Goldfever said:
Any suggestions on what type of shop to bring it to?
Someone who doesn't do transmission rebuilds, so they will have no incentive to BS you. Find a competent mechanic...local gas station, etc. Now I feel I have to regale you with transmission stories. For those of you that don't like me, stop reading here.
#1 My friend buy an old cop car ('82 St. Regis, for Accumulator's benefit), and the trans blows. He brings it to a trans shop that does a good job. I am working on my car, so I borrow my mother's old wagon, while I have it, I decide to check the fluid, it's pitch black. Since I'm already working on one car, and I need this one to get to work, I decide to go to this "reputable" trans shop that fixed my friend's car and have him change the fluid. Mind you, the car has only about 50,000 miles on it, which was more than 50,000 miles is today, but still. So he puts it on the lift, drops the pan, and then tells me he can't change the fluid. Why? Because this transmission is burned, it's got varnish in it, if he changes the fluid the detergent in the new fluid will clean the varnish, and all my clearances will go to hell--I won't even make it home, I need a rebuild. I tell him I can't leave the car, I borrowed it as it is, I have to get to work, so I talk him into putting the old fluid back in, since he won't put any new fluid in. He goes around the corner and comes back with a tin jug and pours the fluid in, and back into the car, after putting the pan back on, of course.
So all I can think about is what gunk was in his drain pan, and if he put a handful of sand in the tin jug while he was out of sight. So I went from a trans that worked fine, but had black fluid, to I don't know what. From not wanting to have to crawl under the car and drop the pan, I now go to the supermarket and get some crappy recycled trans fluid. Then I go to the auto parts store and get a filter kit and some good trans fluid. I drop the pan, drain the fluid, wipe it out, put the pan back up, fill up with the crappy fluid. Drive around for a while, come back, drop the pan, put the new filter in, put the good fluid in...that trans went for the rest of the time my mother had the car and then she sold it to my brother...still fine the whole time he had it.
#2 I had a (GM but I'm too embarrassed to mention it) with a manual transaxle, that I bought when it was 3 years old, 37K miles or so, and the trans is leaking fluid out of the split case. I find a trans shop around the corner from work, ask them to fix it. They call me in, they have the trans out of the car, they want to show me the diff gears, which have teeth missing. The owner of the shop figures the guy before me ran it dry...so I have to pay tons to get the diff changed. The guy seems pretty honest, so I bring him my other car with the TH-350 to change the fluid, just as a maintenance thing. While it's up on the lift with his guys working on it, the owner strolls over and looks up in the trans, then he comes over to me in the waiting room, and tells me the trans is "getting a little tired". So, it's my second car, I don't drive it much, so a few years later, the trans is not shifting right when it's cold out and the car is cold. I don't have much hope, but I decide to drop the pan to see what's going on. So instead of the white celluose dense filter that GM uses, what do I see? A coarse screen, like on a Ford, and I'm *** is this doing in here? Once again to the store for a filter kit, put the right filter in, and after some miles to filter out the grit, the trans started working like it should again. Obviously the shop owner planned for me to come to him for a trans repair, that's why he put an improper filter in (trans shop special--screen to fit a GM where there should be a paper filter?--or maybe it was a racing filter) and then planted the seed with me that my trans was tired to make me think he was a genius who could predict trans failures--what an a-hole.
Moral of the story? NEVER trust transmission shops.
PS GM started putting a magnet in the bottom of the trans pans about 20 years ago, make sure yours is still there (they are like those flat flexible refrig magnets, so they can come out) and if not make sure whoever services it puts one in.
