One problem related to transmission shudder has been reported for the 2003 Toyota Corolla. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2003 Toyota Corolla based on all problems reported for the 2003 Corolla.
I am the original owner of a 2003 Toyota Corolla s with a manual transmission. In November 2011, the bearings in my transmission failed on a long trip at just over 93,000 miles. The failure in the bearings destroyed the transmission and disabled my car on the freeway. I had it towed to an auto shop where I purchased a brand new transmission from the local Toyota service center. It was installed, as well as a new clutch. I reported this incident on your website previously. This last month, my transmission began to grind going into 3rd gear. I bought it in to my local mechanic and found out the the transmission is failing. It will either need to be rebuilt or replaced. The transmission is not even 3 years old and has just about 21,000 miles on it. Toyota will not warranty it. Their coverage is for one year, unlimited mileage. A new car with a new transmission is covered for 5 years/60,000 miles. There is no reason this transmission should have failed. I take excellent care of my car and had hoped to drive it for 20+ years. I have had routine service performed on it and mostly drive my car on long trips as I ride to work most days. A simple google search shows that these issues I have had with my car are very common for my model car with a manual transmission. Toyota will not do anything about it simply because the overwhelming majority of cars they sell in the us are automatics so issues with manuals can be ignored. They need to be held accountable for producing a transmission that can't even hold up to an industry standard warranty. Transmission failures are dangerous is it is unacceptable that Toyota continues to get away with not coming up with a repair that prevents this from happening.