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Just yesterday the transmission in my 2001 Elantra failed. It’s currently at a shop but since I haven’t heard back from them yet I’d like to get some advice as what the problem might be, and whether to fix it or call it quits on the car. I know that I can’t really make that decision until I get a call about it, but I’d like to maybe get some preemptive information.
Anyway I suppose I should give the backstory since we dealt with the transmission just last year. So last year around March or so we started having problems shifting into reverse. At first it was just momentary hesitation, so I checked the fluid level and everything was fine. I wanted to get the car checked by a mechanic, but was overruled because of cost. Over time it got worse and everyone realized that something needed to be done. I wanted to take it to a transmission shop that I’d used before and was happy with, but was again overruled due to cost. My father-in-law decided to take it to a friend of his who offered to rebuild it for $1000 less than the shop I wanted was going to charge. He was going to pay for it, and since I’m currently unemployed and the ownership of car is debatable that’s the route we took. We waited to take it in so the money to pay for it could be saved up, again I objected, but if anyone had listened to me I wouldn’t be typing this now… It’s early-august by now and the money hasn’t been saved and the transmission finally decides to die. No reverse or first gear and the car is surging like crazy when trying to shift. We now had no choice but to take it in, the friend being the only person we can afford now. He pulls the transmission and sends it off to a rebuilder, we weren’t told who, and it was supposed to be done by the end of the month before school started up, it wasn’t. We were told at least three times that he had to send it back to the rebuilder before we finally got the car back in late September. According to what he said the mechanism the controlled Reverse and first gear had somehow snapped in half. I don’t remember his exact words but that’s close enough. Also they didn’t refill the transmission either, but at that point we were just glad that we had the car back.
Now since then there have been some issues with the transmission; I don’t think they’re related but I’ll list them anyway. First I’ve noticed that it had been shifting somewhat, sloppily, since getting it back. I was told by several people, even those that knew about cars not to worry about it since it had just been rebuilt and was normal. Then it started hesitating shifting into drive from reverse. I checked the fluid level in case we had a leak and it was fine. I wanted to take it in somewhere immediately… but I was overruled… again… because no one else noticed it. Now I say that I don’t think those are related because they really didn’t get progressively worse and the incident yesterday happened very rapidly.
So happened was while my wife and I were driving all of sudden, no strange noises, no rough handling, nothing, the car stops shifting properly. Driving in first gear is extremely rough and it won’t up shift until the engine hits 4-5000 rpm. We park as soon as we can and I again check the fluid, which of course is fine. We start going through a list of things it might be, speed sensor (since it had been replaced recently before the rebuild), a vacuum leak, anything that could be messing with the shifting. We later decided to drive it again since we couldn’t actually check any of these, we had somewhere we needed to be, and it was still driving at the time. Backed out of the parking spot fine, put it in drive, the car froze, something snapped, first gear was completely gone, and the check engine light was now on.
I realize that this was quite a long story to just tell about a problem with the transmission, but I felt it was relevant. And this was still the abridged version of the whole ordeal too. Like I said I can’t really do anything until the mechanic calls, but I don’t think it will be good news when he does. I would just like some advice as to what it might be, how to proceed, anything really. And I do realize that there were likely several points throughout where I should have just put my foot down and said we’re doing this the right way, but it just didn’t work out that way.
Again sorry for the long story. Thanks for reading.
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It could be many things. If you could post any codes that the shop would share
with you that would give us something to go on. 🙂Ran into similar issues myself. Do you know what transmission is in it? Does it happen when electronics are under a load? I’m by no means a professional, but I had a limp mode that really beat me down for a while though.
Does it have harsh shifting points, such as reverse and going into park and has really low power after coming to a full stop?
Have you noticed any type of voltage drop? Such as try driving it with the headlights off, turn of the ac fan, see if you get a change. Unfortunately from my personly experience, most will throw out the “replace the transmission.” That would be the last thing I would ever do, personally. I’ve realized that some cars will go into limp mode for something as simple as a brake light switch, bad headlights or brake lights due to massive corrosion. As other generous forum members helped me with mine, it could be a TPS, Coolant temp sensor, possibly bad shift solenoids, MAF sensor, vacuum leaks, literally anything.
Here is one main thing that I have found, and if any others here, please correct me if I’m wrong, it could absolutely even be the voltage regulator of the alternator. Mine was not consistent, whatsover. We are taking massive voltage climbs, low voltage drops, and also it would drop voltage about every 3-4 seconds, meaning i put on. Dvom, ran the engine, and i would lose voltage out of the alternator, load or no load. Ended up replacing the alternator, and is now consistent and stays within a certain range without jumping all over the place. One more thing I would do, is check your grounds. Easy, free, and something you can do relatively quickly.
I do apologize if I’m way off track with this and your current issue, but figured I’d throw some info im there for you. As college man suggested, try to get the codes pulled and post back. Lots of knowledge on this forum! B)
Well unfortunately it came back as I expected it to, dead. They couldn’t find any codes when they checked and they found that the problem was due to internal damage. Since it had already been rebuilt once unsuccessfully they said that the transmission was totaled. I also ended up calling the guy who rebuilt it last time and he said that the reason it kept getting sent back was because it wasn’t shifting right due to metal shards inside from the broken piece… Would have been kinda nice to know that when he was rebuilding it and not have us driving a time-bomb for over a year… Anyway our options at this point are buy a remanufactured transmission, buy a used one and have it rebuilt, or scrap the car. I like this car and don’t really want to scrap it, but it looks like that might be what we have to do 🙁
You already know the state of the rest of the car. Buying another used car means buying a new set of issues, even if it seems good at the time.
Does your car have a.lot of visible rust or structural rust underneath? If it does, then ditch it. I also know what it’s like to just simply be sick of a car and having the plain simple desire to sit in a different seat to drive too.
If you still like it and the body and engine are good, your better off saving for a fresh tranny. I have not heard of your model or make having serious tranny issues, so a used or salvage unit may be an option. Your case could just be a fluke.
I know there are local tranny shops in my town that love everything made my Chrysler Jeep and dodge because they are mostly all known for tranny issues. Yes I understand that not all of those have tranny issues, but it is more common in my experience than other makes. One such shop in my town has a service bulletin from Chrysler taped to the wall near the front door. It states that caravan and its variants will litteraly blow the diff out the side of the tranny case if the van is hard accelerated while slipping on ice and snow. I’ve also owned a new dodge ram that went thru 4 trannies in its first 48k miles. A few peeps I know have the big fancy rwd 300’s that have also experienced tranny failure early in its lifespan.
Sorry to rant on. The short answer is, can you be happy with your car if the tranny worked fine?That’s why we decided to fix it last time. Didn’t want to buy a used car only to have the same, if not more problems down the line. The used car that we were supposed to getting is from a relative and it isn’t supposed to have any problems, they’re getting rid of it because they want a fancier car, at least that’s what I’ve been told anyway. Not saying the person that told me that was lying, but they don’t really know anything about cars and aren’t very good at communicating since English isn’t their first language.
No rust as far as I can see and I’ve been under it several times, so it there is any it’s hidden very well. I’m also 99% certain that the tranny failed due to having almost no maintenance done for nearly its entire life (it only got maintenance if it got wrecked and maintenance just happened to get don at the shop). It’s got other problems too, but none of them are really serious. So that’s still something that we’re factoring into our decision.
It’s also not like we’re without a car. I’ve got a 65 Mustang that has now become the daily driver. It’s very fun to drive on the freeway, especially since it refuses to go in a straight line. :side:
I’ve been around Chryslers for a while and I’ve never heard of a tranny going bad on them. I’ve seen almost everything else go bad though, including the AC control catching on fire because of an overload and failed protection circuitry. Guess in a way we were lucky since nothing was as expensive to fix as a bad tranny.
I would be happy with the car if the tranny worked, and I have gotten quite fond of it since I’ve done quite a bit of work on it since I’ve had it. But like I said in the op I’m not the only one who has a say in what happens to the car, but I’ll do my best to convince everyone else involved to try to fix it.
We’ll see what happens.
Honestly, I don’t recommend that you have someone do a rebuild, your pervious experience illustrates why. That is unless you’re dealing with a shop that specializes in transmission rebuilds and has a transmission dyno to check them before they get installed. Outside of that, I recommend a reconditioned transmission from a reputable rebuilder. They are dyno tested and often come with a good warranty.
That said, it’s really up to you if you want to keep the vehicle. As some have pointed out, with another used vehicle, you may be inheriting a bunch of new problems. To combat against that, I would suggest having the vehicle you’re considering purchasing checked out by someone before you make the purchase. In fact, I cover much of what to look for here.
http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/what-to-look-for-in-a-used-car-purchase
I’ll also throw this in for good measure.
No matter what you decide, good luck. Please keep us updated.
I think I may have finally discovered the TRUE cause of the transmission failure. You see, my in-laws originally bought the Elantra when their previous car, a 96 Camry broke due to… transmission failure and sat in the driveway untouched for the next fifteen years. Just two days before the transmission failed on the Elantra the Camry was finally sent to the scrapyard and the Elantra was parked in it’s spot immediately after. The Camry’s spirit must have cursed us for this and caused the Elantra to fail just has it had!
Ok that was lame, but I gotta stay upbeat about this somehow. Always good to keep your sense of humor about things, even only you think you’re funny.
Ironically though I did watch that video on saying goodbye a few days before this happened. But yes I do know a transmission specialist who I’ve used before with good success. Now we’re looking at buying a used, working transmission and have it gone through by them. This of course is if we can find one like that for a decent price and warranty and if the transmission shop isn’t going to charge too much. Then of course there’s getting the new one in and the old out. I could maybe do it myself but I’ve never pulled a tranny from a front wheel drive car before, but hey, no better way to learn than to try to do it. Pulled out of a rear wheel drive before, several times in fact (it’s also an interesting story, but not for this thread).
As far as the used car option, as far I know that’s not going to happening until sometime in December, so we’ve got time to think about it. We’re trying to get things done quickly mostly so that the Elantra doesn’t end up like the Camry. They kept saying that they would have it fixed right up until the tow truck took it away. Maybe that’s not a good way of doing it, but it’s better than letting it sit and rot for a decade.
Anyway thanks everyone whose read through my walls of text and replied. I’ll keep you guys updated as things work out.
Have a happy cat picture.
[URL=http://s1381.photobucket.com/user/supercar1999supercar14/media/P5242799_zps5zjya0eo.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1381.photobucket.com/albums/ah237/supercar1999supercar14/P5242799_zps5zjya0eo.jpg[/IMG][/URL]Whelp as requested I have a final update. Due to some recent events we no longer have the option to fix the car. I suppose it’s for the best anyway. As it stood there were just way too many ‘ifs’ involved with fixing it. IF we could find a cheep enough used one (since we couldn’t find one that was already rebuilt), IF we could get a transmission guy to inspect and service it for cheep enough, then IF it even was in working condition, and then IF I could rent/barrow the tools/equipment to pull the old one and install the new one since I already know that we can’t afford to have a shop do it. That’s four whole ‘ifs’, way too many to really justify attempting the job, assuming of course that it was still an option, which it’s not. What exactly will done with it we’re not sure yet. I’m going to try to sell it for a couple hundred dollars as a parts cars or something but I doubt anyone would buy it.
Anyway thanks everyone for replying and offering your two cents. I really appreciate it.
I have done a transmission in one of these cars before. Very easy to do in fact you can pull the engine and tranny out through the top if you remove the brake booster. The one I did was a 2005. I put a used tranny in it which was $250. After putting it in and adding some new fluid it worked great! Used parts are usually the way to go with older vehicles. Rebuilt transmissions usually never last, and never work properly either. I could never figure out how the transmission in mine failed. I bought the car with the bad transmission and the differential on the transmission was completely split in half. I would go the used route, save some money and be on your way. It’s always cheaper to keep her.
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