Manual Transmission problems of the 2003 Toyota Matrix

Driving down the highway our (03 Toyota Matrix, manual trans), (north bound I-45 conroe, texas) the car abruptly started a thumping slapping sound. From the frount end. Asap! pulled to the side of the road, stopped and turned the car off. My husband arrived, to figure out the problem. He had me turn the car on without starting and pushed the vehicle. The thumping, slapping sound is coming from under the engine. To be continued.

After normal driving and wear and tear (103,000 miles), manual transmission on 2003 Toyota Matrix has gone bad, resulting in a needed replacement of the transmission, clutch, and clutch plate.

I own a 2003 Toyota Matrix with a manual transmission. The car only has 92,000 miles and the tranny needs to be replaced due to a bad bearing. From my research on the web I have seen this happen to many others. I spoke to a repair shop that does rebuilds and he informed me that Toyota had gotten bad bearings and used them on a series of transmissions and they tend to go bad around 80k to 120k miles. He himself has rebuilt many.

My 2003 Toyota Matrix completely broke down in the middle of a highway. The transmission is dead at 94,542 miles. Toyota refuses to take responsibility.

Own a Toyota Matrix 2003 xr have been hearing odd sounds for about 6 months. Had mechanic do a check and couldn't find anything. Never stopped to think it could be the transmission on a manual transmission with less than 100k miles. A week later, driving on highway in the middle of the night, heard a loud explosion type sound and swerved off the road. Mechanic said its a bad bearing in the transmission. Toyota has yet to respond to my complaint. The entire transmission needs to be replaced.

Transmission completely ruined at 72,000 miles 5 speed manual Toyota Matrix 2003.

I have a 2002/03 Toyota Matrix that had the transmission replaced at 70k miles. It was covered under warranty. The car has 130k miles now and I am being told the bearing in the transmission is bad.

2003 Toyota Matrix xrs transmission problems, slipping gears or clutch while under load, recurring problem for the duration of owning the car. It is very unsafe on the highway as it does not get up to or maintain speeds. Filed a complaint with Toyota with no response. Toyota said there was no problem with it when I took it in to get looked at, but it was slipping the whole drive home and since then. I believe there is a definite problem with the transmission and I am not the only one that believes this, how many people must complain or does someone have to die for them to take some action?.

I have an 2003 Toyota Matrix xrs. Clutch started slipping and you can smell it most of the time. Has 53,000 miles. I have driven many standards over the years and never had this much trouble with a manual transmission. The last clutch I had to replace was on a 1991 Suzuki swift that had over 220,000 miles. Toyota used to be a good vehicle. They really need to fix this issue. . Read more...

Toyota Matrix 2003 xrs on 2nd transmision and still having problems. Clutch is also nasty. Many others with same car having simmilar problems. . Read more...