6G Celicas Forums

Hi all, I wanted to get as much feedback as possible before I replace or rebuild my Transmission.

As it is well known, 3rd gear is notorious for grinding in the GT transmission. mine grinded for sometime but only if I accelerated hard.

One day I was driving normally and chose to pass a slower vehicle in front of me. what happened next completely confuses me.

when shifting down from 4th to 3rd I got NO response, it was as if the car was in neutral. I tried each and every other gear to find that no gear worked (motor revved but no response)

Upon further inspection I noticed that the speedometer still worked while the car was in gear (when car was jacked up and on ground) I also noticed a SLIGHT grinding noise while the car was in gear as if a moving part was spinning and barely touching metal.

I figured my axles were bad, so I jacked the car up again, and slowed down the drivers side wheel to see if my RPM changed any (it did not)

I noticed that only one wheel would spin, and the passenger side would not. When I tried again (using an old deflated basketball to slow the tire) the basketball got sucked under the wheel, and got stuck causing the passenger side axle boot to tear off, and my axle to pop out of the hub. (this tells me that the axle was attempting to spin)

I was told by a friend that my differential is blown. do any of you know this to be true? any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

This post has been edited by easternpiro1: Feb 12, 2015 - 1:50 PM

Sounds like a bad axle to me. Did you check to see if the axles popped out of the transmission?

You may have bad axles also, but that wouldn't effect whether or not it can go into gear. If you've had grinding noise in third gear for a while - both shifting up to third, or downshifting into third, or making noise while driving, I'd bet you've got major issues in the transmission itself. The grinding noise while shifting means the synchronizer for third is worn out. Which shows the transmission has been driven pretty hard and probably has a major internal failure.

Yeah the trans has some miles on it. Was hoping it wasn't catastrophic. Either way looks like I'll have to open it up

Hawk Pull-a-part for a while. You may be able to find a Camry/Solara trans!

Sounds like either the cv axle or wheel bearing on the left side is bad.

It may work well enough to drive it for several more years, but it may suddenly get worse. I'd be on the look out for a good one so you don't end up getting stuck with something crappy because you waited until it completely broke.
If you check the Buying/Selling threads you'll see a part-out for KAOS. He's got a Gem of an S54, says its only got 27k miles on it and only want's $250 for it. But he's all the way up in Calgary, and the shipping would be like $300. But then $550 for a really low mile transaxle is still not a bad deal, as long as you have the time to wait a week for shipping.
Of course you can get one out of pick-n-grin for $89.00, but then you don't know what kind of shape its in. I bet the full rebuild kit for one is still $300.

http://www.6gc.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=94181

This post has been edited by VavAlephVav: Feb 13, 2015 - 11:21 AM

Axle...popped out...of the hub? Doyouevenaxlenutbro?

I have a buddy from California who has a s54 that was shipped with his beams from Japan.

thanks vav i pm'd him but I doubt he will as its a large part and he dosent seem inclined to ship. like you said, im hesitant to mess with one from a junkyard as i dont know the condition its in, may be better just to take mine off and rebuild

Update: finally got around to messing with the car recently, found out the trans side axle seems fine and after having a Congo with a friend it led me to believe I may have busted the differential somehow.

Perfect excuse for swapping in a LSD.

true! BUT LSD=SUPER expensive and syncros going out. figure i'd better just get another trans

Awwww, ok.

I second trying to find an E153 though.

LSD wont make syncros go bad. has nothing to do with it. speedometer still works because differential is still spinning. you dont have an axle problem. if one popped out you would lose all your gear oil.

sounds like linkage inside the trans came off or loose. or there might be big damage. you need to open it up to find out.


or just replace it. they are only about 300 on car-part.com

I think he meant since his synchros are going out LSD would kind of be a waste. Sort of like turboing an engine on its last leg.

This post has been edited by Box: Apr 23, 2015 - 10:23 PM

First thing that came to mind was a busted linkage/cables as well, but if the shifter feels normal then it's unlikely that the linkage broke or a cable snapped. Doesn't hurt to check though. Anyway, destroying a stock differential is hard man, those things are beasts.

Here's what can go wrong with a stock open diff:

- gears loose teeth and no longer engage. ( If this happens those shards are going to destroy everything in your trans and you would definitely know about it)

- Differential case cracks and the whole thing flies apart. (Again you would be well aware if something like this happened)

- Ring gear comes off or bolt falls out. ( Same thing, it would be a catastrophic failure)

- Bearings go bad and differential is loose inside the case ( This would cause so much vibration that you would immediately stop driving the car)

All the stuff I just mentioned would either grenade the casing, lock up your tires, or cause a LOT of noise. Since nothing like that happened to you I think its safe to say its not your diff.


You may just have blown a clutch. It cant hold enough torque for you to go get any power in gear, but holds just enough to spin the differential ( thus your speedo works) and to spit a basketball.

This post has been edited by enderswift: Apr 23, 2015 - 10:37 PM

Matt,

I'm currently exploring the option of purchasing an E153 in running condition from another member on this site. If that ends up going through then my s54 will be up for grabs. Fingers crossed.

Thanks fellas,

Box is right I wouldn't get a LSD with the syncro going out


I doubt my shift linkages popped, I checked them and all seems to be fine unless I overlooked something. The shift cables were bought brand new from Toyota in 2008 they didn't seem damaged like my previous ones were. I was thinking the same thing enderswift, if my diff blew i figured there would be more noise. It was quite silent when it happened.

As for my clutch, its a pretty heavy clutch with low miles on it. But its worth a peek!

Oooh, just had a flashback to when my brother rebuilt his transmission in the Maxima. One of dowel pins dropped out of the gear selector rod inside the transmission and it wouldn't go into any gear, it actually let two gears engage at once. Visually looking at things everything passed, but after doing some research we found out a little piece of metal the size of a grain of rice was the culprit.

This post has been edited by Box: Apr 25, 2015 - 1:55 PM