98 corolla, starter or tranny toast?

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Hi again all! I had put a post up a day or 2 ago, regarding thinking my calipers seemed locked up. Thier was a loud siren noise coming from front of car wheel area, grinding noise, and once in a while, the car would run but lock up but try too move. I just installed a new rebuilt NAPA denso starter. Older (1.5 years ago i installed an autozone starter [censored] out), and since the napa starter, is when these things started happen, mentioned above. Well, last night, the car reved and wanted too drive, but would go some feet, then not move,thoughthe negine did want too go/run. Lots of smoke started coming out the tailpipe.....i musta had it at 2-3rpm and the car would just come too a grinding halt. I had tooshut off car, wait like 7 minutes, restart and it would drive a few hundred feet till it would slow down too not moving,yet engine ran fine. Floored the gas pedal many times asthe engine ran, lots of smoke came out, yet it didntbudge or move, tilli turned car off, let it rest some minutes, restart. I did notince the shifting...it seemed too stick when putting it in drive. it eventualy freed up. The car jerked semi violently it seemed. A few blocks before getting home it finaly stopped...stopped on my street and pushed the car down it as 2 neighbors came out too help me. (nice of them).
It seems this happened just after i installed the napa rebuilt denso starter.......
the trasnmission fluid had no smell, it was dark out, you could see it was full, but could not determine its color. flushed it 2 years ago myslef, pulled the return line and all. The original fluid was in bad bad shape. 57,000 miles and never serviced. automatic. Ran fine till i installed the starter.
Could the starter be the culprit? Or.....is the corolla's transmission kaput?
 
If your starter pinion is failing to retract, causing it to hit the flywheel... that would just make a metallic pinging noise.
 
Lots of smoke coming out the tail pipe would be the most important symptom to me. Why is there so much smoke if the engine is running fine as you state? Check to see if you didn't dislodge a wire or sensor when you changed out the starter.
 
1998 Corolla? With the infamous oil burning engine? It does have oil in it, right?

57k would be a bit early for the trans to go, even with original fluid. But I wouldn't be surprised if the oil looked bad (it's just that they seem to go a long ways with awful looking oil).

If you did the starter... what gets removed to do that? I wonder if you left off a vacuum line or the air intake, or something else which would cause the engine to run poorly.
 
ok no!!! it was 57K or so when i did the flush. It now has 91,100 miles! I didnt disclose that sorry..
I found it odd, after installing the NAPA rebuilt denso starter, thecraziness the car was acting. You could floor the pedal, and it would drive like a hundred feet or so, then slow down and stop moving, though the gas pedal was floored. Thier was a siren and metal scrapping noise coming from front of car. I had thought it was the rotors scrapping.
The fooring of the car, caused the smoking. dino oil. it did have a bad oil consumption when i got it, but have since slowed it down big time.
so, does itsound or seem like the transmission is toast? Or could the napa starter be causing this? everything was re connected after i installed it.
 
Maybeits just coincidence, new starter, and transmission decided too drop dead. IM looking for answers ifpossible, before deciding too junk it.
 
Siren noise? Sounds like the starter pinion got stuck out. Pull the starter and examine.

Was there any shims between starter and block? I wonder if one got left off, and the starter is too close to the flywheel.
 
Take off the front wheels and check the calipers. It wont be hard to see if its them or not causing the problem. Start there. Otherwise, assume its the transmission and yeah you may need to accept that its scrap time.
 
Pull the starter, examine it and test it with jumper cables. Sparks may be involved. It's not a big deal.

Pull the spark plugs and see if the engine can be turned over by hand.

Push the car in N and see if it rolls easily or if a brake is dragging.
 
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