A Transmission Post-Op

Well, we did what I thought I would never do. We took the Corolla in to the Toyota dealership to have one of their techs thoroughly diagnose our transmission woes. What I was originally told was a transmission in need of complete replacement turned out to be a transmission in need of an overhaul. Many of the parts in the transmission were completely fine, but an axle seal was leaking fluid, which caused the gears to not be properly lubricated. Lack of transmission fluid due to the leak led to the bearings for gears 5, 4, 3, and 2 to fail (in that order). Luckily, all we would need to have replaced was the bearings and the leaky seal; the rest of the transmission was fine.

This, of course, is a labor-intensive repair. The parts were relatively cheap (only a couple hundred dollars), but the labor was expensive, since the transmission had to be dismantled and broken parts were replaced. All together, the total cost of the repair was almost $1600. This is a large amount of money, but the cost of used replacement transmissions for the car was looking like it would come to around $1500 anyway. This way, we got a free loaner car for the duration of the service as well as a 1-year warranty on the transmission. So if anything else goes wrong with it within the next year, Toyota is going to have to fix it. That benefit sold me on the slightly higher cost.

So we had the service done, drove the loaner for a couple of days, and got the car back on Saturday. It works great. It turns out that the replacements for the broken parts are, in the words of the service manager guy, "beefier components" than the original parts were. So, obviously, this means that there was some design flaw in the original components that contributed to their failure, regardless of transmission fluid level. But they can't admit that outright, because that would mean that they would have to recall all 2003 Corollas with manual transmissions for a defect in the components. And that would be pretty expensive.

Side note: The loaner car was a brand new 2009 Corolla S with an automatic transmission, and I was disappointed with it.
The automatic was pretty blah and robbed any peppiness that my old 5-speed has. The interior was completely different, of course, and was a step down from the old model. While there was more room for the driver and front-seat passenger, the back seats were far more cramped and difficult to get into or out of. The console was a lot more cramped and was dominated by an overly large radio. There was about 75% less storage space in the console than in the old model. I like to use the bins in the console of my 2003 Corolla to store my iPod and cell phone while driving. While doing that, I still have plenty of room for an ID badge, some pens, some spare change, etc. In the new one, there is barely enough room for the iPod and the phone, and they have to be stacked right on top of each other, so when you go to reach for one, you have to fumble with the other one and the gear shift. Ugh.

So yeah, that effectively sold me on not wanting to upgrade to the new generation of Corolla if and when we have the money to do so. The exterior is fine, if a little too "I'm trying to look like a Scion!" It's a shame that they didn't think out the interior better when they redesigned the thing.