transmission shops

Check the better business bureau and ask around. Call several transmission shops and ask them to quote you a price over the phone. If it's a common transmission the shop should be able to give you a good ballpark price. I needed my transmission rebuilt and picked one based on their "jobs we've done before" and it turned out poorly. I would suspect the smaller stores that aren't part of a chain to be better than a chain store. I went to a local chain store which was probably the worst move I'd ever made. Not only did they not fix my transmission properly, they charged me extra for the "extras" they installed. I fixed the problems myself and the transmission is fine now but it took a lot of my time and more of my money to do so. Good luck. I'd ask your friends if they've had any service done to their transmissions and if they have, if they liked where they went. That's your best bet, usually.

-Bruce

Or visit a few _small_ shops, avoid any chain. Go with the guy who spends a lot of time driving your car and then hemming and hawing over the possible issues in the tranny. He should seem like he does not really want to sell you a new tranny.

|I'm trying to be careful about choosing a transmission shop but I have |no experience with this. Any advice you can shed upon me ?

I had one rebuilt last year. Went to an independent recommended by a coworker. They quoted me $550, so I left the truck there. 2 days later I get the diagnosis: Transmission is junk inside, needs everything. They showed me a disembowelled transmission with worn and scored surfaces. It was alleged to be mine, but who knows?

- Quote was for "if it doesn't need any hard parts". Trust me, if it has failed, and/or it has over 100K miles on it, it needs hard parts.

- Three choices $2500 all new parts $2100 some new, some rebuilt $1700 used & reman parts

I opted for the latter, feeling very used.

What I learned - the hard way - is that transmission rebuilding is the last of the great profit centers for mechanics. Someone with godd to above average mechanical aptitude can take $200 worth of new and used parts and parley that into a 2-day job and make $1500 minimum.

If I had it to do over, I'll probably do one of these alternatives:

Buy a used transmission and rebuild it myself at my liesure. Order a beefed-up reman unit from a specialist Buy a good used unit from a salvage car.

Pay someone to R&R it for $100.

Good luck

Rex in Fort Worth

Get a good remanuafctured unit (like a Jasper) and have it installed, or take it to an ATRA member and have them rebuild it.

Last time I had transmission trouble I took it to the dealer and had them rebuild it. It took one week and cost $1150. The transmission never gave me trouble again. That was in 1992 on an Escort GT, and I kept the car for another 80,000 miles after the rebuild. I know most transmissions cost way more than that now, that one was a plain 3 speed automatic. Most automatics now have 4 speeds and a lockup torque converter, etc.

ATRA doesn't mean that they do quality work. I agree that it's better that they have it but it's no guarantee by a long shot.

-Bruce

I've been looking for a place to go through my 440T4 in my Reatta...Nothing wrong with it, but it has 142000 miles on it and I want to restore. My tradition shop of choice, Just Transmissions, in Houston appears to have gone out of business. I looked up some of the ATRA places and found that some have BBB records with a lot of complaints, most of which they made attempts to settle. Still, other ATRA shops had very good records.

Found a Houston Automatic Transmission Service which shows NO complaints. Found another with a similar name but in a different part of town that BBB says flatly is a dishonest operation.

You really have to be careful.