when to rebuild or replace

[nmaineron]

I have been reading all the rebuild articles and find that most of the tasks are quite straight forward.What I don't see in the articles is the where the detemination is made to do the rebuild or replace the unit.Providing the case isn't broken,what is the point of no return?My tranny has 180,000 miles on it and was throwing a PO741 code but was functionable with no noticable issues until it would throw the code and I would have harsh 1-2,2-1 shifts.All other functions were fine.Then it just dies.I believe if it is rebuilable it would certainly be less expensive to do so than to buy a reman or a junk yard special.Thanks,Ron

 

[Glacier991]

You ask an excellent question. On a lower mileage transmission exhibiting symptoms which can be explained by a valve body malfunction and with good fluid and no metal, I think common sense says try the VB rebuild route first. Start changing the hypothetical, and the answer may change too. Hi miles.... or metal in the pan...probably suggest it may be wise to rebuild. Likewise if you have to remove a high mileage tranny for ANY reason, probably makes sense to rebuild it and save that labor bill for R&R.

While I do think that shops all too often avoid diagnosis in favor of a rebuild, I also understand their reluctance to charge the customer bux for a fix that MAY not work. That said I bet if you figured out a clear as day way to create a simple problem that a competent transmission mechanic could easily fix with the transmission in the car, and then took the vehicle to a number of shops for diagnosis, in a majority (not all) cases, you would be told "it needs a rebuild".

 

[F14CRAZY]

Consider this...

My dad's a master plumber of our own company (32+ years). Sometimes a customer will have an old faucet, water heater, etc and want some little thing fixed on it. My dad usually doesn't do it and offers to completely replace it. Why? Because old **** is old ****, and the repair may very well not hold. Then we have to go back and fix it again. Figure in the gas, insurance, payroll, taxes, etc to go 20 miles one way to do something over again.

 

[Glacier991]

I hope I adequately tried to make that point. Come-backs hurt the bottom line and rarely get you a long term customer. Hence the relucatnace to try some things we might do on our own, and hence the threads I have posted on valve body rebuilds. Still, I just don't think that of the automotive specialty trades, Auto Tranny shops overall rate real high on the integrity index due to some bad apples out there.

 

[F14CRAZY]

Glacier: you're a tranny genius here on the boards. But did I offend you? Didn't mean to and will apologize if I did

 

[Pdwight]

I tend to agree

I work in the service industry, not automotive but X-Ray Equipment. I think over the years I have heard more storries that if you go into a tranmission shop for directions they will say "We have to rebuild your transmission and its going to cost 2 grand"

I think this has a lot to do with what Glacier posted and the fact that a lot of shops have only 1 or 2 real tech's that know what is going on. the rest can just replace the transmission with a rebuilt unit and generate more dollars to keep the shop going with fewer returns. Most things mechanicial can be fixed...............except Chevy Vegas

I wrecked mine in 1974 and it was the best thing that ever hapened to it.

 

[Glacier991]

F14Crazy, not at all. You put the point I was trying to make in a different light, non-automotive in nature. There is a general tendency to throw rocks at ALL shops, ALL dealerships etc, when their actions are sometimes governed by different needs than us DIY'ers have. Your post was right on point. I just didn't want to appear to be an indiscriminate rock thrower is all...Thanks for chiming in. Keep up the good work.

 

[F14CRAZY]

Cool. Thanks. Just kinda got confused there

 

[BrooklynBay]

Sometimes you would have to weigh the cost of the rebuild to the value of the actual vehicle. If the vehicle is 18 years old, and a rebuilt transmission is $1,500, then it might not be worth it. If you plan on keeping the vehicle another 18 years, and have a lot of transmission parts on hand, then it would definitely be worth it. If you could rebuild one on your own, then the cost should be about half of what a shop charges. A transmission from a junk yard is a gamble, but might be worth it if they give you a guarantee in writing that if it's no good, you could return it in 90 days. If it's cheap enough, it might be worth the price just in spare parts value.

 

[F14CRAZY]

Good points. I bought a used M5OD with like 130k miles, but I thought it was okay cuz it had a warranty and they're not like A4LDs (though still not the world's best manual)

 

[Glacier991]

A big reason behind my doing the A4LD Diary was that IF you DIY the transmission rebuild, you can do it far cheaper (and in most cases better) than a shop would. That could possibly contribute to more Old Explorers staying on the road, instead of being junked when all that was wrong was the A/T. Along those lines I also did the A4LD Valve body thread, and made tools available for loan.

 

[2001ExpSport]

You can get a reman tranny for 7 to 800 bucks. To rebuild an old one it's like 2000 bucks and I think that is the industry standard. On the last day of class they tell all the students that rebuilds always cost $2000.

Anyway, someone mention cost of repair over vehicle worth. It's going to be your decision in the long run wether you feel it's worth doing the repair.

 

[F14CRAZY]

Or just swap to a 700R4, or an M5OD