Ok First post here but since I have seen several other post with the same problem I thought I would share this.
I just purchased a 99 1500 slt 5.9 auto. It intermitantly missed 3rd gear and I had to drop it in nutral or let off the gass for it to shift. This should sound familiar to several people. I went to a dealer and called 3 other dealers all said the same thing.....$139 for a service with a band adjustment or rougly $3500 for a 3 year/36000 mile remanufactured tranny [].
I then went to the aamco just up the street . They said drop it off and they would look at it for $39 and if it needed a repair the $39 would be aplied to the bill. They called 2 hours later electricaly the tranny was good but there was no third gear they explained to me it was never going into 3rd at all. I requested they try the band adjustment the manager objected but said he would give it a shot any way. 3 hours later he called me back when they droped the pan there was alot of material in the pan and he said it looked as if there had never been a service done on the tranny ever. He did the band adjustment and sure enough no 3rd gear still. Rebuild in progress bottom line. He said this might have been avoided had sombody serviced the tranny every 20000 as recomended. And if any of you think this guy has set me up or lied or just tried to sell me a rebuild your wrong he has been a friend of mine for over 30 years .
Which leads to this........I have always hated tranny shops as they have almost always tried to sell me a rebuild even if all I needed was a new stall converter. Its so easy for them to say you need a rebuild even if you dont.

 

What's your point? Be a 30+ year friend to a service manager at a tranny shop? We don't all have that luxury.

 

My point is I have seen alot of similar post depicting the same problem with out any or little follow up. IMO tranny shops are a rip off they some times sell you a rebuild even if you do not need one. The fact that I have a friend thatmanages a shop just means I know I am not going to get ripped.

 

i think a rebuild is the safest route thats why many shops tell you a rebuild. I'm sure they could isolate the problem and say you just need this and that but then something else would go like 2K later and then you'd be up their *** for it. Rebuilds insure that everything is gone over so it doesn't fail. Too bad they usually cost so much

 

3500.00 for a remanufactured tranny is like way to much, I had one custom built with some pretty sweet options, shipped to my door for 2600.00 by PATC, I would do some checking.

 

mattygeI agree with you on the bassis that if enough things are wrong you should go ahead and rebuild or if you have to take it all the way apart any way to get to the one thing that is bad. However if its just a bad valve body or torque converter then just sell that part and dont rip folks off. And just for fun but if your water pump is bad do you rebuild the motor?