89 lxi coupe 5spd transmission problem

**DaveEye** · 02-19-2007, 11:36 PM

i just had 5th gear go out on me in my car. i've only had the car for a couple of months and the tranny has been noisy in the 5th gear the whole time. no noise whatsoever in any other gear.
while driving in 5th, the noise got a little louder, then it just gave out and the engine reved freely. so, i shifted down to 4th and car was fine. i was able to keep going to my destination in 4th gear, but i'm wondering what effects it will have if i drive the car back home in 4th gear, all freeway, about 450 miles. like is there a heat issue or anything like that? in 4th gear at 70mph the car is only turning around 3k rpm, so i'm thinking it should be okay, only that my gas mileage will go down.
in addition to my immediate need to get home, what needs to be done to the transmission for the long term? is it easier and cheaper to get the 5th gear replaced, is the labor to do this so much that it makes sense to replace it with a good used tranny or rebuild everything? problem is that i didn't pay that much for the car, so even without 5th gear i can probably sell it for what i paid for it. i'm just wondering if the repair is gonna be expensive and if i want to invest more into the car. it has 220,000 miles and runs really, really well, but i don't want to keep fixing it all the time...if you know what i mean. any suggestions or advice would be appreciated. thanks!

**MessyHonda** · 02-20-2007, 01:19 AM

yeah in 4th gear you are not doing 70 mph at 3000RPM.... i almost do that in 5th gear.....i say you could drive just slower cuz it will waste more gas

**ZackieDarko** · 02-20-2007, 03:14 AM

go to the junk yard and grab a DX tranny throw it in and get some sexy gas milage

**shepherd79** · 02-20-2007, 05:19 AM

well, the 99.9% of the cause is low oil level. check the oil level. make sure it is toped off. the worst case your burned your 5th gear. you can replace it without removing the tranny.