Need help....feels like my tranny is falling out

[badtrannyguy]

Ok, i am new to the boards posting wise but i have a 97 eagle talon n/t.

Today i was driving home from work and this rsx pulls up next to me and, when we took off i had him on the launch then i shifted into second everything was ok, (we do not street race here), but when i went to shift into 3rd it was grinding really bad (clutch was down) then once it finally went in this VERY bad vibration and noise was coming from the tranny and i could feel it through out the whole car it was horrible....so i immediately slowed down and went to down shift and when i came up off the clutch it was the same vibration it was like really hard vibrating sounded like my tranny was coming out the car.....well i noticed that if i cruised at 2000rpm the vibration was at a minimum but still there, and to add....now its kinda hard to get my shifter into gear.....if anyone has had this happen or may know what is wrong.....any knowledge is accepted....but i think a piece of my clutch may be broken inside causing all the racket and vibration

 

[badtrannyguy]

.....anyone

 

[ReallyHighMiles]

What you describe sounds similar to the problem that I had in the fall. The noise began as constant grinding. I took it to the dealer and they misdiagnosed it as a problem with the clutch (they said the clutch was not engaging completely). Eventually the noise grew worse, and the car began vibrating really bad whenever I drove at highway speeds or at rpms over approx. 2K. It felt exactly as you said: "feels like my tranny is falling out". I took it back in for service and was told that the transmission was shot and that they found metal in the oil.

If you have the same problem then be prepared to shell out money. The transmission alone costs $1800 refurbished. If you buy a refurbished then you will need to exchange yours with Mitsubishi. The dealer found me a new one for $1900 but they are hard to come by. In the end the dealer charged $3K for the parts and labor (tranny, clutch, master cylinder, slave cylinder). As I learned, the dealers are not very knowledgeable about their own cars. They replaced unecessary parts because they did not know how to bleed the clutch. Either do it yourself or find a reliable garage.

Here is one thing you may want to look into if your car is AWD: You can buy an entire jspec engine for less than the cost of a refurbished transmission. Then you'd have a working transaxle and a non-crankwalk-prone motor. My car is FWD so I couldn't get this (you can't find FWD jspecs).

 

[ReallyHighMiles]

Something else I learned: If you take your car to the dealership for service, then change your own fluids because they don't. Their "Check and Fill" service means nothing more than making sure the oil level is full. As a result my transmission fluid was never changed--it's amazing I got so many miles out of it before it blew. Thumbs down on Mutsubishi service!!! They've lost another unsatisfied customer.