1999 Corolla starts but doesn't move

[mxer657]

So I was driving down on the highway yesterday cruising at 70 then the car started to slow down on it's own to a complete stop. I pulled over, gave it a minute, cranked it back up and it cranked but it wouldn't go anywhere.

I had it towed to a repair place and they said that they think it might be the rear differential and that it'd be about $1600. Any other ideas? They seem kind of odd. I had to call 6 times over 3 days just to pull that out of them. At first they thought it might have been a broken drive axle (if I got that correct).


Any help would be great. Not sure if anyone else has experienced this. If so please tell me what happened, what needed to be fixed, etc.

Also the car is a 1999 Toyota Corolla with 101,000 miles. We purchased the car about 6 months ago from a female college student who barely drove it

[MAToyotaSales]

Originally Posted by mxer657

So I was driving down on the highway yesterday cruising at 70 then the car started to slow down on it's own to a complete stop. I pulled over, gave it a minute, cranked it back up and it cranked but it wouldn't go anywhere.

I had it towed to a repair place and they said that they think it might be the rear differential and that it'd be about $1600. Any other ideas? They seem kind of odd. I had to call 6 times over 3 days just to pull that out of them. At first they thought it might have been a broken drive axle (if I got that correct).


Any help would be great. Not sure if anyone else has experienced this. If so please tell me what happened, what needed to be fixed, etc.

Also the car is a 1999 Toyota Corolla with 101,000 miles. We purchased the car about 6 months ago from a female college student who barely drove it

I honestly had to join the forum to ask you this

Did they really tell you it was the REAR DIFFERENTIAL?? Interesting considering the Corolla is a front wheel drive vehicle and does not have a rear diff. Most FWD cars just have what they call a "Transaxle" which is basically a transmission, drive shafts, and diff all combined into one housing which sits on the front axle. Your problem does sound like a transaxle failure, however it could be something simple such as out of whack linkage. Its very rare to see a transmission totally crap the bed all the sudden (especially in a Toyota).

Regardless, if your shop told you its the rear diff.....find a new shop ASAP.

[EdW]

Originally Posted by MAToyotaSales

Regardless, if your shop told you its the rear diff.....find a new shop ASAP.

+1 to that, even if you have to push the car out of their shop!

[Bdub215]

Rear diff in a corolla? havent seen that in two decades but BS aside whoever told you that should be shot.

[mxer657]

Originally Posted by MAToyotaSales

I honestly had to join the forum to ask you this

Did they really tell you it was the REAR DIFFERENTIAL?? Interesting considering the Corolla is a front wheel drive vehicle and does not have a rear diff. Most FWD cars just have what they call a "Transaxle" which is basically a transmission, drive shafts, and diff all combined into one housing which sits on the front axle. Your problem does sound like a transaxle failure, however it could be something simple such as out of whack linkage. Its very rare to see a transmission totally crap the bed all the sudden (especially in a Toyota).

Regardless, if your shop told you its the rear diff.....find a new shop ASAP.

Very True
Well I think that is what they said. Regardless, we are taking it to another shop. They let us take it for free

Any other things other than linkages? It's weird because it just went to poop all of the sudden. Usually things get gradually worse. That is why I think it might be something small

[EdW]

Did you notice any noises or symptoms right before or leading up to the failure? Clicking noises going around corners, transmission not engaging right away in reverse, etc?

[mxer657]

Originally Posted by EdW

Did you notice any noises or symptoms right before or leading up to the failure? Clicking noises going around corners, transmission not engaging right away in reverse, etc?

Unfortunately, no I didn't. The only thing I felt was like it was driving slightly differently. Nothing drastic. It was barely noticeable to me.

We had a family friend mechanic take a look at it. He said there was nothing small like linkages. A trans for it would run about 450 :/

[EdW]

Did he happen to pull the dipstick and evaluate the condition of the ATF? Burnt smell, dark chips, etc would all indicate internal transmission issues.