Source
r/Cartalk•
StijnDP

[1995-1998 Toyota Corolla] Garage dealer claims my whole transmission needs replacement

Europe. 3 door hatchback. Manual. Gas/benzine/petrol (pick your local naming...).

Thursday evening I parked my car in front of my house. Tuesday morning I step into the car and I immediately feel my transmission pedal gives very low resistance. It doesn't disengage the gears anymore so I can't shift.
I let it tow tuesday and today my dealer calls me that he will need to replace the whole transmission for €700.

Do I call bullshit? I can understand something is wrong with the line or the cylinders need replacing but that's a €40 repair cost on parts and something I could DIY apparently.

I fail to see how the transmission box itself can break from standing outside for 4 days.
I could understand in maintenance they notice cracks or something and they want to preemptively replace it but how does a transmission box go from working fine to not at all while it's parked?

Since the car isn't worth spending €700 repairs on, it's either calling bullshit or buying a new car. The latter is a costfull decision...
So I would like to hear more opinions before I make my choice.

EDIT: It was in neutral btw. So it can't be that the towing company messed it up by dragging it without checking in which gear it was.

Posted Apr 25, 2019, 8:51 AM UTC · edited

15
collegefurtrader•

700 euros sounds too cheap for a transmission

I don’t think you understand the quote.

3
StijnDPOP•

Thanks for the feedback. Because of your answer and that of zdiddy18 I decided to go to the garage and find out what was up for myself.
I replied in the post with the aftermath: https://old.reddit.com/r/Cartalk/comments/bh6bth/19951998_toyota_corolla_garage_dealer_claims_my/elr7swd/

1
zdiddy18•

Seems a bit sus to me... sounds more like a clutch issue than a gearbox problem

2
StijnDPOP•

Thanks for the feedback. Because of your answer and that of collegefurtrader I decided to go to the garage and find out what was up for myself.
I replied in the post with the aftermath: https://old.reddit.com/r/Cartalk/comments/bh6bth/19951998_toyota_corolla_garage_dealer_claims_my/elr7swd/

1
StijnDPOP•

Aftermath:

I went to the garage to speak to the mechanic himself rather than the front desk lady.
He tried to see if he could release the clutch by hand and it didn't work. And he tried with a crowbar and it still wouldn't release. So something inside must have been at it's end and just gave up tuesday morning turning the inside in a mess of broken plate pieces and/or springs.
He also didn't want to spend hours taking it out and dismantling considering the high cost of working hours.

I discussed what he wanted to replace it with and his quote. The €710 quote is a full new transmission box including working hours, new oil and new cylinder on the transmission box.
Alternative is replacing with another occasion which would be €5000 for something 2000 or older with >100.000km. It wouldn't be a guarantee to avoid any repairs in the next years. And worst of all, anything much newer would probably have a computer in it and I hate content locks.

Because of the low quote and the alternative having a higher chance to be more costly in the coming years, I opted for the replacement. If his working hours weren't included in the quote or the replacement would have mileage on it, I probably would have picked the other way.
The transmission boxes go for about 4-500 and the extra cost for a job at least 3-4 hours work is a good deal over here.

1