Drove the car about a half a mile this morning and it ceased forward movement. No CEL or orange arrow. WTF could this be? I shut it off and restarted it and it went into gear only to go about 100 feet. Now nothing. Just bought new tires, havent even gotten them installed and now its sitting a gas station completly immobile. Anybody have an idea what this problem is?

 

Got it home, seemed fine. Fluid looks burnt but was full so I guess Ill switch it out Dex III right? Any ideas on why this would happen? computer issue?

 

If you never had problems with it slipping it sounds like a computer problem or parking brake locking up.

 

Well I did the drain fill tonight and if I didn't know better I'd say somebody put straight 40w in it. It was dark green/black like used motor oil. I drained it and ran a quart or 2 through it with the drain plug opened. Filled it with DexIII and let it run up to temp. Drove it around the block with no apparent problem.

Brought it back in and flushed it again and still nothing but dark green/black fluid for the most part. Filled it up again with Dex III and drove it about 20 miles and was getting on it a few times and it ran like a top. Figured I was good for a couple hundred miles until a flushed again. So I parked it back in the garage.

The lady got home about 10 and decided she wanted to go to a friends house. She takes off and I get the call 15 min later saying its losing gears intermittently before dropping all. I go check it out and its not doing anything unless I shut it down fire it up then it goes into gear for about 100 feet. Fluid is full. but now the check engine light is on and the arrow is flashing. Where do I stand now.? Its parked on the side of the road 5 miles from the house. What kind of computer issue could this be?

I think Im gonna load it up on the trailer in the morning haul it to the autozone pull the codes then back to the house and commence beating it with a sledge hammer. Still haven't been able to get it to the tire shop where a brand new set of tires is waiting on me. Complete horse $hit, Im so frustrated I think I might take it down to the hood and leave it running on the side of the road and let somebody steal that pile.

Not evn to mention I still have 2 front struts a pass side axle shaft and timing belt job/tune up waiting on me. I swear when it rains it pours and they're also accompanying tornadoes. Where do I go? Def cannot affored major trans work. Even if I do the R&R myself.

 

Got it home and ran a scan here's what I got:

P0733 - gear 3 ratio incorrect

P0500 - Vehicle Speed Sensor A Malfunction

P0410 - Secondary Air Injection System Malfunction

P0733 and P0500 I assume are related to the bad VSS. Whats with the secondary air injection malfunction? When I was flushing the trans I opened up the air box briefly with it running to check the condition of the air filter. Could this be the reason for that code? I hope so. I cleared the codes and I was able to drive it around the driveway and almost got into my garage before it wouldn't go any further. Just thought I'd update. Fluid still looks good.

 

I did some research and the consensus is that P0733 means the tranny is most likely done and isnt related to the VSS code. Drained the fluid again and the drain plug is slam full of metal. The car has driven mmmm maybe 3 miles since the last time I cleaned it off and drained the trans. Any of the 3 people on this forum in the market for a nice 98 t5 that needs a trans? Thanks for all the replies... Really learned a lot..

 

Gee, with a name like Nug-Huffer, and a personal level of responsibility that motivates you to allow your wife to take a proven failure-prone vehicle to a friend's house 15 minutes away... I can't imagine why somebody like me might sit back and observe whilst you allow your machine to finish its inevitable march toward an early death.

Rip a couple tubes and mourn appropriately. If your wife can find a ride to the dealer's house, that is...

Cheers,
LG (Member #4)

 

My apologies brah! Sounds like you speak from experience.

Since we're bashing screen names based on yours it seems as though you can't ride a real motorcycle let alone one without heated seats arm rests and a radio. Good for you guy! I'm sure thats tons of fun.

The reason I let her take the car is because I had test driven it 15 miles without a problem and had already flushed it twice. I saw no indication of any "inevitable march toward an early death" during that test drive. As far as I knew the car ran fine. There were no CEL's or shift arrow lights on.

You can take your personal attacks and your Mr. high and mighty internet persona & jam it up your a$$. You don't know me or my level of "personal responsibility". So sit back and observe all u want whilst contributing nothing of use whatsoever. BTW its Nughuffer not Nug-huffer. Get some new glasses Cheers!

 

Found a trans with 66k for $450 with a 90 day warranty. Went ahead and bought struts, timing kit, tune up kit, to go along with my new tires ive still got waiting on me. Should be a fun weekend.

 

How many miles do you have on the car? Have you ever replaced the cam seals? Wouldn't be a bad thing to do if you haven't done them yet. Also PCV might be in order if it hasn't been done in the last 50,000 miles.

 

208k. Never done cam seals. Nothing leaks on the engine but I will look into both of those. Thanks for the heads up.