Decision Point- need your help

[dcarp]

The O/D light flashed for the second time in a week, so I took my sport by AAMCO to take a look at it-turns out that theres a problem with second gear. I'm at a decision point here and I need your help:

It's going to cost $700 just to pull the transmission to take a look at it, then a minimum of $2500 (less the $700) to do a "soft rebuild" from there. Not sure what it will be if I need any new gears but I'm guessing in the neighborhood of $3000-3500.

So here's the decision point:

A) Spend the possibly $3500 to continue to drive my totally paid off explorer sport with 82K miles and wait for the next thing to break.

-or-

B) Trade it in on something new(er) with a warranty and a good transmission.

Does anyone have experience with the transmission issue? If I get if fixed, How many more years/miles should I expect?

Thanks guys!

 

[manaen]

you can probably fix it for less than 3500, and even if it does cost you 3500, that is way less than the 20k to 30k your going to spend on a new vehicle with a warranty. You will actually loose almost 3500 driving the new vehicle off the lot. If you don't like the truck then by all means trade it in. I am one to keep vehicles for a long time. So I say fix the vehicle, and find a better tranny shop that will fix the actual problem, and not just charge you for a complete rebuild.

Are you mechanically capable? with the help of some people here you could probably tackle the fix yourself.

Or a cheaper option would be to purchase a junk yard tranny, or a rebuilt one off ebay or some other place. there are other options.

 

[Exploderpilot]

do a search for one of the tranny gurus threads. you will surprise yourself with what you can do yourself. i paid 1900 once for a rebuild, and with the experts on here, did the second one myself. for 400 bucks! with upgrades!

 

[hunterdan]

If the O/D light is flashing that means there is a code stored. You should have the tranny shop pull the code and report it back to you. You can then try to search for the code on here. The code can tell you a lot and the tranny gurus on here are very very knowledgeable.

Dan

 

[dcarp]

Dan-thanks-I did have them run the code, but I didn't check it out here.

Thanks for all of the advice guys.

 

[Rottie]

Another option would be to pull the trans yourself and then take it somewhere to get rebuilt. That would knock off the first $700 that you mentioned. I'm not sure how hard they are to remove from the Explorers, but $700 sounds pretty high for a removal. Also, think about taking it to a smaller, local shop for an estimate. AAMCO and the other "chain" shops seem to be on the pricier side.

 

[FordTony]

You should expect 80,000 100,000 miles out of a rebuild.....btu that doesn't mean rebuilts are limited to these numbers they should go at least this long

 

[manaen]

You should expect 80,000 100,000 miles out of a rebuild.....btu that doesn't mean rebuilts are limited to these numbers they should go at least this long

that depends on the shop, I had a rebuilt tranny go right outside of the warranty of 20k. I will never go back to that shop, they were real butt's about the whole thing.

 

[dcarp]

Well a friend of mine pointed me to a transmission shop a few miles south of here (in woodbridge, va) who will do it for around $2200 with a complete rebuild and a 2 year warranty. I'll be dropping it off on Sunday--Thanks for all of your help guys.

 

[manaen]

Excelent, and you get to stay out of car payments for another few years

I would request synthetic mercon V when they assemble it. may as well start off right.