Celica Forums General Discussion General TRANSMISSION/CLUTCH PROBLEM - HELP

THIS IS A LONG ARTICLE I KNOW BUT FOR ANYONE WHO HAS DEALT W/ DEALERSHIPS AND WARRANTY ISSUES REGARDING TRANSMISSION AND CLUTCH PROBLEMS PLEASE HELP!!!



ok, so im gettn back from school last thursday night and im getting off of the freeway. im going about 45mph and i downshift into 3rd gear. All of a sudden i hear a real high pitch sound from the engine bay and it also sounded like something was being dragged under my car. i step on the clutch and go into nuetral and the noise dies down. I come to a complete stop and try to turn right while shifting into first gear and it wont go in. I try all other gears and they will not go in either. After about 30seconds of trying to get any gear to go in, 3rd gear slides in kind of rough but point is the car moves. w/ the clutch half way in and accelerating about 5mph i coast home (w/ the loud ass high pitch humm coming from the engine bay)..luckily no stop lights in the way and no traffic (i live like 3 blocks from the freeway)anywayz..i park the car


**saturday my uncle (who is a mechanic) checked the car out quickly and called AAA for me to tow it to the dealership. He confirmed my clutch and tranny both had something wrong w/ them. But without any teardown its hard to find out exactly what was wrong.

**Cars at the dealership since saturday and today they started teardown on tranny and clutch so that an investigator can check it out tommorow morning. Initially i was only responsible for a 78.00 inspection fee. but now i am responsible for an $858.00 tear down fee too find ut what the problem is. Of course if the damage is under warranty i am not liable for the teardown.

**Of course im worried about the "what if they decide to not pay" but more importantly they told me that my clutch was bad also. and that is not covered under my warranty. until tommorow i wont know for sure but i would guess that if all of a sudden my tranny went out maybe it caused my clutch to break also. and if that were the case would my clutch be under warranty then?

**either way the dealership is telling me that the regular price for a new clutch is 1600 bucks and since teardown of the tranny is being done already its about 800 bucks for a new clutch. Is that way too much? Am I better off going to a different place for my clutch?and if i do is that going to affect my warranty?


***BTW my car has 80,000miles and i bought the extended warranty up to 100,000 miles.

Yeah they are ripping you off. Clutch for 1600 holy shit
Good luck man.

take it to another dealership. Do not pay that much

yeah, i though it was too much. even with labor being deducted. problem is that they have already begun the teardown of the car. i guess ill talk to the guy at the dealership (toyota of san bernardino btw) and see what hes found out.

i talked to the service guy at the dealership and i told him that i had done some research on cost of clutches. i came up w/ about 350.00 for an act street clutch..maybe a little less..but anywayz, the guy said there were a lot of parts that were needed when installing a new clutch, which is why he quoted approx 800 on the new clutch w/ adjusted labor costs due to the warranty work for the tranny. but it still seems high.

BTW...until tommorow i wont know for sure but i would guess that if all of a sudden my tranny went out maybe it caused my clutch to break also. and if that were the case would my clutch be under warranty then?

I got hit with the same problem. The dealerships rape you.
Get aftermarket. Also, get a lightened flywheel.

if warranty replaces my tranny is it still better to let the dealership leave the car w/ out the clutch and tow it somewhere to get an aftermarket clutch put in? or is it better to just get it put in there. also, how many diff parts do you need for a clutch installation...i mean how much should parts alone cost???

damn Hetor, this is making me worry about my car now hope everything works out for ya..

hey man. the parts ur gonna need are gonna be a clutch assembly. if you get that from the dealer, it will cost about 150 bucks if i remember correctly. it is three seperate boxes. then with the install and everything, i paid my mechanic about 350 or 400 bucks i think. Plus i had my flywheel sanded or something. hope this helps. but 800 bucks or 1600 bucks for a new clutch???? they are deffinetly trying to stick it to ya

mutha f'ers are trying to pull a fast one on you. Do some research and don't pay them asses your hard earned money. You will get your car back in order, everything happens for a reason bro.

listen to me!! i just went through two clutches! when i got to 85k miles my clutch started slipping, so i went to advanced auto parts and got a new clutch kit for 120.00, then i went to a local speed shop and they put it in, for 450.00 now, after about two weeks, the clutch i got exploded...DO NOT go with anything but toyota for your clutch! so now, i went to toyota and bought a presure plate, clutch, and bearing, and it coast me 204.24, then i had to pay the shop 450.00 again, and now, its unbelivably better!! you may think aftermarket is the way to save money, but its not, if you go after market your going to spend a shit load of money just to get a clutch that is maybe 10thousands of an inch beefier than a toyota clutch, you dont have to get anything installed by a dealer...but do yourself a favor and buy the parts from them!

thanx for the help everyone. afterall the dealership took care of me.

this is a breakdown of what i was charged.

112.47 for a pressure plate
77.90 for a disk
55.00 for resurfacing of flywheel
40.00 for brackets & bolts
55.00 for a bearing
50.00 deductable for the new transmission
156.00 labor

.0775 tx=588.71 estimate.


i actually think thats pretty good for a new clutch and tranny.
the reason that pricing was 800 before was because they were trying to sell me a whole new flywheel.

and they gave me 3 days free rental car.

glad to hear everything worked out...I just got a new tranny under regular toyota warranty, and they are only charging me $160 for a new clutch...hehehehehe

thats cool, they didnt charge you for any labor at all?