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.
No worries, I'll snatch it back with a quick update. I found out the other day that I could sort of temporarily cancel my insurance on my WRX and save a bit of money - I believe it's currently listed as "not in service." I still have full coverage on my rental Honda and all I have to do is call State Farm when the WRX is fixed and I'll instantly have full coverage again on it. Might be something for you guys to look in to if you're going to be without your car for an extended period of time. I wish I would have known about that three months ago... oh well, live and learn.
Well the issue for me is that Erie doesn't have that. Plus in the state of Ohio all vehicles must have insurance on them. They do have like storage and weekend driven, but really for me it's just not worth it...
LOL, I know that feeling. But, with the engine back at my tuners...all they can make the excuse for is that they are finishing up other work before they put my car back together. Its been 3 months of no car....still not as long as HondaFan. But, bad enough.
Yeah I wonder too - I guess I shouldn't complain so much. I randomly checked the tire pressure in my rental Honda for the first time and three were in the 20s and one only had 7 lbs of air in it. Turns out I had a screw in it, so I plugged that bad boy up. Now I need to buy some of the cheapest/crappiest oil I can find - it's about half a quart low. Bummer.
Hey John, when you are without your car for 15 months, let me know man. Had the car for almost 5yrs (this december), spent 27 months in the desert of that time. But I feel your pain man. I hope you get it back really soon.
Actually, I just remembered, I have a half full bucket of used Royal Purple 5W-30 in the garage waiting to be recycled... I could probably just top it off with that :: devilish grin ::
Joshua, at this rate, I might beat your record! I don't know if that's a good thing or not. I swear I had a dream about my car last night too. Waahhhh!!!!!
Hey guys, not to derail this thread completely, but I recently blew up 2nd gear in my trans as well. With all the raving reviews online, I decided to go through AndrewTech. After a few e-mail exchanges with them, they recommended the PAR gear set for me. 1st gear is straight cut and 2-4 are helical. They also said that the PAR gear set has stronger parts? I am not so much questioning their recommendation, but I am not finding many recent reviews about PAR. I read a few reviews from the 2004 time frame that said the gear set was awful, was hoping they re-designed?
PAR was highly recommended to me when I was looking into gears, it just didnt work out for me to go with them. Hence why I went with PPGs. I dont know about them being stronger than PPGs, even tho I heard the same thing myself from several people.
Having zero first-hand knowledge and based solely on the bits of information I gathered from the internet, I initially wanted PPG straight cut 1-2, helical 3-4, and stock 5th gears. However, if it weren't for a good friend of mine referring me to IAG Performance for some fender work a few months ago and had I not had such an awesome experience there, I probably would have had my car towed to AndrewTech instead. The transmission builder at IAG told me that he has personally seen a number of broken PPG gears and he pretty much refused to sell me a set, so I was left with three choices: LGT gears (which are slightly stronger than stock WRX gears and the least expensive option), Albins gears (middle price range, good quality/strength), or a 6 speed swap (most expensive choice). I'm sure there are probably some other reasons why IAG deals with Albins and not PPG (maybe they have a contract?), but that's where my car is now and that's what I chose to go with. Both PPG and Albins are ISO 9001 certified companies and both have a pretty good reputation, so I'm convinced they're fairly similar in terms of strength and quality.
BoostinChick, I feel your pain. Keep us updated about your repair and your experience with AndrewTech !Thumbs Up
Thanks for the honest feedback, gents. I received not so great news yesterday that AndrewTech will not be able to see me this week for my rebuild. It's not due to parts, they are just slammed. Sigh, another week without the Rex. I have my fingers crossed for next week, the PAR gear set is ordered and on the way from Aussie land.
I find it funny that the Aussie's are the ones making all these gear upgrades.... PPGS, PAR, and Albins are all made from the land down under. They even make DBA rotors... (hint..its in the name that the aussies make them too)
BoostinChick: Update us when its fixed...you just might want to make another thread if yours comes back before John's (man show's) He might have to cry in the corner if yours is done first.
I'm assuming your talking to keith? Because you used two up arrows. Otherwise I was only up one post.
Yeah...I'm being held up by SuperTech. Otherwise the rest of the engine work is done. Eff.
Manshow: Holy cow...why is it that the 06-07s seem to be really blowing up gears lately? That looks pretty rough. Hopefully my car will be rolling at the same time yours is. I'm praying that mine gets done soon.
Poor Joke coming....Why is Jimmy Kimmel doing your trans? lol Is that why your paying the big bucks?
Cool deal. I wish you the best and keep in mind I have a spare motor for sale...!Thumbs Up
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