Type-S 6MT w/165k - pay for trans remanufacture (+others) or junk it?
 

Alright, looking for some help here on deciding whether or not it's worth putting the work into saving my CL or moving on. She's my first and only, bought off CPO right off the lease in 2006, 2 weeks after I graduated college.

The biggest deal right now is the transmission. A few years ago, it started getting harder and to get into reverse, eventually became impossible. I got a $5k estimate from AAMCO, got sticker shock, and decided to live with it... And I learned reeaal well on how to park on hills 'n stuff. That went on for a while, until a few months ago the clutch started slipping. When I finally couldn't get it into first leaving work one day, and going from 2nd to 3rd made so much grinding and burning smells that I barely made it home.

After calling around and around (metro DC area) for shops that do transmission rebuilds, and getting nobody willing to do it, I finally found a shop willing to give it a look. On top of the trans and clutch work, there's definitely a few other things that need fixing and regular repairs as well. Now, she also needs a full brake job plus rotors, an ABS error (which may or may not be related to the brakes), engine temperature sensor failure, fuel solenoid clicking causing another code and emissions fail. Back-of-the-napkin estimate is around $5-8k, without any parts availability/pricing research.

KBB tells me my car in good condition is about $3-5k. My wife found a handful of listings for similar cars for $8-11k (!).

Should I pay or should I go?

If you go there will be trouble.

Do you have the tools/skill to do any of the work yourself?

I would say do as much as you can on your own, and outsource that which you can not.

I think the main reason for you asking this question is the fact that it is a manual transmission?

Yes the manual transmission is rare; this is a double edged sword...it cuts both ways.

I would think even in the car's current condition it could easily fetch three to five grand.

Rediculous estimates. Would be easier to get another trans or used gear set, replace the clutch and deal with the little issues after.

Contact @Bense if you want a professional transmission rebuilder's opinion.

If I stay it will be double...?

A break job was the maintenance item that I was targeting doing next, but I'm not 100% sure if any specialty tools were needed. I am in no way qualified or equipped to swap out or rebuild any engine/trans components.

I'd love to, but I'd like a daily driver sooner rather than later..

Correct.

Agreed. Hard to part with, but after crashing my wife's car, I'm not allowed near the new one. Public transit in the suburbs kinda blows here and Uber's get real expensive.

Sounds about right

Any ideas on where to find one? I'm just hesitant to just do a swap since you don't really know what you are getting. I know junkyards have 30-day warrantees, but if it costs a lot to ship, I'm not sure how well that'd play out. Pulling it open and doing a rebuild sounds like a better idea.

I like the idea of just doing the clutch for now. That would at least get me going forward again..

Thanks! I will!

Also, I was hoping for email notifications on replies to the thread, which is why I took so long responding .. never saw one :\

There's a seller on ebay that I've gotten parts from before, who has a CLS gearset. I'll pm you so no one snags it before you see it.

Bense is no transmission professional. Bense is a scammer and a con man. Do not send him a dime.