Transmission Went Completely Out On 2008 Passion

[smartdog]

Well, after 2300 gently driven miles, my 2008 Passion lost its transmission. Thats right, after hearing a grumbling SOUND underneath that became louder and louder, the transmission is FUBAR. Yes, the entire tranny is done for.

The dealer here in Dallas, Texas first said they were NOT available yet. You heard right, no trannys in the US. After hearing that, I made some quick calls in their chain of command. I told them that without a operational tranny, I had nothing more than a cute pile of parts and what the hell was I to do with that?? Now, for some odd reason the tune has changed and they state they can obtain one in 5 days. Stay tuned to see if they come thru. We all need to hold our breath over this one....

Has anyone else experienced this, or was this luck of the Irish?

[Smart Car Geek]

Only 2300 miles and the tranny is already shot? That's pretty sad.

[Dunerunner]

You weren't coasting at 110mph and slip the gear selector from Neutral into Drive! I'M KIDDING!! At least the dealer and smartUSA are taking care of it. Did they offer a rental car? or the loaner - the 1950 Studebaker Bullet nose!

[SMART]

Please keep us posted! Can you give us more deatils about the type of problems you had leading up to this.

[c20500]

Sorry about the tranny, Can you describe the sound that it made? did you only hear it with the throttle applied or did it go away when coasting.. and as far as the sound.. was it like a knocking/clicking sound? I'm having a noise from the tranny that makes the car sound like a diesel with the throttle applied. It's not too noticable with the windows up but very clear when you hear it go by at low speeds. Thanks

Charles

[mdfortwoguy]

Originally Posted by c20500

I'm having a noise from the tranny that makes the car sound like a diesel with the throttle applied. It's not too noticable with the windows up but very clear when you hear it go by at low speeds. Thanks
Charles

What are your RPMs at when this is happening?

When in D, it really likes to upshift to keep the revs down, but then it makes the engine chug. Next time you hear this, put it in +/- and downshift a gear, and see if the noise stops.

[Flashman]

This happened to me in a cab in NYC once. A trail of transmission parts left behind the cab up to where it stopped. Then the cabbie, of course, still wanted to charge me for the distance traveled. We worked out a discount.

Sorry to hear this happened to you. I bet what happened is that after some discussion PAG is simply taking some orphan(s) apart to meet key part needs until those parts are shipped over from France. Last time I checked fedex/ups work just fine from France to USA, so all parts ARE available. It just a matter of what someone wants to pay to ship them over.

[mvukovich]

Originally Posted by Dunerunner

You weren't coasting at 110mph and slip the gear selector from Neutral into Drive! I'M KIDDING!! At least the dealer and smartUSA are taking care of it. Did they offer a rental car? or the loaner - the 1950 Studebaker Bullet nose!

My dealer got us a loaner both times are car quit running. There are no rental car dealers in our area so they loan us a car from the dodge dealer in town. They when out of there way to get us a car. The dealer and his tech are great the car just has some major problems.

[smartdog]

The RPM's that the car was making was from a slow crawl to highway speed. This one does not have a tach. The sound was a rattling grating sound. I've had rear ends go out before with cars that were built in the 70's that sounded just like this. If it happens to you, you will definitely hear it. I certainly hope it doesn't.
Right now the car is at the dealer. They commented that this one was bad enough not to drive it. I guess from fear of it locking up.
I'll let everyone know when the tranny arrives and is fixed AND how it is afterwards.

[Old smart]

A failed CV joint can also make bad noises, but usually a steady clicking sound, not grinding.