The Grind
Three days ago, while driving home I noticed my first glitch. While sitting at a light in neutral w/ clutch disengaged I heard a faint grind for a moment, and it almost seemed the car was going into gear. Nothing more happened that day.
The next morn on the way to work, same thing happened a couple times, again, only for a moment at a time.
On my way HOME from work that day, it all went bad. While performing a three-point-turn, the tranny locked up. I depressed the clutch and went to shift from first into reverse and when I got to neutral the shifter locked me out. If I released the clutch, the car would stall out as if it were in gear. I couldn't move the car, so I eventually just tried letting the clutch out a little and stalling the car. It was enough to move the car (and gears) so that I could then restart the car and engage first gear and drive away.
When I pulled away from the nearby traffic light, while shifting from second to third, the tranny let out a LOUD griiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiind. I clutched and managed to get it into first and into a gas station. Same thing there. I couldn't shift into any gears and had to stall out the car and then I was able to shift into gear and pull away. I didn't feel like having a tow and knew I needed to get it to a dealership. On my way home, this gear-lock-out happened once more, this time at speed. No fun. I did manage to get it to the dealership.
They tell me that they have to remove the transmission to have a look-see b/c something is definitely borked. And they're replacing the clutch. All in all I'm expected to pay about $660. Luckily the transmission is still covered in the 60k powertrain warranty (I have 55k on the car now) so I'm dodging the bulk of the repair expense. I'm frustrated that my transmission is going bad this soon but pleased that the warranty is still ineffect. Maybe I need to change my driving habits.