like I can trust the good people of MetaFilter to set me straight for good and all, so here I am.

I have a 5-speed manual transmission car, a 2002 Honda Accord. I am trying to figure out how I should use the transmission if I want to maximize fuel economy. I'm not talking about trying to maintain a balance of economy and power, and for the purposes of this discussion I am separating acceleration and cruising, assuming that I will never have to unexpectedly accelerate and that I will always have time to change gears if necessary before making a maneuver. I realize that in the real world this is not the case, and am just trying to simplify the problem conceptually for myself.

My current understanding is that if I'm cruising I should pretty much just drive smoothly, as you would in an automatic, and that I should be in the highest gear that the car is able to sustain so as to minimize RPM. This makes sense to me. Lower RPM = fewer combustions = less fuel used, right?

However when I try to confirm this I also hear a lot about using the transmission to keep the car in the most efficient part of its power band, which would seem to mean that I should be aiming for some optimal RPM rather than just the lowest RPM that my car can easily sustain for a given speed. Is this the case? If so, why? And how do I know what that optimal RPM is for my specific car?

When accelerating, I tend to adopt a similar strategy. I try to accelerate smoothly and gently, again as one would in an automatic, and I shift up as soon as the car is going fast enough to let me do so. This is again intended to reduce engine RPM under the assumption that higher RPM = worse economy.

Is that correct, or is there again some optimal RPM I should be aiming for when accelerating if I want to minimize fuel consumption? Is this the same as the optimal RPM for cruising, or is it different? How do I know what it is?

My theory on the subject is rather hazy and if anyone feels like they have a really solid grasp of it and can explain it in a clear and simple manner then I would love to know about it. Mainly though I'd be happy if I could just be sure that I wasn't unnecessarily burning fuel while trying to drive economically.

Thanks for helping me settle this one for myself.

How do I get rid of this car that I am upside down on?

twblalock — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 17:53:43 -0800

Best way to sell/trade in a car with transmission problems that I am now upside down on? I bought a 2005 Honda Accord with about 64,000 miles on it in February. Now the transmission is failing, as diagnosed by my mechanic. There is a loud, extremely annoying whine emanating from the transmission at freeway speeds, and there is no knowing how long the transmission could last. A replacement would cost me about $3000.

I am extremely angry about transmission failure in a low-mileage Honda. The original warranty was only for 35k miles, but I though I could count on a Honda not to let me down.

Until today, I owed about what the car was worth. It is now worth substantially less because of the transmission issue, and I suspect it would be difficult to sell. I don't want this car any more. I will never buy a Honda product again - not even a lawnmower.

The way I see it, these are my options:

1. Keep the car, and replace the transmission when needed. Put up with the annoying whine and hate the car the entire time.

2. Trade it in and buy something else. I will probably be screwed out of $4-5k, which will have to be added to the new loan when the dealership accepts my trade-in. However, if I choose a car that is cheaper than the Accord was, I could end up owing about the same amount of money that I do now.

3. See if the mechanic will buy it. He has a fleet of loaner cars, and maybe he wants another one. But how do I cover the amount remaining on the loan?

4. Call Honda North America and get them to fix it through their goodwill repair program. I think this is very unlikely.

What do you think I should do? Is there something I haven't thought of?

My car is doing a thing (and I would like it to stop)

restless_nomad — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 18:04:57 -0800

My car is doing something kind of alarming, intermittently. I'd love to get some guesses as to whether I need to see a transmission specialist or not before I take it somewhere. (I have brought it to a transmission guy before, but it of course didn't happen while he was looking.) So what's happening is periodically, while accelerating, the car will slow down sharply, in a jerky fashion. The jerking stops the instant I take my foot off the gas, and usually doesn't come back immediately. The RPMs don't seem to change much while this is happening. It's been going on for probably a year or so, but has gotten more frequent in the last couple of months. The Check Engine light does not come on, and when I brought it in last winter to the transmission guy, he said there were no codes to pull. At that time he changed the transmission fluid and the spark plugs since it was time for it anyway. This didn't change the behavior at all. The only other unusual thing about the car is that occasionally it goes into a fast idle while parked - it's done this since I got it. (The car also seems to have less acceleration these days, but it's a four-cylinder sedan and was never particularly zippy, so I can't swear it's not just me.)

The car is a '01 Saturn SL1, automatic, with about 105k miles on it. It's generally been a good car - no real problems until now - but I am not afraid to take him out back and shoot him if this ends up being a major problem. I would rather not spend a ton of money trying to diagnose it (although I will definitely at least give it one more shot.) Anyone seen this before? Any particular tests or resources I should look in to? And does it look transmission-y? (My usual mechanic, whom I like but I am not too attached to, doesn't do major transmission repair.)

How much would replacing a transmission celluloid on a 2001 Saturn run?

Issithe — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 09:05:52 -0800

My 2001 Saturn's transmission celluloid has gone out. It can be reached through the oil pan so it's fairly accessible as transmission repairs go. What's a reasonable price to expect for this repair? I'm just looking for a ballpark so I might know if I'm getting hosed in the estimate when I get it next week.

What does my Mazda transmission need next?

SweetTeaAndABiscuit — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 12:19:08 -0800

My 2002 Mazda Tribute is having transmission problems and I'm stumped about what to do next. Can you help? (My apologies for the length, I was trying to include all pertinent and potentially pertinent information). I have a 2002 Mazda Tribute, which I bought used about 5 years ago. It's been a very dependable car up until about 10 months ago when I started having some intermittent transmission problems. I don't really have a "car person" to get advice from, so I'm hoping someone on Metafilter can point me in the right direction as far as next steps.

-- Not sure if this is pertinent but I originally used the car every day for commuting, etc, but about a year ago started working at home, which meant the car was used only a couple of times a week, usually for short (1-2 miles) errands.

-- In August of last year, while on a 5 hour drive, I noticed the O/D (overdrive) light was on, although I hadn't pushed the O/D button. It wouldn't turn off until I pulled over, turned the car off and then back on.

-- Further along on the same drive the "check engine light" came on, which I thought meant it needed oil. I stopped, put oil in it, drove it a few more miles without the light going off, so I stopped and had the car towed the remaining 1+ hours to my destination.

-- At the car repair place they said the oil was very low, changed it and sent me on my way. As long as I drove short distances around town, the car seemed fine. When I left town to drive the 5+ hours back home, the same thing happened (O/D light came on followed by the "check engine light"). I drove the rest of the way home with no apparent problems (other than the lights).

-- Once home, I took the car into the Mazda dealership. That's when I first learned that there were transmission issues. Up until this time I hadn't noticed any transmission problems like rough changing, etc. They changed the transmission fluid. The mechanic there told me the transmission fluid would either fix the problem or, if it didn't, I would need a new transmission. He said if the lights came back on, it was still OK to drive it, I couldn't make it worse.

-- I again made the 5+ hour drive (my mom was ill and I was traveling back to my hometown frequently) and, sure enough, the lights came on again. I completed the trip though with no performance issues.

-- My mom was going to be in an assisted living facility for a while, so I left my car with her and drove her car back home and have been driving it the last 8 months or so, while she recovered. My uncle has been using the Mazda occasionally for short trips around town with no problems and no O/D or "check engine lights" on.

-- My cousin, to be helpful, took the Mazda to a transmission place in my hometown to hopefully get it repaired. Not realizing the transmission fluid had recently been changed, they changed it for a second time and also put in an transmission additive (I'm uncertain if a transmission additive was used the first time it was changed at the Mazda dealership). Everyone assumed that had fixed the problem.

-- My mom needed her car back so yesterday I left her car with her and drove my Mazda the 5+ hours back home for the first in 8 or so months. Sure enough, a couple of hours into the trip the O/D light came on followed an hour or so later by the check engine light, so obviously the transmission still has issues. There *might* have been a couple of instances of the gears changing a bit rougher than usual, although that I might have *thought* I noticed that because I was kind of freaked about it all.

If you've made it this far, thanks so much for reading and here are my questions (finally!):

1) How alarming is all this and is there anything else I can do to try to improve the transmission situation? Is it possible that driving the car more to circulate the new transmission fluid with the additive could improve and hopefully solve the situation?

2) If not, and I need a new transmission, what is a range I could expect to have to spend? I assume taking it to a non-dealership transmission repair place and asking for a rebuilt transmission would be less expensive?

3) Considering this is a 2002 model vehicle, would it make more sense to buy a new-to me used car rather than have this one fixed? I like the car and it's been reliable up until now, but it does have a few issues (the door gaskets need to be reglued, one of the back window motors no longer works, there is a very slow, minor oil leak around the oil pan (?). On the other hand, I'm out of work on an extended medical leave and money is very tight so I need to be as frugal as possible and still have dependable transportation.

I know YANM mechanic, but any advice or things I should consider will be most appreciated.

Can you catch a cold by sharing a spoon?

Bardolph — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 04:22:34 -0800

How likely am I to catch an upper-respiratory illness through strictly oral/gastrointestinal means (like sharing utensils, etc.)? I've always kind of assumed that the mouth environment is sufficiently different from respiratory membranes (pH, digestive enzymes) that it's probably relatively inhospitable to the kinds of microbes that cause common upper-respiratory tract infections, and that in any case objects that find their way into your saliva should mostly be washed into the stomach, not randomly drifted up into your sinuses or whatever. Therefore, I have maintained in the face of intense family opposition that it should be pretty safe to (for instance) share a glass or a donut with someone who has a cold (assuming washed hands), vs. rubbing your eyes with their tissues or standing around inhaling while they sneeze and cough.

Question, though: can anyone point me to any credible information that either supports or contradicts this belief? Ideally, let's exclude general-audience public-health websites from the "credible information" category on this one, since I'd expect those sorts of sites to err on the side of caution rather than maintaining strict fidelity to the hard evidence. PubMed would normally be my first stop, but the keywords here are pretty unhelpfully vague-- so if anyone can volunteer peer-reviewed studies, or, you know, in-depth explanations of the actual mechanisms that make transmission or non-transmission more plausible, I'd especially love to see those. Thanks so much!

Am I going to kill my car by keeping it stopped?

saeculorum — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 23:02:55 -0800

Is it a bad idea to slightly accelerate on a steep uphill slope to keep a car with an automatic transmission stopped? For no good reason beyond my own amusement, I've taken to keeping my automatic transmission equipped car stopped on a steep uphill slope by very slightly depressing the accelerator pedal. The increased idle speed of the engine keeps the car from rolling backwards. When I need to go forward, I can just depress the accelerator further rather than switching rapidly from the brake pedal to the accelerator pedal. With the slopes in the Seattle area, this is the difference between rolling backwards a foot or so (if I have to switch pedals) and avoiding rolling backwards at all (if I stay on the accelerator pedal).

It occurs to me that I have absolutely no idea if this is a stupid idea, since I haven't found the practice mentioned anywhere, nor has anyone told me to do it or not to do it.

Any thoughts?

The Mystery of the Always-Backward-Funky-Forward Subaru

AnOrigamiLife — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 14:24:43 -0800

Our wagon has a quirky automatic transmission—the same problem with little change for six years: Sometimes it won’t shift into drive, but it will always always engage in reverse. The go-to fix? Drive backward to a slope that enables a rolling start forward, shift into drive and tap-tap the gas until, eventually, *clunk* it engages. Diagnosis? This happens perhaps once every dozen times we shift into drive, stranding us over the years for typically a minute or two at a time, on occasion up to 20 minutes—at times in inconvenient, maddening and sometimes unsafe conditions. The reversing-to-roll-down-a-slope trick usually works and requires strategic parking at all times (worst case, we have to give the slope multiple tries and mutter things like, “I guess this is finally it”). But it ultimately always engages, and we feel something shift into place, sometimes with a big jerking clunk, other times much gentler.

Mechanics have told us for years this car will die at any moment without $5,000 of work for any number of things. So we wait. We’ve tried transmission fluid flushes, which seems like it might diminish the frequency of the problem for a little while, but it’s hard to tell. We’ve been told to replace the transmission ($everal thousand) or the duty solenoid (~$600). Nobody is certain.

Other deets:
2000 Subaru Legacy, purchased used (with this problem) in 2006;
180k miles, with original engine and transmission;
No other significant problems;
Never pulls a trailer;
Regular oil changes and fuel filter changes; premium gas; a couple of tune ups and a knock sensor replacement; occasional use of HEET (in winter) and Sea Foam in the fuel.

Would love to unravel the mystery and fix the problem if it turns out to be prudent...and affordable (e.g. not a new transmission).

Learn to drive stick-filter

lonefrontranger — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 16:55:17 -0800

Help me get over anxiety from learning to drive stick on surface streets in a moderately hilly town, please? HALP. I am 43 years old and have tried, multiple times over my adult lifetime, to learn how to drive a manual. Earlier efforts involved my frantic overbearing mother and my asshole ex. My husband has been unfailingly, incredibly patient, and I'm still not managing to get it. I've been "sort of" learning on our 2005 Outback, but O Dear Lord I Have Issues, not the least of which it's just too damned easy in this town to just say "fuck it", avoid the whole mess entirely, and ride my bike.

This, however, is not going to be a negotiable solution forever, and I'm getting really pissed off with myself and my anxiety surrounding this issue. It would also be really nice if I could drive to work on days I really need to. Or drive to things I would like to do myself, like bike races, help out driving on road trips for my husband, etc. I do partial shifts when we go to Albuquerque to visit his folks, but so far it really has to involve very long, open stretches of freeway with virtually no potential for having to actually, you know, use the gears much (meaning: the stretch between Trinidad and Santa Fe and that's pretty much it).

One compounding issue is that we live in a dense small city (Boulder, Colorado) which has some of the worst traffic congestion for a community its size that I've ever seen. The trip from my house on the southwest end of town to my workplace (central east side) is fraught with roughly a million stop lights, hill starts and large, busy arterials. There is no route out of my neighborhood without facing an extremely aggravating series of lights. The "easiest" way out of the maze involves a hill start, and hill starts absolutely terrify me. This car does not have "hill assist" btw.

Another compounding issue is that our car has a pretty heavy clutch. Replacing it (the clutch or the car) is really not an option. I'm beginning to regret having sold my pathetic old Volvo in fact, if only because it was an automatic and didn't make me feel like a failure at life. And the irony of it is, I'm a pretty decent driver otherwise.

I know other people have learned how to do this - it cannot possibly be as hard as I'm making it.

What tips or suggestions does the hive mind have to get me past the mental blocks with driving stick in traffic? I recently spent a humiliating ten minutes weeping in rage just trying to back up and pull out from behind a friend's house four blocks away because I kept stalling the damn thing.

1988 Toyota 4Runner V6 Transmission Trouble

dissolvedgirl22 — Mon, 21 May 2012 13:28:26 -0800

How much will my transmission cost to fix? Left to its own devices, how much longer will it last? Any advice for a mechanical laywoman? I've owned this truck about 7 months and I have an irrational love for it even though I may not be able to keep it going much longer. Thanks to the friendly advice of folks here, I've been able to master careful monitoring of my radiator fluid level and rule out a head gasket problem. Not one overheat since I posted my last question!

Now this: for about the past month, I've noticed that the engine seems to take a while to "warm up" and kick into the right gear when driving at any speed. I have an automatic transmission with an overdrive feature. While the truck is warming up, which takes about 10-15 minutes of driving, the RPMs range between 2,000-3,500 with moderate acceleration and the sound of the engine is similar to when the overdrive is engaged, even though it is off. Once this time has passed, the engine quiets down and ranges between 1,500-2,500 RPMs.

Occasionally, with slightly increasing frequency, after this period has passed and I've driven a significant amount of time (at least 45 min - 1 hour) the RPMs will start to wig out and the engine roar for a few seconds as if I was depressing the gas pedal in neutral. If I let off the gas and coast for a few seconds, the engine quiets down and the RPMs go back to a normal range.

The engine also occasionally will die immediately after startup if it's allowed to idle. If I start it up and give it some decent gas for a minute or two, it will hold its own again. This is also a new development.

I know that there is a limit to how much help I can receive here, that my truck is old (odometer was stuck at 250k when I bought it and I've put on maybe another 10k since then) and my pockets are shallow, and eventually I'll have to give in and get something more reliable. I'm just hoping to prolong the inevitable if I can.

Recommendations for a transmission shop on the far northside of Chicago

who squared — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 21:05:18 -0800

I need a recommendation for a good transmission shop on the northside of Chicago. Bonus points for Evanston, Rogers Park, and the surrounding areas. I don't want to go too far from that area because the car will have to be towed.

How did wirephoto work?

circular — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 22:04:46 -0800

How did Wirephoto (news wire photo transmission) work ca. 1948 or earlier? Transmission over phone lines of...pixels? Was there error correction? Etc. Just finished watching Northside 777 and was shocked not only by the early example of an "ENHANCE PHOTO" sequence but by the fact that a newswire photo service existed.

I looked up wirephoto @ Wikipedia but frustratingly there's no information about how the technology worked back then.

Any information would be appreciated. Just wondering how it was different from the dialup modem transmission system I used in the 1980s.

A new transmission? Really? It's a Toyota?

stet — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 10:40:03 -0800

My pickup is a 2000 Toyota Tacoma V6 4X4 with an annoying problem of popping out of first gear both under load and when not under load. This is apparently a known issue with Tacomas as documented here. I've replaced the bushings per the linked article except for the white one on the end of the shift lever visible in the second photo of step four. This part is on order but I'm not optimistic. What are my options? The truck has just over 100k miles on it and I've owned it since late 2000 when I bought her with 27K on her. In addition to being kind of attached to this truck my guess is that I'd be spending at least $10kUS for a comparable replacement for which I wouldn't know the maintenance history. I'm assuming I'll get at least another 100k miles out of this truck, barring accidents. So, I'm figuring it makes sense to replace or rebuild the transmission. However, I have a bad habit of paying to repair trucks that I really should scrap instead. I paid cash for the truck ten years ago, so I'm comparing replacing the truck entirely versus repairing it. I do not have the wherewithal to replace or rebuild the transmission myself.

What should I be looking for here? Seriously, I'm dumb about this. Do I want a dealer to do the work or a transmission shop? What should I have replaced while the transmission is out? The clutch pad is a no brainer, but what else should I get at while I'm in there? Should I buy a new transmission or a salvage transmission? How long should I expect the truck to be in the shop?

Best of all, is there an easy and cheap fix I'm overlooking? That would be ideal. I'm planning on owning the truck for at least another decade, so that's the time frame for amortizing costs.

I'm in the Bremerton, WA area, if anyone has recommendations for specific shops.

Would an alien radio pick up a cacophony or a damp fizzle?

0bvious — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 05:09:12 -0800

If an alien located on a planet 100 light years from here was to switch on a big, multi-frequency radio receiver, and record all the noises coming from outer space for the next hundred years, on all frequencies, how many soap operas, advertisements and new broadcasts would they pick up from Earth? Would a mass-market radio, similar to our Earthly equivalents, pick up anything? Over time, as the number of Earth transmissions increases exponentially, would the alien pick up a cacophony or a damp fizzle? We've all heard the cliché that since the first radio broadcast, the Earth has been spewing all our bad soap operas, CB-radio call outs, airplane distress calls and re-runs of Boy Meets World into outer space. This front of radio waviness is now as many light-years from Earth, in all directions, as the number of years since it was first transmitted (or so the cliché goes).

Now, it's also a function of radio wave propogation, that the Earth's ionosphere is used to bounce some of those waves around the world. Thus people in Zimbabwe can pick up BBC World Service. So, presumably, not everything ever transmitted will have left this planet, bound for space?

So, my question is about the percentage of those waves actually are travelling out in space? As time goes on, would the increase in transmissions from Earth's past begin to overwhelm all alien radio equipment? In 100 light years of space, how much of the transmission would be dampened by gas, gravity, etc? As the 21st century portion of the wave arrived at the receiver, how long would it be before all the transmissions sounded like 0s and 1s (announcing Earth's digital era)? Would the alien need special equipment? Or would any old radio pick up something, whatever frequency it was tuned to?

If two planets coincidentally started broadcasting around the same time, would the alien pick up a mixture of the two planets' frequencies? Or would the waves somehow cancel each other out as they meet on their individual journeys through space-time?

The automatic transmission on my 2001 VR2 Volkswagen Jetta has failed twice.

telomere — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:57:06 -0800

The automatic transmission on my 2001 VR2 Volkswagen Jetta has failed twice. The first time was at 40,000 miles, it was covered under the 10 year/100k powertrain warranty (but barely) and now I am 6 months out of the time period but the car only has 64,000 miles on it and has been impeccably maintained and gently used. How can I get the dealer to cover this under warranty? To give a bit more detail: I am the original owner of the car. It has been a complete lemon and has given me nothing but trouble. The transmission originally started slipping at around 37,000 miles. I took it into the dealer at that point complaining about the slippage and they tried to sell me on the notion that the behavior was a merely result of the computer that regulates the transmission sometimes experiencing meaningless hiccups. During the 3k in between then and when it eventually stopped working entirely the car would lurch from a stop into first and then jerk into second.

When it did finally completely fail, I had it towed in and they attempted to charge me for an off-powertrain repair. I have a family member who knows the owner of the dealership who talked to him and got him to agree to perform the needed work under warranty. I am unsure as to the specifics of the service that was performed, but the car seemed ok thereafter.

That was now about five years ago. A few months after the transmission was fixed for the first time, I moved out of state to a series of cities where I didn't need a car. During this period, the car was in the care of my mother. She drove it 1-2x/week and religiously kept up with the required maintenance.

I just moved back in the middle of December and have been driving a lot since then. Last week I noticed the SAME exact problem with gear slippage as had happened at 40k. I did not wait to be stranded this time and instead took it right to the dealer, explaining that the transmission had already failed once before. They did a diagnostic and are suggesting that I need an entirely new transmission at a total cost of $5,000 as I am six months out of the warranty period.

I feel that it is completely unacceptable for a well maintained and gently used car with such low mileage to have had transmission failure TWICE in a row. I do not know what my options are or how to best approach the dealership but I do feel as though this should be a warrantied repair. The family member that I had talk to the dealer last time wants to go in with me in the morning and try to convince him to cover it as it seems like a complete repeat of the original problem but I feel as though neither of us has a very good game strategy for that.

I have done a lot of googling and this appears to be a VERY common problem with VWs but I have found little information beyond people complaining about the same thing. I sort of feel like my next step will be to contact the BBB and perhaps contact the Office of Defects Investigation. Aside from that, I am unsure of how to proceed.

Does anyone have any advice (besides, you know, never ever ever buying a Volkswagen again)?

Please don't break, old beat-up car

lewedswiver — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:07:07 -0800

My car gave a big "kick" while accelerating. Is my transmission about to die? 2001 Nissan Altima. Automatic transmission. 148,000+ miles. I bought it a year ago with about 137,000+ miles on it... I'm assuming it had the original transmission. Three times in the past month the following has happened:

I've either rolled to a near-stop or started from a total stop and then hit the gas... but the car didn't accelerate, so my split-second reaction is to hit the gas harder, and it still doesn't go forward, while I hear a sound of the engine revving (this is all happening is such a short time frame that I think this is what's happening -- I haven't seen the tachometer)... Then, all of a sudden -- there's a "kick" and everything all comes into place and the car jerks forward.

I know very little about cars, but my uninformed impression is that the car has fallen down to the lowest gear while breaking, and then when I hit the gas the gears don't really catch for a second or two, until they do. This feels rather irregular to me -- and violent, too, as if the transmission is rather messed up and could in due course break entirely. (If that does happen, it would probably mean having to get another car... which is not quite in the cards right now, financially. So I'm worried.)

Any idea what is happening here? Is the transmission in risk of breaking outright soon? Is there anything I could do to stave off this possibility?

Playing with fire or being prudent?

fireoyster — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 10:09:04 -0800

CarFilter: Mess with the automatic transmission fluid or not? Difficulty? 2003 Ford Explorer with about 105,000 miles and a "sealed" automatic transmission. I own a 2003 Ford Explorer (like the '02, the not-quite-related-to-every-other-Explorer model). My usual mechanic says that I should have the transmission fluid checked or flushed. The problem is that, apparently, only a Ford dealer can do this because there's no dipstick. According to my Haynes book, Ford considers the transmission in this vehicle to be a "sealed system" that doesn't need regular service. The vehicle also has 105,000 miles, though I've only owned it for the last 35,000 miles. Compounding my confusion is the old saw that says "if you haven't had a transmission regularly serviced at 20k intervals, don't touch it unless it dies."

So, hive mind, should I take this Explorer to a Ford dealer and have them poke at the fluid, or should I just leave it alone since the transmission is working?

A solution so obvious, it must be wrong.

davejay — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 20:48:05 -0800

Why don't electric cars use smaller motors with multiple-speed transmissions? Everything I've read while researching an electric car purchase says that, since electric motors produce the most torque at rest, and produce such copious amounts of it, that (with one exception) electric cars don't use multiple-speed transmissions -- because they're too fragile, and because you can get away without it. For instance, Tesla tried like the dickens to work out a two-speed transmission, but eventually shipped the cars with a single-speed (the higher gear.) Similarly, to avoid halfshafts breaking along with transmissions, it is apparently typical to limit current to the motor initially, so that it puts out less power. Unfortunately, running single speed transmissions means that the motors have to run at high (and significantly less efficient) speeds as the car's speed increases.

Given that combination -- motors too powerful at low speeds, and not efficient enough at high speeds -- it seems like a no-brainer to run a much smaller electric motor and a multiple-speed transmission. The full low-speed torque output (without current limiting) would presumably be sufficient to get the car moving, but low enough not to break the gearbox, and the inability to produce as much power at higher speeds would be solved with the now not-imploding multiple-speed gearbox. Plus, smaller motor and lower speeds equals better battery life and less heat.

It seems so obvious, in fact, that I don't understand why manufacturers aren't taking this approach...but they're the geniuses, I'm not, so there must be a good reason. Please advise.

Help me learn to drive stick in NYC

I-baLL — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 08:00:56 -0800

How do I learn how to drive a manual transmission in New York asap? I have called a few schools and they're booked for a few weeks ahead. I basically want to learn how to drive a manual transmission car asap. I already can drive an automatic.

my honda civic has trouble going into reverse. why?

patricking — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 18:14:59 -0800

our 2006 honda civic EX sedan (automatic) is having occasional problems shifting into reverse. we're taking it in to be fixed, but i want to try and read up on this beforehand. fascinating details inside. the day after our blizzard (we're in chicago), the boyfriend got stuck on a snowdrift.

the front end of the car was stuck with packed snow underneath, so boyfriend basically had to dig out and back off of that in reverse (that being a summary of about two hours worth of effort), which caused some damage underneath.

firstly, a plastic shield was ripped off from the undercarriage/front bumper. that's like a hundred bucks to replace, so i don't care.

secondly, the car will occasionally refuse to go into reverse. when put into reverse, it'll act like it's in neutral and just rev.

we can make it drop into gear, but it's not really safe—we have to either shift into drive then back into reverse until it drops into gear, or gun the engine in reverse until it catches.

it'll drop into gear after about three tries of either method. this only happens with reverse, none of the other gears.

during driving after it's needed to be forced back into gear, it'll jump somewhat as it shifts between other gears. (this happens every time, so i assume that to mean it's connected). it feels like something slipping for about a quarter-second before changing gears.

what does this sound like to car folks? i'm not sure what portion of the engine to familiarize myself with. ultimately, i'm going to trust a mechanic making repairs, but i do want to have a general idea of what we're getting into before taking it in.

The little subaru that could...

rich — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 08:27:28 -0800

Car is acting funky. I know there is a transmission issue, but... OK, so, a recent check at the shop, the mechanic showed me a picture snapped that he said was melted metal from inside the transmission running along the axle, most likely from a bad bearing. He said this is the source of a clicking sound I complained about. He said that as long as I treat her with kid gloves (no hard accelerations, etc), she should be fine.

I've noticed a slip when moving from reverse to drive, figure this is where the trans problem is.

However, the main issue I'm trying to figure out is that at times, going from a near stop or full stop, and pressing the gas, the car acts like it is about to stall out. It's never actually stalled, and after a few put put puts/stuttering, catches and goes. Happens more often on going up hills when I've been sitting in traffic or at a light.

I don't think this is related to the trans, though.

It's a 99 Subaru Legacy wagon, 170k miles on it. I drive about 175 miles a day due to my current assignment, so am not feeling the love of getting a new car and putting it through that kind of punishment for the next 6months - year. Had a new head gasket around 125k. No other major mechanical problems. It's actually been a solid car otherwise, and a great investment.

Bought in 2001 used for $12k off ebay motors, and figure have averaged about $1000 year in maintenance (the head gasket hit me for about $3500, so spread that out), including things like CV joints and tires. So about 3 car payments worth a year, which I think is pretty good.

Oh, and as an aside - windshield has multiple pits about the size of a sharpened pencil point.. any thoughts on an easy way to fill them in all at once for cheap?

So -
1. dangers of driving with the transmission as described?
2. what's with the stuttering starts?
3. windshield advice?

Sell a dying car?

gyroscope — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 15:01:33 -0800

I have a 2001 Honda Accord with a potential transmission problem. I owe about $4000 on it, it's worth about $3500-4000K and the transmission will likely be $3000. Do I keep it or sell it? The car has about 120K miles on it. I bought it used so don't know about prior transmission issues. The mechanic that I trust says the transmission may be going (burnt transmission fluid, car jerks on acceleration). I really like the car and generally only drive it on the weekends but that can include pretty regular 200 mile trips.

Oh, and I also need to replace all four tires ASAP.

So do I:

1) Sell the car now and eat the loss?

2) Replace the tires and wait to see about the transmission?

3) If the transmission is gone in a few months do I sell the car or replace the transmission?