With the help of my mom, I decided to take my car to the transmission place to have it looked at (and no, Jamie, my car never works :P ). This was killing 2 birds with 1 stone. I already needed to take it by there just to have the annual transmission checkup and they could also see what was making the "clunk" sound whenever I braked or put it in reverse. They brought me back there and let me watch them work on my car. First of all, the transmission is fine. There was a little friction, he said, but that's nothing, and of course he got rid of it. Some of the crossover bolts were loose and they said that it happens over time and not because of hitting the ground or "bottoming out". He said that he was surprised that it didn't fall off by now. He tried tightening them, but they just spun, meaning the screw threads were stripped out. He said he could either cut out the sections she replace the part where the bolt screws into it and then weld it back on or he could just force larger bolts into there. I said to go ahead with the larger bolts. The reason for the "clunk" sound was that there is this arm that runs from the transmission to the rear axil and helps stabilize them when I'm braking. There are usually 2 rubber bracket things holding it into place at the end that's hooked to the transmission mount, but they were gone. He said they go away over time, but bottoming out probably finished the job. Now it can move up and down so it hits against the metal either above or below it and makes the noise. He said not to be driving it until they can fix it. One of the guys called 5 places and no one had the part. He called the Chevy dealership and they said the part was discontinued in the automatics but not in the manuals. Well, that doesn't help me any. Then one of them called him back and said they can get the part, but it won't arrive until Thursday morning. He asked me if I wanted to give the "okay" to order it and I said, "Yes." I work on Thursday, but not until 3, and he said the part would get in late in the morning and it would take somewhere around a half an hour to install it. The whole process would cost me $85. That's separate from today's cost of the transmission checkup, which is $50. He said they have to refill the transmission fluid and it's expensive. My mom didn't know how much it would cost, so she gave me a blank check. She will then transfer the debt to one of my sisters' accounts (because they're getting the house refinanced) and I'll pay her back when I get the money. I also noticed that whenever it made the sound, the headlights flickered off and the radio turned off for a second. He said that it was because the battery wasn't grounded properly when I replaced the battery cable. He said to sand off the paint on the metal I was running the ground wire to and that should fix it.