Manual transmissions generally have the lowest maintenance required. They are known to last hundreds of thousands of miles. They need an occasional gear oil change – usually every 30,000 to 50,000 miles. Which depends on drivers driving conditions. General the only thing that goes bad is the bearings. The fluid builds up metal particulars which damage the bearings. So the more frequent you change the fluid, the longer it should last as you are removing the metal contamination. Ignoring or waiting until a bearing failure causes catastrophic failures, which will result in more costly repair than an automatic transmission.
The transmission shifter connects the shifter assembly to the transmission either via a cable or a linkage assembly. The average cost for an manual transmission Shift Cable Replacement is between $388 and $453. Labor costs are estimated between $185 and $316. Linkages generally don’t fail, the bushings do need to be maintained with grease. With less than 1% of cars in the USA having transmission we don’t see a great number of them in our shop. Which doesn’t mean we can’t fix them, we are highly trained in it.
