92 Metro Tranny issues
 

I bought a 92 metro, 3 cyl, 5-speed. When I test drove it I could tell it needed CV shafts, but everything shifted fine. I replaced the CV shafts, topped off the transmission with Pennzoil Synchromesh, and now the car won't shift into 2nd gear when moving. It will go into 2nd while stationary, and all other gears work without a hitch. Even double clutching won't allow it to go into second gear.

Is this tranny toast, or am I missing something simple here? There is a salvage yard 100 miles away that has four of these trannies on the shelf for $85 a piece, and they're labeled as "work good," and all are under 200k miles. I'm not sure what the typical lifespan of this transaxle is, but I'm guessing mine is at 210k (5 digit odometer reads 10,xxx)

Thanks in advance.

It's probably got the weakest/most worn synchro, from the way it's been driven. Just decided to rear it's ugly head after your work.

Check your clutch cable for play and your shift linkage bushings. I suppose you could try some other kind of gear oil, if those are both ok, but that would be a last ditch effort.

Synchros were my first thought, but I would think it should go in if I double clutch even with bad synchros.

The syncro rings actually wear and they kind of bind up and won’t let you shift. I know the oil is expensive but you might try a drain and refill with new pennzoil syncromesh I buy three quarts and have some left over.

It seems weird to me then that it would go into gear while stationary. I'm going to look at all the linkages yet; it makes me think that it's an alignment issue due to the engine twisting under load, so maybe motor/tranny mounts too?

I ran various Metros for 8 years and the problem with 2nd gear was always inside the transmission.

Did you ever see what I'm dealing with here, where it will go in while stationary but not while moving?

Do you think I should just go buy the used one for $85 and be done with it? For what it's worth I found a rebuild kit (new bearings, gaskets, and synchros) for about the same price so if I pull this one to switch it out I'll probably rebuild it as a spare eventually.

What you describe is the standard failure for the Metro transmission. Be aware there are four different ratio transmissions for these cars. There are early and late cars, there are also three cylinder and four cylinder versions of both body styles. The four cylinder cars have higher gears and the poor late four cylinder cars have the lowest 4.4 final. There is a chart on here somewhere on the ratio to crown wheel gear count to determine final drive ratios. The finals are 9% different they range from 3.5, 3.8, 4.1 to 4.4 roughly.
Be aware that you may install a used transmission and have the same problem. These cars are getting pretty used up, they haven’t made them since 2001.

Thanks for the warning. Any idea where this chart is, I did some searching on the site before making this post and no luck. I'm no computer wiz.

http://metroxfi.com/2008/04/metro-tr...o-information/

From that:

3.52:1 1.3L SOHC Swift up to mid year ’95
3.79:1 98-01 4 cylinder Metro
3.85:1 XFi Metro
3.95:1 mid year ’95 up 1.3L SOHC Swift
4.10:1 Swift GT, GTi, 95 and earlier Metro (3 cylinder)
4.39:1 Metro Convertible, 96+ Metro

Close enough to how I remember it.

Nice article, thanks for finding that for me. Did the 3 cylinder ones after 95 use a different ratio? I don't see that answered here. The ones I found in the salvage yard I referred to are all 95+ 3-cyl non-xfis. There is one XFi available for more money (~$150 I think). I'm fine with going a little higher in ratio, but don't want to do too much as this car already struggles to maintain it's speed going up one particular hill on my commute. I live with losing some speed myself, but it seems like every summer that area is under construction and gets cut down to 1 lane either way so no one can pass me (This is a divided 4-lane interstate.)

"96+ Metro" refers to the 3 cylinder, so 4.39:1. (I put in the "3 cylinder" in the line above that to clarify, didn't notice the next line)

Ok thanks. I was wrong though, I pulled it up again and the ones I was looking at are from the first gen, so at least I won't be going any lower as it seems I have the lowest geared one available for the first gens other than a convertible (which I excluded in my search query.)

So an update: this weekend my car suddenly started going into second gear while moving. It will shift up to 2nd as long as I shift nice (which I do), but won't shift down to second at all. Also if I miss the shift from 1-2 it is like before where it won't go in at all (I only know this because I tried to see what would happen.)

Intermittent problems are the best! Not.


If you're going to swap, try to find the 3.52:1 1.3L SOHC Swift



Bumped up my highway fuel economy by about 5-6%


http://www.metrompg.com/posts/tranny-swap.htm

I think I'll stick with the same ratio. I've got some pretty big hills to climb on my commute, and the car struggles with a couple of them already.

Fair enough. Most of my driving is fairly flat.

This is the closest thing I have to a build thread. I found out the other day that one of my coworkers was the second owner of my metro, ~ ten years ago.

She told me that she got it with the odometer reading 56k, but she's pretty sure it had been rolled over once.

She rolled it over once herself, then her sister rolled it over once, then the person her sister sold it to (who I bought it from) rolled it over another time.

So this Metro has a confirmed minimum of 316k, and possible as much as 416k. Never had the tranny out, or the engine re-ringed. That's pretty good for a 28 year old econobox.

That's impressive! The highest odo I've seen on one of these is ~340,000 km = 211k miles. And that one was in a junk yard.

When I bought it it read around 10k, I assumed it was 210k based on the condition, never would have thought it would be this high.

Really increases my desire to fix it and keep it going, strive for 500k

Another update. I adjusted the clutch play finally, the throwout bearing didn't engage until about 3" into the clutch throw. The clutch was never fully disengaging. After adjusting it to 1/8" of free play it shifts almost 100%, though second is still a little stubborn sometimes, particularly on a downshift.

Now I just need to get the car to idle while hot, but apparently there's an adjustment screw for this. So much to do and so little time.

Don’t move the throttle stop, there is an idle air bypass screw.

I'll have to look into that. Still need to check the condition of the EGR and PCV valve, but I'm guessing it's not good.