Today at work...

That Golf transmission thing hits home for me. I had a similar issue with my old 2012 Mazda 3. It had the 6-speed manual, and when it started making the bad sounds, I wanted to replace it. Only option I could find after searching for months was a new unit costing about $3k. There were zero used units in stock nationwide. The trans was only installed in 2010-13 2.5 MZR cars, and the take rate was very low. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the rest of the car; ran and drove like new. Had to make the hard call and move on. 

I have one of those Mazda 2.5 6 speeds on the shop floor now for 8 months, need to figure out how to sell it.  Removed in perfectly good order for a Speed3 trans swap, which ended up working out just fine for a cheaper, stronger, trans with LSD. 

^Doh! You can bolt a Speed3 trans right in!?

Love this thread seeing what folks are doing with their cars. I can't believe some of this stuff.

Today at work, I spent $1000 on glass. Just plain flat clear 1/4" glass. Between the cost of fuel to make it and inflation, the price has jumped 25% over the last 6 months. 

In reply to CyberEric :

You can, but you have to swap a bunch of other parts to do so, from my research. At the time, it wasn't well documented, and I didn't have the luxury of figuring all of that out with weeks (if not months) of downtime on my daily driver. I wish I could have done it easily, because there were plenty of those MS3 units out there!

In reply to Tony Sestito :

From what I can tell, if you have an 06+ car with ABS then it isn't that hard.  I had to change the clutch, flywheel, axles and shift cables.  That's it.  It all bolted right in with the same rubber mount and same hubs and with a. Extended wire for reverse if I recall correctly.  My car is an 07 that was originally a 2.3 5 spd, now is a 2.5 and has had both speed and non speed 6-spd transmissions. 
 

Pre 06 cars have different hubs and non ABS cars won't have a speed sensor as the speed3 trans doesn't have it (pulls speed from the wheel sensors). 

In reply to Sonic :
Man, that would have been good to know a couple years ago! Definitely do-able. I would have had to replace at the very least the trans, clutch, slave cylinder, and slave cylinder line anyway. Then again, the car had 187k on it and who knows how much longer it was going to go after all that.

NickD said:

On the topic of junking things for lack of transmission parts, we had a guy bring in one of those rare Tahoe Hybrids, ya know the one that gets worse fuel mileage than a regular Tahoe, with a slip in 3rd and 4th gear. Guy took it everywhere and no indy shops would touch it, because hybrid, so he brings it to our dealership. Before starting, our trans tech went and made sure internal parts were still available because it's entirely different than a regular Tahoe transmission. It has two 80lb electric motors and a weird tiny fluid damper instead of a torque converter. Surprisingly all the internal parts are available, so he tore it down and found that the snap ring for the 3-4 clutch drum broke all the teeth off of the case. Case isn't available, GM doesn't offer a new transmission, no one offers a remain transmission, and good luck finding a used transmission

Snapped some photos of said transmission failure

And also the weirdo fluid damper that it has instead of a torque converter

In reply to Tony Sestito :

I forgot about the slave cylinder, that too, because my used trans came with that and the line so I just connected and bled them.  Master is the same for both.  

Figured I'd post an update on that hybrid Tahoe. The customer hunted down a used transmission in New York City for $3000, and had it shipped up here. First red flag was that the transmission showed up literally rolling around in the back of a box van, not strapped down to a pallet or anything. Today the guy working on it tipped the transmission up on end and....

Yeah, it poured clear water out of the tailshaft area for a solid 60 seconds, followed by strawberry milkshake. Wherever this transmission was, it got full of water. And, remember, there are two motor/generator assemblies inside this transmission. So now he's on hold again. If this transmission has a good (read, non-cracked) case, he could theoretically swap the motor generators out of the other transmission, and throw all new clutches and seals in this transmission and make one good one. But, as it sits, the guy spent $3000 on a case.

In reply to NickD :

Fig. 1: Why we refuse to work with customer supplied parts

Hold on, can we talk about that clamp for a second!?   That is seriously impressive!

Fuel lines leaking where they meet the fittings. No time to wait for replacements. 

Turns out you can unscrew the ends like an AN fitting. A little sealer and we're back in business. 

I'll change them out when the replacements arrive.

wae said:

Hold on, can we talk about that clamp for a second!?   That is seriously impressive!

Now you know what the two dowel hole thingies on the side of a TH transmission are for!

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

wae said:

Hold on, can we talk about that clamp for a second!?   That is seriously impressive!

Now you know what the two dowel hole thingies on the side of a TH transmission are for!

Yep. GM/Kent-Moore special tool. Then you stick it in a holding fixture on a bench or a modified engine hoist.