My 03 Carolla wheels locked up while I was driving and won’t shift into any gears. After a little searching around I’m finding a lot of posts saying the 03 carolla manual transmission is junk. Bad design and prone to bearing failure. The shop in town wants me to get it towed over there to take a look because they think there’s a good chance it’s the clutch. I’m trying to decide if I should tow it over there and have them take a look. If it was just the clutch, I’d consider getting it fixed. But if these transmissions are junk maybe I should just cut my losses and see what I can get for it as is. Any advice would be appreciated. Seems like I might be trying the pick the less bad option in this situation.
So you think a transmission that worked for 20 years is junk?
I think you should be delighted that it lasted that long.
How about a little more information, how many miles on the car, has the clutch been replaced before. Any other maintenance or issues with the car?
The shift linkage may have disconnected, the clutch may have worn out.
If the car is otherwise in good shape have it towed to a shop to have them check it out. A new clutch throwout bearing etc may get you back on the road for a lot less than a new car
4 Likes
I guess my 02 Camry is junk too. It’s got 250k miles and it’s starting to get a miss fire. The damn POS!! 
5 Likes
Can you change gears with motor off?
it doesn’t shift motor off or on
Is the shifter much easier to move around now or is it not moving at all??
what seized?? Did the car stall out?? Does it grind trying to put it into gear??
Do you know if the gear oil was ever serviced?
Tester
1 Like
I guess I should’ve underlined and put the “After a little searching around I’m finding a lot of posts saying the 03 carolla manual transmission is junk” in bold. I can post some links to reference if that would be helpful.
car has 144k
I’m not aware of the clutch being replaced, but I bought it about a year and a half ago.
No other maintenance issues with the car.
shift linkage looks connected to me.
I’m considering taking it to the shop, but if the transmissions in the 03 manual are crap, I don’t want to throw any money at it.
I don’t know if it ever was. I’ve only owned it for a year and a half. My guess is it wasn’t but can’t be sure
sorry, I edited the op to say ‘wheels locked up’ that’s probably a better description. The shifter does move but won’t shift into any gears. It feels like it shifts into second but isn’t. When I release the clutch and give gas, it’s not in 2nd gear if that makes sense
Will the vehicle roll forward or backwards now??
it won’t. I think I can get it to shift if I mess with the shifter long enough or if I forced it, but no it seems the wheels are locked up and shifter is basically non functional
Gonna post this here. I got this from a different auto repair site I posted on. I’ve read a lot about this particular transmission failing but this was the best summary I’ve gotten so far.
"The Manual Transmission in that car is going to be a C56 or C59 5 speed manual transmission… They are both very similar transmissions to each other.
They do have a design issue where one of the bearings fails and can lock up the transmission. All of the Toyota C series 5 speed transmissions have this issue to some degree. The way these 5 speed transmissions were originally designed was Toyota took an existing 4 speed manual transmission, and added a fifth Gear to the outside of the main gear case, but didn’t add any extra bearings to the fifth Gear end of the transmission… So the fifth Gear essentially hangs off the end of the transmission, supported by only one bearing. When operating in fifth Gear, it overloads this one bearing and will cause it to eventually fail.
*The best way to fix this is to swap to a C60 6 speed manual transmission from a 2zz corolla, Celica, or Matrix XRS… The 6 speed transmissions solved the bearing issues by adding in another bearing to the end of the transmission case to properly support the 5th and 6th gears. They are mostly a drop in replacement."
It sounds like a case bearing failed, and shafts/gears no longer line up.
Tester
1 Like
Your vehicle is allmost worth nothing right now . Even if the tow charge and repair hit 1000.00 you can sell it for that or more . These days anything that starts - goes - and stops are bringing decent prices . Ater it is fixed you can take your time to decide to keep or sell .
1 Like
Interesting, hadn’t seen that one before… Yeah locking the front wheels up is never a good sign… I built a Toyota A130L years ago (around 92ish) and forgot to fill the diff side of it, on my defense with the case split it looked like the fluid crossed over (I was badly mistaken), I test drove it and gave it to the customer it locked up 2 miles down the road lol… I just had to replace the pinion bearings and PUT fluid in the diff side and it was good to go…
I’ve never swapped one of these out, but when I swapped a 4 speed to a 5 speed years ago it was pretty simple swap, did it in my garage at home on jack stands… I remember having to replace the shifter also, but I think everything else swapped over…
I have a 30 year old Corolla w/5 speed manual transmission. M5. That transmission has been very robust for me. Knocking on wood …lol …
No idea what’s causing your problem, but I’d guess the first two things to check w/those symptoms
- Does trans gear oil appear to be in good condition and at proper level?
- With car parked, engine off, when the gear lever is moved, are the corresponding control levers at the transmission moving , and w/ the correct motions? Maybe the problem is just the control cables from the shift lever to the transmission need to be replaced.
Umm he said the wheels locked up, that means the transmission is pretty much screwed (there is a better word to describe it, but it’s not family friendly)…
Ok, I was thinking “wheels lock up” to meant they stayed in gear, couldn’t shift to neutral. If wheels simply will not rotate at all, pretty good chance it’s an internal transmission problem. But perhaps could be a cv joint, or wheel bearing. On a front wheel drive car like this, if a cv joint or wheel bearing failed to the point that wheel wouldn’t rotate, would the other wheel not rotate either?
Thanks everyone for the info and comments. I went ahead and sold the car today. It sold pretty fast, maybe could’ve gotten a little more for it but I’m really happy with what I got for it. I really liked the car until this happened.
I’d be open to suggestions for what cars to look for or to avoid while I’m shopping for my next car. I’ll be trying to stay under 7k.
@Tester that’s makes sense to me