I need help. I think my 5spd tranny is screwed. I was driving from the aaa place after gettin my international drivers license when something just like cracked inside the tranny. At first i thought something got caught under my car and started dragging/scraping, but when i looked, the tranny fluid was just pouring out. I managed to drive it home but it was making loud whining noises. I think i drove about 2-3 miles. The gears still seemed to feel ok, although i tried to cruise in neutral with the clutch depressed for most of the way. Now I'm gonna have to rebuild this, three months after putting it in. What a pos! To people with the technical knowledge of the 5spd tranny, what parts will I most likely need? I'm pretty sure i'll need bearings b/c i had a slow leak before and there was alot of play in the driveshaft. Could it have been the bearings that just totally failed?

 

Sorry to hear the bad news

 

yeh for shame!

 

Lets hear some more details first. Where is the fluid pouring out of? If you're hearing bad noises the transmission is obviously bad, taking it apart you will be able to see what went wrong. Ill try to help you out, i have a pretty good understanding of the transmission internals.

 

what you know about an international drivers license?

 

Well, I have been having a small leak from the drivshaft hole on the drivers side. It was small at first, but began dripping after a while. There is alot of play in the driveshaft, mayeb 5 mmm. It definitely does not feel normal, and the play has gotten greater over time. The tranny "whines" when driving, but feels ok. Thats probably b/c of the lack of fluid. I will probably take it apart during this week and find out more. Does anyone have the service manual in the nyc area? I don't feel like spending a 100 bucks on it and waiting forever to get it.

 

bump

 

its the autospirit in ur car rejecting u.

 

Yeah, I'll probably have to do a conversion on that one too. Maybe the cars automatic ecu is rejecting the manual tranny because its finding an alien organ in its body.

 

Your failure mechanism sounds identical to my tranny that died at 70K miles, as well as others' descriptions...that is, leaking driver's side axle seal due to a failing bearing, followed by massive loss of tranny fluid and ultimately internal failure due to lack of fluid.

Sounds like the infamous 4th gen 5speed tranny failure.

 

So was everything inside destroyed? My gears & stuff still work, but im wondering to the extent of damage done.

 

When mine died, it completely locked up internally. Based on the way the tranny failed, it looks like the input shaft bearing fell apart. The driver's side differential bearing caused everything, though...caused the fluid loss. I drove for over 10K miles with questionable fluid levels...that's really what killed the tranny. The driver's side bearing was so bad it scored the half shaft such that it was not usable again.

I have no idea on the extent of your damage. However, the fact that your tranny whines as you stated indicates a failing internal bearing. My car sounded EXACTLY the same way. It got really loud, like a constant rrrrooooaaarrrr. The only thing that shut it up was depressing the clutch pedal so that the input shaft stopped spinning.

 

SO how did you have it fixed? Also, do you know how many parts you had fixed? How much did it cost you?

 

I replaced the entire tranny with a used unit from a 95 w/5000 miles. It was much cheaper that way. The preliminary estimates for rebuilding were well in excess of $700, vs $500 shipped for the used tranny.

 

Oops, musta missed this thread. If theres that much free play then yes, look at the differential carrier bearings as a sign. What happens next is just like a chain reaction caues you're leakin fluid... Crack open the case, tell (show us actually) us what you see.

 

As stated above in a different thread, it sounds like the differential carrier bearing. Have a look at www.motorvate.ca, and then click on transmission. (It has full instructions & pics)

This is the same problem that I had with my tranny. The dealer FIXED is twice, and then I did. So far my fix has 36,000 KM and it is going strong.

Good Luck!