Hey everybody... I am very happy to announce that, nearly a year to the day his CVT transmission died (the account of which can be found here), I am very, very happy to report that Tobias has finally (and quite successfully) received his (rebuilt) CVT transplant(the 25th of August)! After a subsequent trip to the doctor to remedy some electrical problems (lights, wipers, windows) in the dash (the result of a leaking drainage tube in the driver's side A-pillar fouling up some coupling), Toby is now in tip-top shape (with one relatively minor exception)! I spent the hour driving from work shrieking ecstatically and grinning with joy... the only lingering issue is that my locks (!!!) no longer work (passenger-side door is stuck locked, the boot will not lock at all, but was previously stuck locked, and the fuel door had to be unlocked manually from within the boot... the key can manually lock the driver's side door, however). Other than that, the car is almost like nothing ever went wrong at all... the only odd behavior I am detecting is a bit of subtle engine shake during hard acceleration up hills... I don't know if I should attribute this to a side effect of the car having gone undriven for a year (in turn something that will clear itself up as the car is broken in once again) or perhaps plugs or wires that have gone bad in the meantime...

At any rate.... it's so wonderful to know that no longer shall I gaze forlornly upon my fellow Coopers, hoping to motor once again amongst their esteemed ranks! Instead, I feel deliriously happy and ecstatic beyond words to find myself in fact actually motoring!!!!

Thanks to everyone who offered their sympathy while I was waiting/hoping for things to be made right again! There CAN be life after death of the CVT transmission!!

 

congrats, get out of the house and drive

 

So what happened?????? I read the other thread and the last post was on 7/07 stating it was going to be about a week?

 

uhhhhh, what the heck did you do without a car for a YEAR? That is sooo wrong.

 

Thanks! Unfortunately my inspection tags are expired so I don't want to drive the car anywhere but to a garage to get them renewed (on Tuesday)! I asked the garage that fixed the electrical stuff to do an inspection, but he said he couldn't because for whatever reason he couldn't do an emissions test until I drove the car for 50 miles or so...? Eh, it sucks! I didn't really understand his explanation as to why this was exactly (although I have heard a few theories,) but there you have it.

The original transmission I ordered was sold to me without the seller actually having it in stock!! The guy said he had another on the shelf he could sell me, but his tech or whomever "wasn't happy with it," so I obviously wasn't going to take a chance on it! I ended up finding another rebuilt CVT that was $1,600 less on eBay with the same warranty, so that's what I got! It ended up taking the garage a week longer than they should have taken to install it once they received it. Once I got the car back, the car accelerated only so-so, the windows wouldn't go down, the headlights were stuck on, the turn signals didn't work, the locks were all stuck locked (except for the driver's side), the wipers didn't work, and the dash lights wouldn't come on. The fuses were fine, so I drove the car to a garage that specialized in electrical problems near my work. They gave me an estimate of $350 the next day, and the day after that (Friday) they'd remedied everything but the locks; the guy couldn't figure it out. Interestingly, the hatch had unlocked somehow, but I am unable to lock it now. The final bill ended up being only $325; this included a new battery (the old one, which came with the car, was shot) and a new bulb in the driver's side headlight. They were awesome enough to replace it with a SilverStar bulb (what I had in there before,) which really impressed me! Perhaps most importantly, after the electrical work was finished and the battery was replaced, the car accelarated like a DREAM, actually a bit better than the old one did... this rebuilt one is a bit more responsive and... fluid? Much less jumpy/bouncy, and doesn't have the old one's annoying tendency to feel like I was braking whenever I let off the gas under 5—10 miles per hour.

Heh, I did a LOT of carpooling! It really rather sucked, but the experience has strengthened a lot of my friendships, as well as my character in general, and also prompted me to question more than ever what my priorities in life were/are. In the meantime, I have been shown astounding kindness with regards to the situation from quarters where I least expected it, not to mention from my very best friends, and I will never be able to thank any of them enough. It has been a hell of a year, but I wouldn't trade it for anything!