VEvolution

Hey everyone, as some of you may know I sold my beloved VE to a friend of mine, whos a serious noob at driving stick. I should have seen this coming. The car is at 162k, and other then the gear oil I replaced at around 145k, this tranny has seen zero service. Before I gave it to him, everything was shifting fine, no grinding.. Just that shaking in reverse gear, I made a thread about awhile back. And mild tranny chatter. Very drivable car when it left my hands.

Watching him drive it, I felt like crying. Hes horrible at driving a manual. I did warn him to take it easy, but my advice would only do so much for him, and I didn't realize it would crap out on him within a week. A few days ago he stopped by my house, and the tranny was already not staying in gear, and grinding like a SOB. Wasn't shifting smoothly either, and having trouble going into some gears. I knew the end was near then. Soooo............... Calls me up tonight, and tells me, he got stranded earlier today, and rolled the car into a parking spot and left it. The guy who was helping him push it, told him there was gear oil leaking. The car wouldn't go into gear at all he claimed. After typing all this, it just hit me that maybe it was the gear oil leaking, after all for the past few days, and just getting worse and worse on him. Will check it out tomorrow. So do these symptoms sound like a tranny lacking gear oil, or he damaged the internals, and it will need a rebuild? If so, around how much is he looking at? Thanks alot guys.

10's or bust

he's looking to rebuild especially if it was leaking gea oil. I bet those sychos are toast. about 700 dollars if he can find a good builder

VEvolution

I see..

You think thats with labor to get the tranny out/in and everything too?

Hectic

iTrader: (20)

$700 for a complete shaft rebuild and seals sounds accurate to me, off vehicle. You said it had a mild chatter and shook in reverse when you sold it to him. I bet this was going on for awhile. Sounds like you were driving on a blown ISB and he bought it just in time for it to leave him stranded. Maybe you guys can compromise and at the least get the tranny removed and reinstalled yourselves, saving him some money and probably making you feel better about the situation.

VEvolution

Does 'off vehicle' mean removal and installation as well? As for the mild chatter and shaking.. It was doing that for almost a year with me. I drove it around just fine. I know how to be smooth and careful with it. The second it goes into his hands, within a week the tranny craps out. I gave the car to him for $700.. That included $250 in uninstalled parts on the side, and a $600 sound system installed from 08'. All he did was throw in $300 for repairs that needed to be made after, using all of my parts, minus one, I had bought along time ago. And the interior and exterior are pretty mint, aside from some rust by the rear wheels. So, I think he made out really well. Im sure that tranny could have continued serving me well, like it had in the past. As for doing it ourselves, thats out of the question. Winters here, and no garage.

Augustus Maximus

iTrader: (6)

Sell the car and buy a tranny...just kidding. Getting the tranny rebuilt sounds stupid to me. I see them for as little as $200.00 all over the place on car-part.com. And while the car is down, give him some stick shifting lessons on the Beamer that way you'll smile when he gets back in the VE.

Hectic

iTrader: (20)

Oh yeah he got a pretty good deal I guess. "Off-vehicle" meaning already removed. If he doesn't work on cars, that's his bad I guess, and he's gonna have to pay for the labor.

VEvolution

Wow, they go as cheap as $200? Gonna look around.

Update:

Earlier we pushed the VE to my friendly neighborhood mechanic shop. They say it needs a rebuild, and it's leaking from the bell housing gasket. Aside from them saying nobody around here rebuilds them, it's not worth the price they say, and we should just go ahead and throw a used one in. And they recommend replacing the clutch too. Problem is, nobody around here has a VE tranny, and the only person that said he could get one wants $700. Plus another $500 in labor we're looking at. What to do, what to do...

You should have seen the look on my friends face.. Poor guy. Not even a week with his first car, and hes already shelling out $1500 in headaches and repairs. So the car is actually running him $2200 all together. Thats what I bought it for in 05' I think I should knock the price down cause I feel bad, but then again it's not my fault he blew the damn thing.

Augustus Maximus

iTrader: (6)

VEvolution

^^^

Ah, nice.. I don't know what they were talkin about at the shop yesterday. But can these 200$ trannies be trusted? Kinda gonna suck if we throw it in, and it's got similar problems my old one had.

And this is an reference to your last post on teaching him with the Bimmer.. It's an auto

James92SE

iTrader: (31)

So you live in NYC, right? Isn't there like, 8 million people there? I'd find it hard to believe nobody around there would/could rebuild a VE 5 tranny?

I think you should check around some more. There are likely all kinds of honest transmission shops (or even experts that do it in their garage types) that will rebuild it for a good price, especially if you take the tranny to them and can leave it with them. I recently got mine rebuilt for ~$400 including synchros

VEvolution

Your probably right, but this is what I was told. I've never had experience with a blown manual before. And I kinda agree with the shop owner that told me this, because in this metropolitan crap shoot, a small percentage out of these 8 million people own a manual. Thing of the past around here. Nobody has parts for them, except the dealer, and then your looking at big $$$ and alot of downtime. This is what I was told. Doesn't pay. I would have rebuilt it if it was still my car. I would have found someone. It just isn't my car anymore and it seems like Im more concerned about getting it on the road, instead of it's new owner.

Btw, $400 sounds really good. Did you use all dealer parts?

Hectic

iTrader: (20)

Well it kind of is your fault man. Your transmission was on its last leg when you sold it to him. I drove about 10k miles on mine after the bearing blew, and one fine day it finally left me stranded.

Don't put a used one in, you don't know what you're getting. I still say you guys should compromise by pulling the tranny and fixing it yourselves. It's really not as difficult as people think. You guys can fix it for chump change if you go this route. Myself and others can help if you get stuck along the way, just don't lose parts. Study the service manual before disassembling to get an idea of what you're doing.

VEvolution

I don't agree with you on that. Theres a difference between somebody who knows how to drive a stick, and between a person who doesn't. You must not realize how poorly he drove it.

Even if it was on it's last leg, how is it my fault? It was working the same way it was working when I gave it to him, for months with me. My fault? It's my fault if I know something is wrong, don't tell him, and charge him an arm and a leg for the car, then yeah it's my fault. I told him everything wrong with the car. But 700$ and a working transmission? "Kinda my fault"? What kind of reasoning is that? He told me he drove stick just fine. When I saw him driving it after he bought it, he was forcing it into first while the car was still moving, that would cause it to grind of course.. He wouldn't rev match, which made the whole tranny flop around under the car, and had trouble picking gears when coasting into and out of a red light. He had almost no feel of the clutch. The transmission went onto it's last leg the second it left my leg. End of story. Every person I spoke to agrees with me on that. So does he.

Come on man, you really expect someone to do a tranny swap outside with freezing temperatures and snow all around? Thats funny

Hectic

iTrader: (20)

Dude you said you sold him a car with "tranny chatter and shaking in reverse". It's you're fault you don't know what that means, it means the tranny is about to go soon. You sold it to him with these issues, so yup it's kinda your fault. You don't kill manual transmission in a week by driving it poorly I don't care how bad of a driver he is, they aren't made of glass. Regardless of how he drives it, it was going to go anyway.

Streamline93

I say you guys take your time to look at it and find a good one. Dont you guys have junk yards up north?

Augustus Maximus

iTrader: (6)

I procured a 6spd tranny at the JY with 50,000 miles on it for $950...just to have a spare. And if the tranny in my VE dies. Guess where I'm going.

VEvolution

What are you talking about? I had that reverse shaking and tranny chatter for over a year. It's actually been chattering since I bought the car 4 years ago. It's not some kind of miracle that once it goes into his hands, it breaks.. With that kind of logic, "you can't mess a motor up by over revving it. I mean.. it's not made of glass.... i don't care how fast he spun it.. not in a week...." So even if he was racing it and not telling me about it? Still my fault, right? A little racing never hurt anyone, right?

Doesn't matter what Im gonna say, you obviously have your own ideas on the issue. Nothing I say will change that. BUT, what I can say is out of the countless opinions I received on the subject, your opinion is the opposite from everyone elses. I'll go with the majority vote and use common sense. My fault, yeah...

We do, but VEs and their parts aren't really common in my area. We found a few low mileage ones in the near by states for around $400. Waiting for him to get his money together.

From a VQ35? Would that work? That would be some nice fuel economy..

BenStoked

iTrader: (7)

nah, the vq 6-speed won't bolt up:/ but it sure would be nice.

may wanna take a look at http://www.car-part.com . there are a few ve-5 speeds listed in NY. may be worth the money to drive around the state to find a transmission, vs. shipping.

Hectic

iTrader: (20)

"Kinda"

And what's this about common sense? Common sense is that he blew out a perfectly good transmission by not knowing now to drive it? Don't bite my head off dude. I've been there done this, tore down and rebuilt my 5 speed when it went down in similar fashion. I'm giving you an educated opinion. Common sense would be to listen to the guy who has experience.

But do what you want, don't take it personally that I say it was on its way out when you sold it to him, because it was.

Augustus Maximus

iTrader: (6)

The 6spd tranny is for my 2002 SE...I'm just sayin don't be afraid to go buy a gearbox for the car. It's cheaper. They also give you warranty.

VEvolution

Yeah, thats what were going to do hopefully.. Hes just getting his money together. I know a guy who has one with 107k miles for $400.. I would so get that. Except my friend is more interested in the $200 ones.

Yeah yeah, I know, I know..

Hectic

iTrader: (20)

The last thing he wants to do is replace it with a used one, unless he wants it to happen again. Even one with 107k miles. My bearing blew up with under 100k miles on the clock. He either needs to drop the tranny himself and rebuild it himself, drop it himself and have a shop rebuild it, or buy a used tranny and have the internals inspected prior to installing it. Do not let him pay someone to swap transmissions without knowing what's going in there. This is why I recommended that you guys do all the work yourselves. He could potentially fix the thing for $25 in parts. Course all you did is respond with a "" as if I knew that you have a bunch of snow and no garage to work on it in. Tell your friend to read this thread. Really the only reason I'm still giving some input is because I feel bad for him that he bought a car with a tranny that had bits of bearing cage churning around and a wobbly input shaft that was approaching the grinding and gear lockout stage.

Merry Christmas

VEvolution

The only reason your still giving input is because you wanna throw in that extra 2 cents after each of my posts.

He does read this thread. Input him all you want.

Merry Christmas

ColombianMax

iTrader: (7)

If you guys are down for a drive and some outdoor work... there was a VE5 at the JY .5 miles from my house and yes I used to work there

VEvolution

heh, thats a serious drive..

internetautomar

iTrader: (30)

Let me know before you go next time.
I need some stuff for the GLE and I need a couple of clusters for the vans.
I'll toss some extra cash your way.

ColombianMax

iTrader: (7)

yea but it'll be fun

internetautomar

iTrader: (30)

I'll be out in Queens on friday morn

VEvolution

Sure would.. I'll visit the Willis tower while Im there, and time travel back to when MJ played for the Bulls

oo! Now I can meet a 3rd gen old school celebrity

internetautomar

iTrader: (30)

LOLZ!!
i have no idea what my schedule will be though. I do know that I will need to be back in elizabeth by 3 at the latest.

Hectic

iTrader: (20)

So you're going to drive to Chicago from New York to pull a used transmission at the junkyard of unknown status but rolleyes at the notion of simply dropping the busted tranny and fixing it yourselves on a bench? If you guys are capable of pulling a transmission, you're capable of opening it and fixing it. Or maybe you're just joking completely considering the MJ bit. If you're not joking, you should go back in time right where you're at and relive the Patrick Ewing glory days where the Knicks won multiple....oh wait, they didn't win **** with Patrick Chewing.

Augustus Maximus

iTrader: (6)

Better yet they could go back in time to before the tranny got f@@ked up. Eliminated the need to give the car a blow job now, but working on it out there in the cold will ensure that the new owner will take better care of the tranny than the previous owner did.

ColombianMax

iTrader: (7)

HEY HEY, my idea was pure genius

VEvolution

Just check with your agent

Why on earth would I NOT be joking? I probably would be serious if I believed that high mileage manual transmissions are bulletproof to 19 year old first time car owners, or that outside winter tranny swaps are a peice of cake.

If you thought because I was talking about meeting internetautomar, that I was going to Chicago, then you got confused because Queens is here in NY.



Better care then I did? Really, hows that?

I agree

internetautomar

iTrader: (30)

I think sat night I may have a couple of hrs. spare. the trick will be getting across the bridge and back.

VEvolution

Unless it's a holiday, someone crashes, or road work, you should be fine.

Hectic

iTrader: (20)

It's not that he took bad care of it, just like it's not as if it went out in under a week because his homeboy was learning to drive a stick. It's typical for the front input shaft bearing to wear out and come apart in these trannies, eventually causing it to stop functioning completely after a long period of noise and reverse issues due to wobble of the input shaft where the reverse gear and broken bearing is located.

Augustus Maximus

iTrader: (6)

http://forums.maxima.org/1st-3rd-gen...-part-out.html

There's an org member selling a rebuilt tranny...you guys seem to be searching for everything except what's available. The blindest person is the one who refuses to see.

Nealoc187

iTrader: (23)

I stopped reading about halfway through this thread because there was a lot of bickering going on, but I'd advise against rebuilding the current one unless you (or both of you) do it yourself. The $400 james paid is really cheap, I would definitely not expect you to be able to match that price easily, but if you can, go for it. I'd expect a minimum or $600 and more likely $800-1000 to rebuild, including removal and reinstallation.

Pick and pull is a nice, cheap option but unfortunately it's cold as heck out now, but my 3rd gen turbo buddies have probably 5 transmissions each laying around that they get from the pick & pull for $50 each. Are all of them guaranteed to be good? No, but some are going to be good (and most are going to be better than the leaking/trashed one that's in there).

I don't know how mechanically inclined you guys are, if removing and reinstalling a trans is a really big deal for you guys, then I'd maybe consider springing for a rebuild but for someone who's got mild mechanical abilities and tools and for whom R&R of a trans is not a world shattering event, I'd get a cheap used one that has a warranty, take it to a trans shop and have them open it up and look at it, make sure it's in generally good condition and won't die tomorrow, and install that one.

also if VE transmissions are too expensive, get a VG trans and a driver's side axle and forget the VLSD.