That would fit with the symptoms though. It was a slow and steady loss of power over the course of 8 hours or so. Say, if each time I started the car and drive, it didn't engaged just a little less until it didn't engage enough to move.

Can anyone here confirm this before I go with it?

I brought it up to the mechanic and even though the owners manual says the manual transmission HHR only holds 1.7 quarts of transmission fluid, the mechanic wants me to add another 2-3 quarts just to see because he read somewhere it holds 5.

 

Also, do I need to drop the transmission (again) to reseat whatever is supposed to be in the other end of the bolt, or would continuing to tighten it down do that? Originally it was really torqued down.

 

Wow. Don't listen to anything that mechanic says.
Is this the same guy that said the clutch "looked" OK ?

 

My guess on the detente bolts is torque them down unless there is a lock nut on them.

 

I still don't think it's the no 51 item in the diagram above. His picture shows it is adjacent to the bell housing, which places it on the bottom of the engine. The bolt he is referring to is the long oil pan bolt.

specialagent - do you know exactly what the part numbers were for the parts installed - and the brand name of them all - everything from the clutch driven plate, to the slave or master cylinders that were replaced. I tend to agree with FMG that you have a clutch problem and or a mechanic problem and or wrong parts installed problem.

Mind you, who knows what damage might have been caused by driving it 3 weeks without a clutch.

 

Not being a mechanic, it still sounds clutch related - throw out bearing/slave.

 

First, here is where that one bolt leads to (had to take the flywheel off).

I have never successfully extracted a broken bolt, so I'm thinking of leaving it in until I get the car back to Texas.



And it was a clutch problem (that metal ring and all that fuzz are remenants of the exploded slave cylinder). Went and got a clutch kit from AutoZone. Installing it now. Wishing I had the knowledge I have now a year ago. Would have saved $1,100 by replacing the clutch myself.







I'll check back in once I have the car back together just in case something else was wrong.

And, for those playing the home game, it is possible to do all of this by oneself with no prior experience and items from your average garage: two jack stands, two Jack's, used a 2x4 across the top and some heavy gage wire to support the engine when I dropped the transmission. Having the Haynes manual helped too.

 

How the heck did nobody notice there was no lining on the friction plate? How could somebody replace the slave cylinder without looking that direction? Especially with the stated symptoms?

I would be looking at replacing the flywheel, too.

I guess the clown shoes got in the way.

 

In the mechanic's defense, it does say "collision repair" not "transmission" on the sign out front. He gave me a safe port where I could park Wallace (the car's name; its my fiance's car) and work on him without worrying about him getting broken into, stolen, or towed. For that, I'll forgive the misdiagnosis.

Hell, the first week of this particular misadventure had Wallace in a tow yard, thanks to a dick assistant manager at a gas station I pulled him to, and I was barely able to scrape up the money by the last day before the scrapped him.

Come to think of it, every damn time a vehicle of mine goes down, someone decides to insert themselves into the situation and tow it while I'm out getting a part or something, costing minimum $200 cash.

But I digress. As you can see from the pics, the slave cylinder comes out with the transmission housing, and the pressure plate covers the disc, so it's might not have been readily apparent with the car up on a lift and paying enough attention only getting paid 1/5 of the bill could warrant.

 

Well, glad you finally found it. I hate to say I told you so, but..........................
Once you get the clutch done and working, you'll most likely still have that "Limp Mode " issue. From your 1st post I still think you had 2 separate and unrelated problems going on.
Fix the clutch then deal with the other.