For those who remember my thread about 1 month ago my truck kept throwing the "ATF overheating light". It would stay on for about 60-120 seconds and then would go off. The light typically came on during slow acceleration or medium traffic.

Well, I had a shop drop the pan, change the filters, fill the pan, and put it back together. The light was gone for about 2 weeks. Then it came on once and didn't show itself for another 2 weeks. Today...

it came on before I even got out of the parking garage where I work. It stayed on the whole time I was doing surface street driving. When the light turns on the tranny just turns into a horrible contraption shifting horribly, almost sounding/feeling like it's slipping, rough shifts, etc.

So...at this point, what do I do. The shop I took it to wanted to drop the tranny and see what's broken in there (they weren't sure but said the "valve" did look as if it had boiled over indicating the fluid was hot or there is a leak somewhere??). Problem is...they wanted $1400 to LOOK at it. That's without purchasing any parts...what do I do about this? I don't want to get rid of this truck (it's perfect aside from this pesky problem).

Thanks in advance OT!

 

Taking apart the tranny is certainly time consuming. It took me a couple of months to build up mine. You can buy low mileage transmissions from Elmer Auto Salvage, that is where I bought the one I have now.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/AUTO-...Q5fAccessories

 

wow thats a heck of a price for a tranny!! Less than $500!

 

Mine was only 500 shipped with stupid low miles on it, lol.

 

sry for the delayed response. Thanks for the info, Blown. So instead of "troubleshooting" the tranny by taking it apart seeing what's busted, etc....just wait until it falls apart and replace the whole thing? from a cost perspective what you're saying makes some cents (pun intended), but it seems odd to just "throw away" a transmission that can most likely be saved, no?

 

Well you if you buy the one from the salvage yard, drop the pan and change the filters and reinstall it you will only be out $500. Then you can sell the old one to a shop that rebuilds them. If I wasn't on my way to Hawaii I would rebuild the old one for you.

All I'm saying is why spend $1,400 to see whats wrong and probably another 1k or so to fix it. I'm thinking you would be out around $2,500 or so to fix the tranny you have now. Why do that when you can get a low mileage tranny and install it yourself for around $500?

 

That is a very good point you have sir! lol

 

I have no means to.install one myself but for $500 for the tranny...and paying a shop maybe $200-300 to install it...that's still cheaper.
and then, like blown said, you have the original you can resell to make some money back.....

 

oh and i see your from Arizona, do no buy from Midwest transmission distributors (they are out of az). please stay away from them.

 

thanks for the tips blown and everybody. if I was to buy a salvaged tranny and have a shop install it, what type of a shop am I looking for?

on another note, to make lemonade out of lemons, what types of upgrades are good to go along with a new tranny? if I can have a new (salvaged) tranny with under 25k on it installed for sub $1k, I already feel like i'm winning :-)