Corolla 2003 transmission problems - Anyone Else?

[VIAN]

Corolla 2003 S - Manual Transmission

I recently had my clutch and transmission oil replaced about 2-3 months ago. On a trip to Canada about 1 month ago, I started to notice this faint noise from the engine compartment. Last week, that noise became much louder.

I took it to the mechanic. After a few days he calls me and says that there is a problem with the transmission. The oil he removed from the transmission was gray and that this means that there was a lot of wear on the transmission. He also saw over at snap-on.com that people have been having issues with the transmission on this car. He said I may eventually need to replace the transmission.

I couldn't find anything about it at snap-on.com. On google, I found one thread about it where people said their transmission died with only 70k miles. Is there anyone here that has had this problem or heard of it?

 

[alpineranger]

Toyota reliability certainly seems to be on the decline these days. Standard transmissions are so mechanically simple, there's got to be a straightforward explanation for this.

 

[mshan]

"Well, first of all, if you think Korean tranny is good, think again. Most of Kia/Hyundai's cars in US use Aisin (= Toyota) tranny. In Korean market, they use their own tranny for their cars, and failure rate is nowhere closer to US cars. They barely lasts 7 years unless you gave a really serious and good care. (ie, only driving under 3000RPM, frequent mission oil change, etc) Korean calls it yoo-ri mission, by yoo-ri means glass. (Easy to be broken anytime)
Genesis' tranny is ZF, because they have no idea how to make RWD tranny with capable of 250+ HP.
Engine, on the other hand, is really getting better every year. It's still more to go, especially in the area of variable timing technology and durability. But at least it's not a light year difference from German/Japanese engine.
Small things you said, they are really the things Hyundai should work on, and they do. Suspension, break, and handling are nowhere near to those of Japan. (Again, Genesis uses German-tuned/made suspension. I believe it's Porsche)
Overall, they are getting closer to Japanese, but not on par at all. Engine is very very close, but considering other serious parts like tranny and suspension are still outsourced, I think they are still behind Japan, or even behind domestic. (At least Big 3 knows how to make their own tranny and last more than 7 years)"

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2188598&enterthread=y

 

[BassBomb]

Something similar happened to my Civic.

2002 Auto, Sedan at the time had only 135000km on it

It started becoming very sluggish when shifting (especially when turning) and accelerating.

Suddenly one day I go to drop my sister off, the shift into 3rd or 4th became VERY long. I get her, we head home. Still occurs on way home. Transmission light comes on about 3km from home and the car stops shifting. I had to coast/use first to get home. Car came to a dead stop (engine stopped) just before my street. Restarted it got home.

Engine code reader stated improper gear ratios. It had to be rebuilt.

Quite random. My uncle did change the transmission oil about one month prior to this occurence maybe he messed up something