Has anyone heard of a 2004 Hybrid with manual transmission having the tranny fail? I have just under 100,000 miles and am being told by the dealer that bearings in the transmission have broken(or so they think - they say that they have to open the transmission up to diagnose the exact problem)

 

Manual transmissions are pretty tough to outright break. Bad synchros, maybe...but bearings? I don't know about that. Maybe you should tell us about the symptoms that led you to bring it to the dealer.

 

Car has a low rumble when in neutral and sometimes when in gear. Sound seems to stop when you step on the clutch. Has been noticeable for able a week.

Dealer says they need to take apart the transmission to figure out what the problem is. This is at least $ 1000 before they do anything.

 

If the rumble is not too loud I wouldn't do anything yet. Tranmission bearings can make noise a very long time without failing. Also it will not fail suddenly, the noise will get louder and louder until just befor it fails it will sound like a rock crusher.

 

Sounds like a throwout bearing, and a common Honda problem. It would either rumble or squeal until you put some pressure on the pedal, even without depressing it fully. $30 part (or less) plus whatever it costs to separate the transmission from the engine to replace it. For what it's worth, my Accord had a noisy throwout bearing for about the last 20,000 miles that I owned it with no sign of getting worse and no driveability issues.

Do you tend to sit with the engine at idle and the clutch pedal depressed at lights, in traffic, etc. rather than shifting into neutral and letting the clutch back out? That can be very hard on a throwout bearing, and would support my hunch. But I'm not an expert, and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

 

Yes I agree that this is probably the problem. Usually I would just do as you are saying and just wait until it is really loud and then fix it. My concern however is in reading the other discussion concerning the batteries. At 100K my battery warranty ended 20K miles ago (why do some people have a 150K warranty but I don't?).

So now we have a major repair of the tranny at some time soon and the unknown of the batteries. My gut is that I am going to sell it. Get another Hybrid? Doing the math right now. Any opinions?

 

A throwout bearing is far from a "major" problem IMO. Depending on how you drive you may need a clutch job at some point, in which case this bearing is usually swapped out as preventative maintenance anyway. Likewise, if you are going to spend the $$ to go in for the throwout bearing you may as well do the clutch given the mileage. As for the battery, it's true that some HCH's with manual transmissions had problems with the battery if they were driven in such a way that demanded lots of assist. The CVT doesn't seem to have this problem, but then again I have heard of more '03-'05 CVTs having problems than batteries.

Does your battery show any signs of going bad? Frequent recals, etc? More importantly, what is your utilization of the battery? Does it frequently get low to the point that the car applies a charge to it while you drive or are the fluctuations in charge fairly mild? If you haven't been hard on it and it's not acting strange then there isn't a reason to believe that you will need to replace it. Not yet, anyway.

As far as making your decision goes, also do the math on a new car vs. doing the clutch and battery (worst case scenario) and driving another 100k. Odds are it will be way cheaper to do the repair and keep driving.

 

There is nothing that I see specifically to indicate that I have battery issues. More of a "ok now I am here at 100K and something relatively major went wrong and what's next?" gut reaction so maybe time to move on.

Looked at a new Prius today. Very interesting.

 

I have an '04 HCH MT. I have 91k miles, no tranny issues.

I'd get another (non dealer) opinion. Also, you may want to research some of the 7th generation Civic sites for information on the tranny.

Try www.importpassion.com

 

Throwout bearings only make noise when you have the clutch depressed. If it makes noise in gear it is the tranny.

I have noise in 1st and 2nd gear. I'm going to get a new clutch and have all the bearings in the tranny changed for $1500. Not cheap, but neither is a new car. 2003 with all the updates and 91K miles. IMA battery still seems OK.