Just a heads up....

[atomicradish]

Recently I've been trying to hypermile the Metro. I've given up on that now. The car is really having problems. It is an auto, and I'm not sure if it is the hypermiling or not, but the A/T wont change on its own at all.

Recently the linkage cable has been popping out as I shift the gears manually. I will be driving down the road and suddenly I'm stuck in a gear and I have to pull off to the side of the road, open up the hood and put it back in place... not sure how to keep it there really. I'm thinking it COULD be due to all the excessive shifting between neutral and drive, but who knows with this car really. It did have transmission problems before, but not this....

Just a word of advice. Some have said hypermiling an auto is fine, and nobody here has reported any problems. I just thought some out there with more expensive cars might like to know just to avoid this potential problem...

[Red]

broken cable bracket?

[Erik]

atomicradish,

If its the type that has a metal ball and a plastic socket that fits over it, a few well placed rubber bands or bike innertube strips have worked for me in the past to hold the socket over the ball.

[Rick Rae]

Do we have a definitive answer yet on whether D/N/D shifting an automatic at highway speeds with the engine on is damaging to the transmission or torque converter beyond "normal" additional wear-and-tear? I've seen an "it won't hurt anything" from the auto manufacturer on one specific model, but that's it.

Sorry to hear of your troubles, atomicradish. The linkage cable sounds pretty straightforward, but the transmission deciding not to shift at all... that's unnerving. Here's hoping it's something simple!

I've been doing a fair amount of engine-on coasting in neutral over the last couple of weeks and have a good feel for my numbers. Yesterday I started leaving it in "D" to see how close I could get to the "N" numbers. That's partly because neutral coasting (technically, downhill on a highway) is illegal here, but mostly because my drive train warranty's expired and I don't know how much I'm stressing the tranny/TC (I'm trying to rev match and be gentle, but still). If I can get close to the same numbers in "D" I'm gonna keep it there until I feel assured that the risk is minimal.

(The interesting thing is, I've been having to catch myself a lot over the last day or so: I've been automatically reaching for the shifter at the spots I knew were the starts of gentle downgrades. I guess I really love that velvety feel of a neutral coast and seeing instantaneous MPG approach 200. )

Seriously, man: I hope this turns out to be something trivial. Please keep us posted.

Rick

[minic6]

Here is a copy from the service manual 91 of the shift cable and oil preasure cable. According to this it is held in by a nut. Which part comes out at the shifter nut or were the cable sleeve fits into a bracket?

[Erdrick]

Yeah... I have the same concerns driving my car. I do both engine on neutral coasts and engine off neutral coasts. My car only have about 8,000 miles on it, and I will probably only put another 3,000 on it for the rest of the time that I am driving it. It is my company's car -- and they are leasing it. So... as long as I don't blow the transmission.. I should be ok. I don't want to have to call my company telling them that the trans is shot though. The bill would probably find its way to me. Considering that I don't pay a dime on the car as it is (or rather a yen, as I DO live in Japan), this whole gas saving thing could end up biting me in the ***.

Anyways, I hope that the OP is able to sort out his problems. The car IS listed as Junkyard Geo though, so perhaps it is time that it gets retired.

[Raccoonjoe]

As to a definitive answer about the D-N-D coasting with an auto tranny?? I've talked to several transmission shops around here....some I've heard good things about, some I don't really trust, and some that I would let work on my car (the ones I really, really trust/like)........but they have all told me the same thing. Coasting in N is fine for auto trannies, as long as the engine is ON. With the engine OFF, there is NO fluid being circulated. This means that you WILL eventually burn out components, leading to expensive transmission replacement/rebuilding. Hell, I've even had one guy (one of the ones I like/trust), tell me to put a towbar on the Jeep, leave it idle, and flat-tow it across the country in N. Apparently that's how his wife does it...she's a escort driver for MARTIN Corp


I'm gonna continue to do it to Julie...just gotta get her linkage cleaned up a bit.

[Red]

Slightly off tipic, but wouldn't it be easier Raccoonjoe just to shift the t-case to neutral? That way nothing spins.

Also to anyone, why don't trannys have an oil slinger/pump drive on the output shaft instead of the input shaft? Or on both shafts? A slinger or a pump usually isn't all that large to make it a major size concern and it would increase the durability of the tranny. Don't the Prius and the Insight have limited EOC what about their trannies?

[minic6]

You don't see oil slingers because there is no real estate to put one. Plus the number of people who need this option is very low. No profit to build one. Another reason is you don't want to have the oil turn to foam. That is why it can be damaging to autos. to over fill them. One GM trans the 4T80E (worked on this trans for 5 yrs.)used in Cads. has a dry sump system. Trans has 4 seperate pumps. No towing this one at all! Or any CVT. The Bass hybrid system uses a small 12 volt pump on the frt. of the trans. to hold oil pressure. That is the easiest way to supply oil while towing, is an auxillary pump. Worked on experimental GM trans. for 16 yrs. kinda miss it. Lotssss of parts!

Did the shop manual pics help?

[atomicradish]

Thanks for the pics minic. I appreciate the concern.

They probably will not help me specifically. All I really know how to do is put it back into place. I'm completely inept when it comes to engine parts. I don't have the car with me right now, but I'll look over it when I get the chance to see what might be wrong with it.

In all truthfulness though, I'm really hoping this doesn't get fixed. My dad has two Metros, both with 5 spd manual trannys. I'm hoping one of them will make its way into this car. My hope is that if this auto goes, he'll be forced to put the manual in. There will be the added bonus of 10 + mpg, along with me actually getting to learn something about the innerworkings of a car. It's sad really that he almost refuses to teach me. I basically told him today that I'll pay for classes out of my own pocket if he doesn't get off his *** and show me something - I mean isn't that what fathers do? /rant

I'll be going off to college later this year so it would be nice not to get ripped off at a repair shop if I could fix something myself.

[minic6]

Sometimes fathers are that way. My son never wanted to learn. He's an Excutive Chef! Now thats not my work path. (very proud of him) My father was a tech at a Chevy dealer for 43 yrs. he did not teach me much as we could not seem to work well together. You were suppose to be born with it as you were his kid! My rant.

Changing to a manual if you have donor cars is not to hard. Just time consuming. One nice thing about Geo's is the wiring harnesses seem to be built for ease of change. Just change it all. Might be easier to fix one of the manual cars? Or are they rust buckets. One thing I've found in Mich. they are biodegradable even if you don't want them to be!

[atomicradish]

One of the manual cars came with a large wing welded to the roof. The other is rusting out. So the manual cars are a no go.