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Blew my 07 trans tonight

43K views 208 replies 11 participants last post by  man show 
#1 ·
Tonight, as I was cruising through an on-ramp in 3rd gear accelerating semi-aggressively, I heard the most horrible grinding noise just before I shifted up to 4th gear (kind of like when any manual transmission grinds a little when you shift sloppily without pushing the clutch all the way in, but way worse). I immediately slowed down and tried to shift back into 3rd gear, but had no luck, so I pulled over right away. I'm pretty sure I fried 3rd and possibly did some other damage because now the car won't go in to any gear and it won't roll - even in neutral. I had the car towed to IAG, so I'm thinking I might need a fresh set of gears and possibly some other goodies. I haven't done nearly enough gear research and my wallet is not going to be happy... definitely not ready for this one yet !Cry!

Initial thought = PPG helical 1-4, not sure what else. Gotta do some reading for sure.
 
#2 ·
Ouch, yeah if you heard that much grinding and couldn't get it back into gear you could have blown a gear.

Other than that maybe your clutch assploded but most likely a gear. It sucks big balls, but the car will be MUCH better if you go PPG. Definitely do helical in a DD, DO NOT GO STRAIGHT CUT it's loud as hell. Great for a weekend warrior though ;)
 
#4 ·
I've got 1-3 straight and 4-5 helical and I really like it, the straight cuts are definitely loud but I'm hardly ever in 1-3 so it's not too bad.

But John your so close you should just have your car sent to Andrewtech
 
#5 ·
First of all, the Andrewtech PPG sets leave 5th alone. You have a choice of what you want for 1-2 and 3-4, that's it. Second, Straight gears are annoying in many ways. Their only purpose is for launching your car. If you want to drag race, go straight. If you don't, go helixal. Helixial is stronger, Straight is just less stressful to smash together on loaded shifts (usually neutral to first especially).
 
#6 ·
Mosc is very right with what he said. Josh got 1-4 Helical cut, 2006 MY 5th, and 2006 MY reverse gear. Because 2006 has syncros for those that the 07s didn't get. He saw it with his own eyes.

John: That really sucks. If Josh can tell me the info, then I'll relay it to you. I think the options are: PAR gears, Albins, and PPGs. Josh was going to get Albins, but ending up getting PPGs. Stay away from RA Gears and M-Factory Gears. They aren't that much stronger than OEM.

Matt: Probably a higher tow cost, but if he is going the PPG route. Then it would've been a smart move. Because IAG will just send the trans to AndrewTec and have them do it. If they're smart; because then andrewtec will warranty the work if they do the work.

Update: Josh said those 3 gear sets are the easiest to deal with. Other companies are hard to get a hold of or deal with. He said the Albins have a stock ratio 1-5 gear set. So, they replace 5th. PPG's ratio is only a bit shorter than stock gear ratio and only does 1-4 gears. Almost forgot, Josh also said to upgrade the Front Diff while you're in there in his honest opinion. Josh got a M-factory front diff...which is slightly tougher than OEM at least. But, he said its up to you.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Thanks guys... I very seriously considered having the car towed to Andrewtech, but sitting on the side of the road in a stressful state, I opted to have it towed to IAG since I've been there before and I remember seeing on their website that they deal with PPG gears - through Andrewtech... now that I think about it, my decision doesn't make a whole lot of sense.. oh well.

*** Edit: Although their website still says they do PPG gears through Andrewtech, I just got off the phone with IAG and they said they deal mainly with Albins gears because the company is about 4 times larger than PPG, they're ISO 9001 certified, known for their use in baja races, etc. They were terribly busy today and didn't have a chance to look at my car, so I expect it will be a few more days until I know anything.

Not that it really matters, but the car had slightly over 84k on it and was Stage 2 since 11k with a Cobb OTS map and some recent bolt-on power adders and I drove it "spiritedly" most of the time so I'm not too surprised that something finally broke ;) Other than normal dd abuse, I took pretty good care of it. I'd consider myself a fairly skilled manual driver and I never banged the gears, so be extra careful if you want yours to last.
 
#9 ·
I considered Albins at one time but went with the PPG's because from what I heard from both Andrewtech and Doug at Top Speed was that the PPG gears are machined to tighter tolerances than both Albins and PAR making for smoother operation and decreasing the chances of failures, I believe in addition to Josh and myself, Ken (Lil Shoaf) also went with PPGs and with my experience over the past ~15K miles the syncro'd straight cuts engage and drive just like stock and the noise isn't near as bad as it's made out to be. They're way quieter than the PAR straight cuts.

For Reference:
 
#10 ·
I hate to be Josh's liason. But, his decision was made for him while he was deployed. His tune shop "lost" his invoice for the albins and then just went with the PPGs. Josh just went along with it and didn't want to fight it because of the hassle the shop was trying to give him. He said his helical cut PPG gears are noiser than OEM, but he can live with the noise. So, its up to you John. But, those are your options.

Matt: You need a camera holder. ;) You have to remember your engine, turbo, and exhaust noise is probably more than most wrxs though.

Edit: The obvious part is that you can upgrade your clutch and flywheel also if you need gears.
 
#11 ·
John Im sorry to hear about the loss of your tranny. I think you know most of these answers, and if not you will have the highest support from all of us here. Keep us posted.

*Kirt thanks for being my middle man. Im going to try and frequent here much more than I did in the past.
 
#12 ·
Update: Called IAG today - they said my problem is almost certainly a transmission failure of some sort. They should have some time to take everything apart early next week and then they'll let me know what my options are.

In the meantime, I'll be behind the wheel of the sweetest rental car evAR - a baby blue 1990 Honda Accord 5 speed with 342k on the clock. I couldn't duplicate the funky smell of the crusty blue interior if I tried. The car definitely has character... it was the cheapest I could find :poorme:
 
#15 ·
Paul forgets that tuners can actually get backed up with work and sometimes the car will sit and won't be touched until they can find time to actually get around to it. Seeing as how this wasn't a scheduled visit to get work done. C'mon Paul! :p

Matt: People around here find ways to kill hondas more than any other car. I swear they must not change the oil or something.
 
#17 ·
Which is why I think they neglect the car to high hell to kill them. Never change the oil or i don't know what they are doing to the car. But, I see them broke down a lot.
 
#18 ·
Yeah, I'm sure they're not terribly happy that I just dumped my broken car in the middle of their parking lot late on Memorial Day (they were closed) and called the next day and asked if they could fix it. It seemed like the best option at the time. Thankfully, one body shop guy was still in the building working on a widebody show car for the Ocean City car show and he was able to take my keys and information. He told me they were very busy, so I'm not expecting a miracle. Still waiting on further news...
 
#20 ·
Update: I just got off the phone with IAG - their trans builder is just finishing up a car and mine's next in line. It should be torn apart and diagnosed later this afternoon. I'm extremely anxious to have the car fixed, but scared about how much it's gonna cost :eek:
 
#24 ·
Which gear set did you decide to go with John? Albins or PPGs? If you have to take out a small loan and "build credit" paying it off. It sucks, but at least I had a small nest egg to afford my unexpected misfortune. I was expecting to do suspension mods and other goodies. Not tearing the motor apart again. :mad: I'm also hoping its mostly a bearing and maybe a crank issue. That should soften the blow if that is all I need fixed. Good Luck John and I know you must be missing it as bad as I am missing my car or worse.
 
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