If I hadn't just recently experienced this myself I wouldn't believe it! Last Tues. evening my son called on his way home, a 20 min. drive, & said his 2002 Neon SXT automatic was making a whining noise & seemed to be slipping. He wasn't sure he'd make it home. Ten min. later he called back & said he was stalled on the side of the road & come rescue him. So I grabbed some transmission fluid & a rag then headed out. He'd made it about 8-10 miles from work when the car would no longer go any further. I checked the fluid & the level was fine & also looked & smelled good. I managed to drive it a 1/4-mile or so off the paved road when it gave out again. Whirring & winning ever so slightly but wouldn't move. We had it towed to the dealer. The first diagnosis was the torque converter, second was the pump after calling other dealers & looking online for failure analysis. The dealer then suggested a TRANSMISSION FLUSH saying that about 85% of the time this works. Well it did.
Nowhere in any Internet groups, web pages or talking to a bunch of people did anyone suggest something so simple & inexpensive.
Please share this with everyone who might be in a similar situation thinking that they need a major trans. repair.
Before you declare victory, make sure it doesn't happen again within 100 miles or so. There's no reason on God's green earth that a HEALTHY transmission would need a flush, or why a flush would "fix" a transmission unless there's another very major problem lurking...
My guess izzat the flush cleared the filter of restriction and wahlah the pump could pump again. You may ask the dealer about that 85% fix rate. I would be courious how that got established. Respectfully submitted,
I don't know about the tranny in the Neon, but we had similar trouble with one of our minivans. New fluid fixed it. This is a transmission that is very sensitive to the fluid condition.
That isn't surprising as a transmission flush will not fix a transmission that is seriously broken. Aren't there any good transmission shops in your area that can rebuild your current transmission?
Absolutely ridiculous. Stop *NOW*, and get the car away from whatever scam artist has possession at the moment. Rebuilding that transmission including R&R ought to cost you half of what's been quoted, tops. Even assuming the present transmission cannot be rebuilt because it is severely damaged, a used transmission can be purchased and installed (or rebuilt and installed, as appropriate).
Let's get on
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(searchable used auto parts nationwide) and have a look, shall we?
*cleek* 2002
*cleek* Dodge Neon
*cleek* Transmission
*cleek* Georgia
*cleek* search
*cleek* A.T. (4spd)
*cleek* search
Why, lookit there...twelve used transmissions, one with only 5k miles on it for 750 whole dollars.
Guess your dealer(?) couldn't find one because he didn't look.
My beef is when they get willfully stupid not only when the dealer-approved fix is outrageously expensive but when the overpriced or underspecified factory part is a long way away thus putting you out of the car for days or worse. (I expect them to make money....someone is getting rich in the auto repair business, I realize it isn't always the mechanics-of course they like to buy Snap-On male jewelry at outrageous prices often even when they don't need it...)I had a Brand F RWD sedan that was just OOW and developed a leaky thermostat housing. This is a little trivial part that is an absolute c*******er to get to based on the location of the alternator, distributor, and the lower intake manifold casting itself. (Putting me largely off Brand F even though this engine is actually excellent.) The leak occured in a small-to-middling college town. I had no tools with me plus I had several injuries from an accident leaving me just able to drive, sore as hell, and had to get home as a family member was about to die. So I went to the dealer...
No they didn't have one, and it had to be sent in, and we were looking at four days.
Four days for a common part for one of the most common engines in the country??
Yep.
This is, like, 11:30 in the morning. Couldn't they, if I paid the shipping, have one FedExed in overnight?
Well, no.
Why not?
Well, because.
Don't the local parts places have one of these maybe? No, it's a dealer part only.
I decided, just for the hell of it, to walk literally across the street to a chain auto parts place. Just for s***s and giggles. And to relieve the boredom.
Of course they had one. Theirs was cast iron instead of aluminum, said CHINA, and had an extra hole in the top. But, hey, it was ten dollars, with gasket and a hex female cap screw for the hole in the top. (The F*** part was $70!) I bought it, and the clerk put the capscrew in with some sealing goop and said to let it dry an hour or so before installing.
So around one in the afternoon, I walked up to the service writer with thermostat housing in hand.
Nope. No, they would not install a customer part.
Why not?
We are not in the business of installing our competitor's parts, plus, we can't warranty it.
Welll...How about if I paid for the F*** part and brought the car back for you to put it in, later,so I can get home?
No.
So...Okay, I'll have to do it myself.
Not on our property you won't.
Sooo...I called AAA and explained the situation. While they ruminated I called the parts place from the showroom courtesy phone and explained the situation. The guy said he gets off at 4 and he'd help me get the car to their parking lot where I could swap it out if I had tools. Told me I'd need to pull the distributor and swing the alternator out and probably would need a wobble socket. He had limited tools for sale and told me they frankly were overpriced-but Mr. Mac Tool lived within walking distance. I called him and told him what I needed and told him I'd buy cash all the tools I needed if I could get just what the job required. He said he'd be home at 6 and if I could wait he'd be over.
Bottom line, me, the parts guy and the Mac tool guy (for whom the dealership was off his route so he technically couldn't sell to) got the job done in 45 minutes and I bought about $90 worth of stuff from him...plus a $50 ratchet as a gift to the parts guy. I was home at
2:30 that morning and my aunt died twelve hours later. She was comatose so it wasn't as if I missed her final words or anything, but my mother took it a little hard so, no thanks to that dealer, I was glad I was there.
Well we got a used transmission with 4000 miles for $600.00 & had the dealer, Claxton Chrysler, install it. They had the car for 2 weeks! $135.00 labor @ $24.55/hr. & $60.00 for what they say was 3 gallons of fluid at their cost. The dealer was "WORKING" with us on the parts & labor due to the fact that it was out of warranty, 2nd owner, non transferable warranty because of build date. They still have the original & are going to disassemble & diagnose it to find out what failed.
I am somewhat surprised to see a transmission fail on a Neon that is only two years old. How many miles were on the original transmission? I got 110,000 miles on the 3 speed transmission in my 1990 Spirit beforre it failed due worn out thrust washer.
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