Does the manual transmission in the 2005 Cavalier have a common problem associated with it?

The first problem I had with it was the shift from 1st to 2nd not wanting to go smoothly. I would have to force it in to get it to shift quickly, when accelerating . After a while the 1st to 2nd shift have a rubbery feeling to it, where it would feel like something was spongy when pushing it in until it felt like it popped into gear. After taking it in to the dealer I was told that the shift forks among some other things were damaged. This was fixed at no charge.

The second time I had to take it in was when I was jumping into a spot on an access road of a highway. I went to shift to 2nd and it didn't want to go apparently (think back to the first problem and the spongy feel) and the roll pin connecting the shifter to the transmission was severed and the transmission ended up getting stuck in 5th gear. Using an allen wrench to connect the shift to the transmission I was able to get it stuck in 3rd instead when I got home and work my way over to the dealership again. They replaced the pin and the clutch as it obviously got burned out on the drive back from work and over to the dealership. This was also fixed at no charge.

The 3rd time I had to take the car in was when the transmission began to grind, as if I wasn't pressing the clutch all the way in, when shifting into 5th. The only way to avoid the grinding was to put slight pressure on the shifter until it will into the gear on its own (~2 second shift). This grinding problem worked it's way into 4th gear and by the end of the week began to grind when shifting into third. The dealership ended up replacing the transmission due it being cheaper than trying to repair the damage inside. And as before, thanks to the warranty, it was fixed at no charge. The guy I know that works there said there were questions raised about abuse but said not to worry about it.

The old transmission only had ~32k miles on it when it was replaced.

While I do admit I would run the car like it was a hot rod I don't understand all the problems I experienced. There were no modifications done to the engine that would cause excessive wear on the transmission since it was stock. If anything I was expecting the clutch to give out. So, right now I'm babying the hell out of my new transmission because I don't want a repeat of before.

I'm also asking about this because I have a good paying job now and I need to know if I am going to have to replace the transmission once I start modifying the engine and start making more power.

The shift forks have nylon tips, that will break if you apply to much pressure, at the wrong time....... thats what happened the first 2 times on yours. The roll pin on the solector I have only heard of one other person breaking that, so thats pretty rare.

I have the same trans as you, and I've broke the shift for tips twice...... but I also put about 300hp to the wheels with this trans...... (the two times I broke the forks, where with about 150-175hp )




SPD RCR Z - '02 Z24 420whp
SLO GOAT - '04 GTO 305whp
W41 BOI - '78 Buick Opel Isuzu W41 Swap

stop driving it so hard lol




1998 Chevrolet Cavalier
5-spd

SpeedRacerZ wrote:The shift forks have nylon tips, that will break if you apply to much pressure, at the wrong time....... thats what happened the first 2 times on yours. The roll pin on the solector I have only heard of one other person breaking that, so thats pretty rare.

I have the same trans as you, and I've broke the shift for tips twice...... but I also put about 300hp to the wheels with this trans...... (the two times I broke the forks, where with about 150-175hp )

Come up with some Bronze ones. Do you know if the shift forks in our getrag and the shift forks in the HHR (2.4 Ecotec I think) are the same? Supposely GM has some bronze ones for that tranny.



FU Tuning