Took a beating, will need major tranny work soon

[Buurin]

Strange grinding noise halfway through a run today on Mosport main track. From the way Little Pig sounds and feel it's down to three possibilities:

Clutch disintegrated
Input shaft spline stripped
Synchros disintegrated

By trying to take it easy, taking the highway home and maintaining 95-105km/h all the way - just the way hypermilers would drive might I add - Little Pig made it home under its own power, but it started popping out of 2 on the home stretch.

Which means it will need major transmission work now. Which brings a few questions:

How do I tell from the way it sounds which of the three above it is?
Now is the perfect chance to put in a light flywheel. I'll probably stay with a street clutch kit. Should I go Fidanza or the one from monkeywrenchracing? Should I install a new clutch kit even if it survived and still seems usable?
The tranny was a C59 from a 2001. Is there a LSD that fit? Would I see benefits on track and in winter?

Thanks. Now I need to make some calls.

[Buurin]

Anyone???

[landphil]

While it's pretty hard (read impossible) to properly diagnose a transmission issue online, I'm thinking based on the info you're given that the clutch and input shaft splines are probably OK as you were able to limp it home, possibly a failed bearing or broken gear teeth within the transaxle. Drop the transaxle oil and see what comes out, likely you'll find metal. If not, you'll have to pull it anyway, and have a good look at the clutch when you do.

[Buurin]

Originally Posted by landphil

While it's pretty hard (read impossible) to properly diagnose a transmission issue online, I'm thinking based on the info you're given that the clutch and input shaft splines are probably OK as you were able to limp it home, possibly a failed bearing or broken gear teeth within the transaxle. Drop the transaxle oil and see what comes out, likely you'll find metal. If not, you'll have to pull it anyway, and have a good look at the clutch when you do.

Thanks. This is what I am going to do next. If I find metal it means a reman tranny.

---

So guys, how about these questions?

- Flywheel? Had a word with MWR and Matt recommends their own.
- Should I install a new clutch kit even if it survived and still seems usable?
- The tranny was a C59 from a 2001. Is there a LSD that fit that and my stock axle? Would I see benefits on track and in winter?

---
Dealer wants $3047 for new tranny

[fishexpo101]

LSD is more a personal preference. If it would be helpful in snow/ice would also depend on what type of LSD (viscous, geared, clutch). Sure, it would be helpful for some track driving, where you are not bleeding power from the inside wheel - getting more power to the ground. For winter time use - personally I would say it is more "entertaining" than "helpful". The added traction might get you out of some deep snow - but that can also increase the likelyhood of spinning out the car as the wheel with the least traction is no longer automatically killing speed (same idea as AWD - gets you up to speed faster, so you can crash faster/worse). In that ice blizzard we had in February of this year, I was able to get around better than many of the LSD equip'd vehicles (AWD, FWD, and RWD) with my open diff Corolla on all-seasons.

[Buurin]

Originally Posted by Buurin

Thanks. This is what I am going to do next. If I find metal it means a reman tranny.

I drained tranny oil and found shavings, metal chunks that can be picked up by a magnet, slurry, grey oil and whathaveyou. I got 1.9L/2qt of fluid out, so no leak.

Axle wise, is it true that 98-02 != (03-08 1zz == 05-06 2zz)? I should point out that I have ABS. If necessary, is it possible to make a hybrid axle with a C60 diff end and 8th gen hub end?

Most 98-02 transaxles I can find on car-part are $500+ with 200k+ km. 03-08 are $1000+ and again some have more than 200k.

Looks like I may be getting another 98-02 tranny, send it out to rebuild, and look for resources to put a Quaife in, while switching out the flywheel for something lighter.

[landphil]

Would a 6speed from a newer Corolla S or Celica fit? Wild idea for sure, but it wouldn't suprise me.

With a limited slip, you'll find the front end of your car will like to go sideways on ice and snow, could be a bit scary.

[Bdub215]

Originally Posted by Buurin

I drained tranny oil and found shavings, metal chunks that can be picked up by a magnet, slurry, grey oil and whathaveyou. I got 1.9L/2qt of fluid out, so no leak.

Axle wise, is it true that 98-02 != (03-08 1zz == 05-06 2zz)? I should point out that I have ABS. If necessary, is it possible to make a hybrid axle with a C60 diff end and 8th gen hub end?

Most 98-02 transaxles I can find on car-part are $500+ with 200k+ km. 03-08 are $1000+ and again some have more than 200k.

Looks like I may be getting another 98-02 tranny, send it out to rebuild, and look for resources to put a Quaife in, while switching out the flywheel for something lighter.

I cant recommend a 9th gen corolla (2nd gen) C59 because they have a lot of issues and i think they were recalled at one point. MWR has good products if your looking for a LSD they sell Quaife and KAAZ LSD's that fit our transmissions. and no 1zz axles are for the 1zz and 2zz axles are for the 2zz. splines are different IIRC. and length may/may not be the same depending on application.

Originally Posted by landphil

Would a 6speed from a newer Corolla S or Celica fit? Wild idea for sure, but it wouldn't suprise me.

With a limited slip, you'll find the front end of your car will like to go sideways on ice and snow, could be a bit scary.

6 speed will fit. custom axles are needed.

[landphil]

Originally Posted by Bdub215

6 speed will fit. custom axles are needed.

Could you combine it with a 5 lug conversion instead?? Or is the track too wide to use the 2zz axles anyway? Just thowing out ideas.

[Buurin]

Looked at some prices and it looks like I can't afford a swap. I think I'll just put in a MWR lightweight flywheel while the tranny is out and call it a day. But...

In 2007 when I did the manual swap I ordered a set of ARP flywheel bolts that are supposedly common between 4AGE/1ZZ/2ZZ, but they turned out to be too long when paired with a stock flywheel. Will I have the same problem again with the MWR part?

[fishexpo101]

Chunks are no good - but I occasionally find some shavings and grey slurry in my MT transaxles. If you did a short drain and refill and found more shavings, then I'd be concerned. Granted, this assumes that you found a small amount of shavings. If we are talking about a handful of shavings, then the transaxle is likely toast.

I doubled checked the part numbers - the C59 and C60 use the same axles, but only from the same generation - i.e., a 2005 Corolla LE and 2005 Corolla XRS have the same axles.

The 8th gen, unfortunately, do not share the same axle, even though they have a very similar transaxle - though 8th gen and 7th gen have the same axles - if that will help your search. Will have to get ones designed for ABS in ABS equipped applications.

As for the ARP bolts - you would have to check with Matt at MWR - see if he is able to measure the underhead length. My feeling is that those will be the same as the other ARP ones you bought (assuming you got the block oxide variants - ARP Pro bolts?).

[sam333]

Are the 8th gen transmission parts hard to come by / expensive? Could rebuild it your self? Do you need much more than a press with these( as far as specialty tools)?

[fishexpo101]

The majority of 8th gen Corollas were sold as automatics - most of the 5-speeds get picked over pretty quickly for auto-to-manual swap projects, plus any 5-speeds left are usually in pretty bad shape (seen quite a few in my area with cracked cases). Whatever clean transaxles that are available, get marked up due to their popularity.

Need a lot of special service tools to properly rebuild a transaxle - good press is required, gear pullers, bearing press, high resolution torque wrench, etc. Though not very complicated tools, they can get pricey, being SST - generally sold only to service garages, a consumer may have to pay out the nose for them. Only worthwhile if you are a major tool nut or planning to rebuild several transaxles make the investment worthwhile.

[sam333]

In a non abused( normal driving) 8th gen 5 spd manual trans ,what usually fails?
There are alot of complaints about the 9th gen 5 spds bearing failures.

[2damaxsupra]

Good luck finding an used manual tranny for our generation. I would rebuild the tranny and go from there.