Well, it's apparent to me now my tranny doesn't have a whole lot of life left in it. Whinning in all gears and it feels like there's some sort of rough vibration which seems to be coming from the tranny at take off and low rpms.

My options are limited right now and I'm thinking of buying a used t5 and having it rebuilt with world class internals.

Another option may be a c4 tranny, but what all is needed to go from a t5 to an auto?

So what would you do in my situation? I've got about $500 in my wallet right now, but that's not gonna be enough.