Aspire Gear Eater

[old yellow]

does anybody know why the stock Aspire 5 speed eats gears? i am sick and tired of changing trannys in my aspire because of it eating 4th mostly and sometimes 5th gear..... i could mod the festiva tranny into my aspire but i would still love to know about my problem with the stock aspire 5 speed tranny.... Whitie II needs help not eating gears again!

[rmoltis]

You know.
My last aspire trans went out and I had a shop rebuild it.
And in my hands being maintained well.
It went for another 200,000 mi and I when I sold it.
It was still running flawlessly.

The previous owner was running gear oil in it.
And by the time I caught it around 90k.
Drained and refilled with atf like the fsm says.
It was too late it went out around 115k.

So to answer your question.
Stop buying used tranny's.
And pay to have one rebuilt.
But that's just my opinion.

What is a rebuilt tranny like $600-800
If you install it yourself?

[gestiva]

It was eating gears because it was hungry? jk

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[old yellow]

this last one had 90W gear oil and seamed to be the best one out of about 4+ trannys.... i think the thin oil has something to do with it eating gear

[Huli]

I converted mine to 90w as soon as I got it. Reverse gear whines a bit louder but still running strong 20k miles later.

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[old yellow]

gonna try some royal purple 75-90 gear oil this time, as 5w-30 gear oil and ATF did not work

[old yellow]

now if they could have used the festiva tranny for the aspire i think i would have less problems, but then again, i could have just modded the festiva tranny for use in the US aspire

[1chrisapple]

use gm syncromesh

[jason_]

Another transmission post.

Pics? I'm busting 380k on factory gears and worn brass. just new bearings within past 30k

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[nitrofarm]

They are the same tranny except for the ring and pinion. You just got abused used trannys... That being said the E series is on par with a large Cycle tranny. The input & diff bearings are small for the loads they receive.These are what always failed on my Festy trannys installed in my Aspire.(yes you read correctly) ATF or Gear oil they are still small bearings and when they start getting slop(from running dry perhaps). They cant keep the input shaft or the diff centered and the countdown to destruction begins. The best cure in my opinion is install the Rio gearbox,if you cant do Home Brewed swaps. Get a fresh rebuild and take care of it.Another thing on used trannys,these cars were so under powered compared to a lot of cars in the early 90's. I think a lot of people drove these 5 speeds very hard just trying to keep up with Soccer Moms in Mini Vans.If you treat it nicely it will last,but load your car up with weight.Then drive it like you stole it,its gonna show you how small it really is. Thats my 2 cents.
Oh one last thing,everything is a compromise.Run Gear oil and you'll loose some MPG's. Thats the first thing I noticed when I tried it. I'm kinda in the middle of ATF/Gear Oil with synthetic 5W20 in my E series.(But personaly the gear oil was just to heavy for my DD) Good luck and happy Prius Hunting!

[johnmt]

The EP (extreme pressure,GL5?) gear lubes have sulfur based additives that attack bronze parts and are not recommended for transmissions. The word on the International Harvester truck/Scout site was to use 50W motor oil in transmissions. I use atf in mine with no problems so far, I think that they are pretty light duty stuff though and it doesn't take much abuse to kill them, especially if you try. I have a friend that had a new Neon SRT-4 with the turbo performance package and the manual specified no full throttle in first gear. Kia wasn't engineering a race car.

[jason_]

I agree, both light duty and lube. Gl4 or atf. Or 50/50 to get viscosity somewhere in the between. Gl5 I think should be for rear ends and old school gear only xfer cases and aux splitters.

I run atf and a couple bottles of stp to thicken it a bit.

The Next used gear box you aquire, punch in new races and squeeze on new rollers. At the minimum check clearances on sjaft play. I shimmed mine 001 or so tighter.



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[old yellow]

They are the same tranny except for the ring and pinion. You just got abused used trannys... That being said the E series is on par with a large Cycle tranny. The input & diff bearings are small for the loads they receive.These are what always failed on my Festy trannys installed in my Aspire.(yes you read correctly) ATF or Gear oil they are still small bearings and when they start getting slop(from running dry perhaps). They cant keep the input shaft or the diff centered and the countdown to destruction begins. The best cure in my opinion is install the Rio gearbox,if you cant do Home Brewed swaps. Get a fresh rebuild and take care of it.Another thing on used trannys,these cars were so under powered compared to a lot of cars in the early 90's. I think a lot of people drove these 5 speeds very hard just trying to keep up with Soccer Moms in Mini Vans.If you treat it nicely it will last,but load your car up with weight.Then drive it like you stole it,its gonna show you how small it really is. Thats my 2 cents.
Oh one last thing,everything is a compromise.Run Gear oil and you'll loose some MPG's. Thats the first thing I noticed when I tried it. I'm kinda in the middle of ATF/Gear Oil with synthetic 5W20 in my E series.(But personaly the gear oil was just to heavy for my DD) Good luck and happy Prius Hunting!

I actually drive the Aspire easier then my grandmother! but anyways, 3 of the 4 trannys we got were not from the junk yard, they were out of cars we drove, but it's just the stock US Aspire trannys giving me so much trouble, the Festiva tranny has never gave me so much trouble! somewhere i heard that even tho they are the same tranny, the Festiva was made by Mazda and has 3.73 gears as the Aspire was made by Kia and has 4.11 gears.....

[zoom zoom]

Aspires definitely have 4.05 gears.

[nitrofarm]

I actually drive the Aspire easier then my grandmother! but anyways, 3 of the 4 trannys we got were not from the junk yard, they were out of cars we drove, but it's just the stock US Aspire trannys giving me so much trouble, the Festiva tranny has never gave me so much trouble! somewhere i heard that even tho they are the same tranny, the Festiva was made by Mazda and has 3.73 gears as the Aspire was made by Kia and has 4.11 gears.....

The Aspires are about 200 lbs heavier so the tranny sees more load from the factory.But they didnt beef anything up.Just changed the final drive ratio.
Make sure you are centering your tranny.Its most important that the tranny is closer towards the LH side. Thats why the UPR mount has a slotted set of holes. With the car at ride height take off your axle nuts and push in the axles. Do they have equal plunge? Its a quick easy test. But again the tranny likes to be closest to the LH side (short axle). Thats all I got,but I have to admit my Aspires are hard on trannys also. I'm just gonna switch to the Rio and call it a day