I have a manual transmission and I was told I needed to replace the clutch because the throw out bearing went. I brought my car to be fixed at the dealership and they said I needed to replace a bearing in my transmission in addition to replacing the clutch, but they won’t do that, they’ll only replace the transmission. Has anyone else experienced this?
You must choose between having the transmission replaced or taking the vehicle to a transmission repair shop to see if it is financially reasonable to repair the transmission.
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I can’t find any local shops to do transmission repair. The few that are around me said they only work on automatic transmissions.
Jessica LaBonte
Just buy a new one or the specific part. Manuals tend to be cheaper than automatics.
are they “chain” tranny shops? or independent ones?
How many miles on the vehicle?? and are you in the USA??
185,000 miles and yes I’m in the USA
Jessica LaBonte
The dealership said $4,000 and an independent shop said $5,000
Jessica LaBonte
Has the transmission oil ever been serviced since you’ve owned the vehicle?
Tester
Did they speculate which transmission bearing is faulty? If it is the input shaft bearing, that can probably be replaced more economically than replacing the entire transmission. I’m surprise you’re having this problem, Toyota manual transmission are pretty bullet-proof. Have you been having your shop inspect the fluid & fluid level periodically, per the owner’s manual schedule? I check that on my Corolla’s MT every year or 10K miles. Very easy diy’er job, 10 minutes. This of course won’t help if you thrash the transmission, aggressive driving habits, etc.
In any event, given the situation at hand, I think your best bet is to ask your shop (or a transmission shop) to try to first determine which bearing is the problem. Its entirely possible the only bearing that’s bad is the throw-out bearing.
Yes
Jessica LaBonte
They did say the input shaft has a lot of play so it could possibly be that bearing. I brought it to the dealership to have my clutch replaced and they said in addition to my clutch, I had a bad transmission bearing.
Jessica LaBonte
Did the transmission make any noise prior to bringing it to the dealer?
Tester
A bad input shaft bearing could/will take out a pilot bearing… But with a loose input shaft (bearing), leaking fluid normally happens soon and it can get very bad fast depending on your driving habits…
Bad part is Camry manual transmissions are very rare (probably special optioned order), I don’t think I have ever seen a modern Camry with a manual trans… So, finding a used one is next to impossible, I looked at car-part.com and only saw 2, and they called one a core and neither had a picture…
Not a lot of manual trans builders out there… This is a tough one… Honda, a dime a dozen, but a late model Camry, different story… You might want to call around to multiple transmission shops and ask them 1st if they rebuild them, most will say no, then ask if they know of any locals that do rebuild manual transmissions, if you start to hear the same name a few times then they might be your best bet…
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Well the throw out bearing was the reason I brought it to the dealer to change my clutch and that was noisy.
Jessica LaBonte
Anyone here know how they could know this with the transmission still in the car?
Thank you. Yeah my car was the only manual transmission on the lot when I bought it in 2011, so I definitely understand that they are rare. It currently isn’t leaking any fluid but I’m just hoping to find someone to work on it very soon.
Jessica LaBonte
Not with an internal slave cylinder unless there was some kind of inspection cover you could remove to poke around in… But since I have never heard of a manual Camry much less seen one in person I can not say either way, but I really doubt it…
Something that has not been made very clear here would be, has the trans already been removed and then the bearing was found bad??
I am assuming that since you took it to replace the clutch that you got the call about the trans after they had removed the trans for the clutch job…???..
I honestly don’t know why you’d get a manual transmission nowadays
The typical modern automatic transmission-equipped car has lots of gear-ratios, shifts better than most people and gets equal or better fuel economy, versus the same car with a stick shift
Not to mention you’ll likely have a harder time selling it, trading it in, etc. when you move on to your next vehicle . . . and you’ll probably get low-balled
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Personal preference, my wife and son both had rather drive a stick, as my older brother, he was very disappointed when he bought his 2018 Tacoma cause his 1998 Tacoma was a stick and he wanted a stick in the new 2018, but it was a special order with a very long wait… I still love driving our Vibe/Matrix stick shift, but with a total knee replacement and a neurological disease, it is making it harder to drive…
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