My son just called from two hours south of here reporting that the auto trans in his '98 Accord is "burned up" and needs replaced or repaired. It's a 2.3 four cyl with 102,000 miles on it. He bought the car at a Honda dealer just over three years ago. The car was one of the Honda Certified ones. They are saying replacement with one from a salvage yard will be $2500. I think it's a little steep. I told him to call some of the independent shops and get a price from them. Anyone out there been down this road before? bob
N.E.Ohio Bob, wrote the following at or about 8/14/2006 1:48 PM:
Not with a Honda but about three weeks ago I wrote a check to a GM shop for a Goodwrench remanufactured tranny on my father's Buick Century. The tab was a bit over $3300 exclusive of towing charges and some other work performed while it was in the shop.
Even that surprised me as the tariff for a Goodwrench remanufactured tranny on my own, newer Park Avenue which was replaced just two years ago came to just over $2500 exclusive of towing.
Strange as it may seem, at least in my instance the GM service and tranny was by far the cheapest route to go. The shop I had the car taken too when it crapped out was some distance from my home but a square shooter. He quickly diagnosed the tranny as DOA and gave me some options with quality remanufactured trannys (NOT in-house). Those were a bit high and when I checked a couple of other non-GM outfits, well, you could have knocked me over when the local GM shop came in not only with the lowest price but the best warranty on the new tranny.
The OEM tranny carried a 36 month/36,000 mile warranty. The remanufactured, Mr. Goodwrench came with a 50,000 mile warranty (I forget the time limit as I put a load of miles on and the 50K mile warranty will be up at about my 2.8 year mark).
I don't know who's quoting you that price but it really doesn't seem out of line to me. My suggestion though would be to see if the Honda dealer has a "Goodwrench" equivalent and see what they would charge. You might be surprised.
'They' is the Honda dealership service department in downtown Columbus OH. 'They' didn't offer that the OBD would be any help in knowing the source of the trouble. 'They' said that to find out what happened would cost $500.00, (trans removal and disassembly) and the total repair bill would be around $2700.00. 'They' said that he is 3000 miles and four months outside the coverage of his warranty. bob
Therein lies the problem, Bob. Think about it. What does ANY salvage yard really know about the internal condition of a transmission that comes into their possession? What are the odds of "Oh yeah, I know the lady that had this car. She only drove to and from church and had the car serviced religiously at XYZ Honda dealership."
I've not bought a tranny (or much of anything else lately) at a salvage yard but if they're talking that $2500-$2700 for a pulled tranny from Jake's Auto Graveyard, I definitely thing they're putting you over the barrel and pulling your pants down. That rate sounds more appropriate for a remanufactured transmission from a 3rd party shop. Labor to R&R a transaxle on a late model FWD GM product is booked at around 7 hours exclusive of diagnostic testing.
Best you can hope for is one that might provide a warranty but even then, expect it to be short and likely only cover against DOA.
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