My 2003 Corvette has 17,000 gentle miles on it. At around 15,000 miles I found that I couldn’t get the car into 5th gear. It has a grinding metallic sound. All the other gears and the clutch work fine - and I’ve been forced to shift from 4th to 6th. Any ideas as to the problem and solution would be appreciated. My dealer wants $800. to look at it.
Since the clutch works in the other gears, this seems to be an internal problem in the transmission. The synchro for 5th gear could be shot, but if that’s all you should be able to get it into 5th gear using the tach to balance wheel speed and motor speed. Therefore you might have lost the gear teeth on that 5th speed shaft altogether. If there are metal shavings floating around in the trans fluid other parts of the transmission could be damaged if you keep running it.
I’d get the fluid drained and refilled at a minimum right away. Check the old fluid for metal shavings and if they are clearly evident I’d look for a good shop that knows Corvettes and manual transmissions. Metal shavings means the transmission needs to come out and be opened up for inspection and repair before more bearings, gears, and synchro’s are damaged.
Thank you. The car is at the Chevy dealer currently. Even though it’s 10 years old, Chevy customer service has agreed to pick up the cost of the repair/ replacement if it’s found to be a defect in the transmission and not user abuse (the car’s not been abused).
It took some convincing but my claim that a car with a part that may have failed after 15,000 miles should be covered by them no matter the length of time that has elapsed. After all, if the car has 15,000 miles on it after 6 months, it would be covered no questions asked.
1700 mi/yr? oof. you probably dont even use 5th gear very often. so, do you go out in garage and look at car once in awhile or actually drive it? trans is in rear with diff assy? cool
Legally, GM (like every other car maker) is under no obligation to perform a warranty repair based on the expiration of time or miles. If they did, everyone would demand an exception to the rule.
It sounds like they’re considering a Good Will warranty so that’s a plus anyway.
Question. Do you spend a fair amount of time in 5th/6th gear and do you have a habit of resting your hand on the gearshift lever?
I am in total agreement with Uncle Turbo- My guess is you have never changed the tranny fluid or filter and you like to rest your hand on the shift knob. I religiously change both the fluid and filter every two years on my 2001 Vette regardless of how many miles I put on (usually 5,000-10,000 a year). I also only run Royal Purple synthetic tranny fluid. Hope it works out for you.