2003 Toyota Corolla: jerking or lurching

Filed May 5, 2015 · Transmission · 139,000 miles · CA

Original transmission was replaced at 124,000 miles, and only 3 years later, and 25,000 miles later, it now needs another transmission. Not the dependability I was expecting. In both instances, the same thing occurred; although it went out on me a lot faster the second time around. I heard a grinding sound every time I accelerated, until it finally went out on me and locked up both times. The first time I was on a side street, and it happened while I was approaching red light (and only reverse worked, so I was able to reverse it into a gas station nearby). The second time was a bit more scary (and I'm pissed off about this even more, now that I'm reading everyone else's story, because I could've been in a major accident). I was driving 65 MPH down the freeway (in the 3rd lane in) when all of a sudden my car bucked (jerked back) on me. I immediately got off the freeway within 5-7 seconds (thank god I was able to), when all of a sudden it completely froze/seized/locked up on me and proceeded to skid out about 15 feet along the side of the freeway only a second or two after getting off. The more I think about it, the more I am thankful that I was able to get over so quickly or it could've been disastrous. Nevertheless, I just got it towed to the local toyota dealership, and am looking forward to what they have to say. I am printing out all the links/forums/articles that I have found about this very specific problem with this very specific year and model (with only manual transmissions have you). Not sure what they will do about (my guess is they'll say tough luck and tell me it's going to cost me $3600, and then I'll have to have it towed to another place that can do it with a rebuilt transmission for $2000), but I'm going to give it a try. It really angers me that they can allow this problem to persist and put people's lives in danger.

Filed Mar 31, 2015 · Acceleration, Electrical · 81,766 miles · AZ

Camelback toyota took care of a recall on the wiring harness and since that date I have had numerous problems - lost my keyless entry, lost my speedometer, lost my horn. D & b auto found some problems at the tune of $428.70 (got my horn, speedometer and keyless entry working again - this was 8/12/13). Then approximately september or october, my car would start lurching and felt like it went into neutral and I would loose my speedometer - no engine light would come one - we tried several time to find out what was wrong - d & b auto checked out my speed sensors and found them to be okay and suggested it was my instrument panel and told me to call dick's speed-0-tech - I did and was informed that it could not be the instrument panel on a 2003 toyota corolla - suggested I call sam's compu -tech - I did and he said he could not help me until an engine light came on. In the meantime I found [xxx] the tech and he found the ecd connector (e8) not fully seated (locked) - not this is after the recall by camelback toyota and then I still had the problems of the car lurching, going into neutral and loosing my speedometer so [xxx] the tech came back and we spend approximately 8 hours checking out the instrument channel and guess what we found (done by camelback toyota) - first he looked at the wiring under my dash and said "this is not factory" and then we found 6 zip ties holding the wires going into the instrument panel box and again he stated this is not factory. We found the wires would not stay in the box because it had obviously been twisted - so we fixed them and the car has been okay since - this was 10-20-14. Now you are telling me I have another recall on this - I cannot go through all this crap again so what are you going to do about it? Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6).

Filed Apr 4, 2010 · Acceleration, Driver assistance · 78,000 miles · IL · crash

My 2003 toyota corolla le which was purchased in 2003 had a acceleration problem, I took it to the oakbrook toyota while it was still under warranty and was told that it was all in my head and moreover the electronics for this function was factory installed and there was nothing the dealer could do with it. This was the last time I went to this dealer.the car would accelerate from 500 RPM to 2000 RPM in idle this would lurch the car forward and the only way I could drive this car was to change the ceramics brake pads every 10000 miles. In 2007 the car lurched forward at a traffic light and broke the rear bumper of a hyundai santas fe and cracked my bumper too I tried to explain to the police officer that I was stopped and suddenly the car lurched forward, it did not help I was given a ticket and told to tell my story to the judge, luckily the lady I hit did not show up in court and I was discharged but that did not make my insurance company all state from raising my premium and I still have the car and still has the highest premium. The car is used for running errands locally.

Filed Feb 6, 2010 · Engine · CA

I'm not sure if this is a defect but I just want to file a comment I have with my vehicle. I have a 2003 toyota corolla s made in 7/2002. The thing I have experiencing and still am is that my vehicle will lurch when it comes to a stop and engine idle speed changes when the vehicle was stopped. I've never experience this with other cars I have driven. I also didn't know if this is a defect or not back then until I start reading the news about the recall and other complaints from my model that is not due to the current recall. Here is the link to the news I have read about: http://www.cnbc.com/id/35269950 there is a quote from someone that experience the same thing as I did but did not state the year and model.

Filed Dec 14, 2005 · Acceleration, Fuel system · 28,300 miles · SC

I purchased a 2003 certified pre-owned toyota corolla le on 9/17/05. I love the car, and it gets excellent gas mileage. However, I recently encountered a couple of problems with the car: -the car stalls at the traffic light and sputters and jerks like it is running out of fuel. -the resume function on the cruise control works occasionally, but not all of the time. I've taken it to two toyota dealers in this area, but they can't fix the problems because they claim they can't duplicate the problem. On 12/16/05, I'm taking the car back to the toyota dealer that I purchased the car from, and hopefully they will fix it.

Filed Mar 11, 2003 · Transmission · 500 miles · TX

Vehicle lurches while sitting in traffic.