My $500 Civic ate its own transmission last Tuesday afternoon

I was cruising home from work on I-10 near Baton Rouge when my 1998 Civic started making this grinding noise that got louder real fast. Then it just stopped pulling at all. Coasted to the shoulder and sat there for like 20 minutes before a tow truck showed up. The guy told me the transmission was shot and quoted me $1,500 to swap in a used one. I ended up finding a junkyard transmission for $200 and spent the whole weekend swapping it in my driveway with my buddy. It was a mess of ATF dripping on me and stripped bolts but it actually runs now. Has anyone else lost a transmission in a cheap car and had to decide if it's even worth fixing?

2 comments

2 Comments

jessica_dixon2d ago

You say it was "a mess of ATF dripping" and "stripped bolts" but like... you basically did a weekend project with your buddy and saved $1,300. That's a WIN, not some big tragedy. People act like a transmission going out is the end of the world but $500 for a car that probably gave you years of service is basically free. You spent $200 to fix it not $2,000. I don't see what the drama is honestly. A lot of people would have just scrapped it and bought another beater so the fact you even bothered is impressive. So yeah it's TOTALLY worth fixing if the rest of the car isn't rusted out. Just keep driving it until it explodes completely.

brian_coleman2d ago

You can usually tell if it's worth the hassle once you see how bad the bolts are stripped. If it's just one or two you can tap them oversize and keep going, a whole bell housing full of them means you're chasing problems. Keep a few extra quarts of ATF in the trunk, you'll probably lose some over the next month while the seals settle in.