I was all excited and thrilled and relived to have my dear max back. Man I love that car... I had the new auto tranny in since sunday, two days ago. She spun like a cat - for 160 km.

I went back to the garage to clean the place up. It's like 20 km from my home, and when I got there I turned off the stereo and immediatly heard a rattling noise. Like a bolt was loose inside the tranny turbine, hitting the flywheel or something. It didn't accelerate much when reving so I thought that couldn't be it. Anyway. I was just about to drive into the garage to see what was wrong when I noticed I'd lost drift by approximatly 90%.

After a couple of minutes I had no drift what so ever. There I stood. The car wouldn't move one inch. I checked the oil level again, like I've done like crazy these past few days just to be sure. Level was fine... although the color of the oil was a bit on the dark side, some strings of black was in there.

So I poured the oil into a pan and checked it. On the bottom of the pan there was a white substance that felt just like sand to the fingers. Great! That was the lamellas. ****ing hell.

Now, I've spent a bit over $300 on the tranny kit, and $570 on the job itself, hiring a service guy to do it. And still I have a broken down tranny and a max that obviously won't move at all. ****.

My guess is this guy who assembled it did something wrong. Is there anything that would cause the lamellas to burn within such short use? Any immediate assembly error or a spring or pressure or whatever? Please guys you have like 500 years more experience than anyone in this godforsaken country when it comes to this car... give me your thoughts, I'd really appriciate it.

Now, I'm pouring myself a whiskey and a beer to drink away my sorrows.

Thanks,
/Daniel

 

Hopefully you got it done at a shop. If possible you can get a replacement. The only thing I can think of is the mechanic not removing all of the debris that caused the first one to die and a chunk got caught between the turbines that caused them to hit each other.

 

yeah, did he flush the cooler?
but this sucks.

 

Big time.

No he didn't flush the cooler since I only turned in the tranny itself, not the whole car. I did the mount unmount myself. Could that be the problem?

 

yeah, if there was shavings in the cooler or the cooler was/is plugged. it'll the trans in a heartbeat

 

read your thread a couple days ago about getting it back. that sucks man, get the shop or mechanic to fix it. i hope there's a warranty..

 

Okay... but it looks to me as though the pressure on the lamellas was too high or too low so they've burnt. Could that still be caused by this?

I noticed it was kinda hot. The tranny I mean. I couldn't keep my hand on it for more than a second. Is that normal or is that an indication that the cooler is plugged?

And, how do you flush the cooler?

I don't even have a receipt for the job. He said he'd leave warranty on the job but nothings for sure when you pay 'under the table'. I'm gonna try to get my money back and do the job myself instead. It can't be that difficult. I have all the time in the world so wtf.

internetautomart: I'd surely need another master kit. And while I'm at it, also change any other stuff that might be replaceble, are there? I don't mind if it costs the double this time as long as it makes it better. Are there any valves or anything that you can replace? I want it to work PERFECTLY when assembled.

 

yeah thanks man... actually I don't trust anyone other than myself with just about anything so I'll rather do all the work myself this time.

 

I talked to the guy who fixed the tranny and he's forthcoming, thankfully. He said he'll come to my garage to help me fix it. He thought it could be the oil pump that's gone bad (because of the noise before it died).

He wants to blame me for the faulty pump as well. He said if I put the tranny together incorrectly (by not hooking the heels on the turbine into the inside of the tranny where the oil pump is) I could have put pressure on it so that it would have worked for awhile, but sooner or later the pump will eat it's way through it's seating and destroy the surroundings.

Well I don't know what to think anymore. Maybe it was my fault. I don't know. All I know is that I'm seriously disappointed and sad because this means I have double the work ahead. All I can think of is my planned car vacation this summer that seems awful distant...

 

Damn dude that sucks . And the guy is blaming you ... awful .

I understand you , i spend a whole week on my Lumina in March to get it workin ( 3.4 dohc GM , ***** to work on ) Bad coil and timing belt , just to get the whole job ruined by the tensioner who passed away ... i changed my car , afraid to get the job done on a 316000 km car . Anyway , you love your car , and this guy is helping you out , just get this warranty you should have for the work man ... hope it will work for you , good luck

 

Again.......another rebuilt failed tranny story. I still don't understand why most of you insist on rebuild's. I've had my used tranny purchased and installed 15K miles ago and the car is still running strong, despite me racing it all the time. When you're ready, hit me up and i'll give you the number to the place where I bought my tranny.

 

thanks but shipping costs to sweden would probably be so high that I could order a new tranny from the dealer. besides, a rebuilt tranny should be as good as a new one. almost anyway.

 

Thanks man... peace.

 

Yeah, I guess you're right. but right now, You'r 900$ in the hole and "supposedly" the guy is going to give you a warranty. For $500 you could've been the owner of a used tranny and i wanna say about $400 shipping and handling to Sweden. Once you receive the tranny, I'm assuming your local mechanic can do the install for about $300?. It would be a little more expensive, but all that xtra money you're spending on booze to drown you're sorrows could've been put toward your used Tranny.

 

I do all work with the installation myself so I would have saved that $300. But still... I bought a used tranny from a scrapyard last november but that one was even worse than the old one. Bad experience with used parts...

No, I want either a new or one as-good-as new tranny just to be sure I won't have any more problems with it. Now, if this service guy is right this last problem doesnät have anything to do with the first one. Suppose he's right I have to replace the oil pump, and I already have one on the shelf so that'll only be about $50 labor extra. He does give me warranty, he said it himself just an hour ago. And actually he's very forthcoming so I don't have to bring the tranny to him this time, he's coming to my garage.

I'll take the tranny down on friday night and have it ready for him to take a look at on saturday. Hopefully I'll have the car running by sunday, if he's right about this... and if he is I'm more than happy to pay him even a $100 extra, as long as it works.

I'm no quitter so I will certainly not give in to this problem, how annoying and disappointing it may be. This ****ing thing is gonna run again dammit! And that's it!

While I'm at it I'm gonna do a cooler flush (someone please instruct me!) and make sure I do everything by the book. Or by the FSM to be precise.

 

If you want, I can e-mail you the instructions from the FSM on how to do it.

 

Oh if the manual tells it I'm fine, I have the FSM. Printed actually Double sided, 1600 pages

Didn't think it would be covered by the manual though, thanks for the enlightment!

 

if you installed the TC incorrectly you wouldn't be able to bolt the tranny to the engine.

after a rebuild the stock cooler is usually bypassed and a new aftermarket is used in it's place because the stock cooler will never totally flush out completely.

it does sound like the cooler was pretty much plugged up and it moved a lot of sediments into the new tranny.

 

since you have no idea what condition the used tranny is in...it's really a gamble on what you get. sure the yard might give you a warranty...but you usually have to shell out the $ for labor 2X.

 

1. if you need another kit, let me know, I can ship it for a bit less. oh and this time it will be marked as a defect exchange package
2. see if any part store around you sells a product called "Kooler Klean" it used to be called "Kooler Doushe" it's to flush all that **** out of the kooler.
3. if the pump failed well obviously you'll need to replace it, but who's fault it is

 

Well obviously I didn't know everything I should have known about rebuilding the tranny so I guees I'm to blame at least for a part of it. But what I really do think is that this service guy should have known and told me what to think of.

Still, that's the way it is. We'll see what's wrong this weekend when I take the tranny down again. I'll keep this thread updated.

 

Thanks, I sure will order from you since this damn kit costs about the double around here, that is if you even CAN get hold of one.

 

oh, I can get another one. that's no issue, time on the other hand......

 

oh sorry misunderstanding...

I meant these kits are expensive as hell here in sweden, that's if one could even find a kit here. not too sure about that.

well wtf... time isn't a problem. if I've waited like 4 months already I don't mind waiting one more.

 

Ok, I'm gonna try to describe this the best way I can.

I went out to the garage this morning and took the tranny down - again. The service guy (Ted) came out and had a look at it. We took it apart and looked at the oil pump (as he said he thought it would be) and well, he was right. The housing on the inner side of the shell half closest to the engine was shredded to ****. I mean the aluminium was scratched so hard there was like 4mm scratches in it. The oil pump fan wings were all damaged and well... almost everything was dust and pieces.

One thing is really strange though. If I managed to mount the tranny incorrectly (despite the fact I cannot even remotely imagine it would work), how come the damage are mainly on the INSIDE of the shell, when a pressure caused from the motor end would cause damage on opposite side? It's difficult to describe how it looks so I'll take some pictures of it and post it someday.

And one more thing. When we opened the shell so that we could see the oil pump back side I noticed the hex bolts were damaged as if someone had slipped when trying to unscrew them, damaging the bolt heads. Now, the only one that has ever been inside that tranny is Ted.

Putting all the bits and pieces together I'd say the bastard don't know **** of what he's doing. I won't ever trust that guy again I tell ya that.

Anyways. I had another tranny there so we replaced the damaged oil pump and shell half from that one and bolted it on the rebuilt one. There was some metal chips spread in the tranny so I tried to get as much out as I could but (again showing lack of common sense) Ted said that was no need, they'd all go to the bottom and stay there, and if I'd do a flush it'll all come out. I didn't listen much to that so I tried to get at least the visible out.

Well we put it all together again and then I mounted the tranny onto it's place. I was VERY VERY careful to get it right, so it actually took me about 6 hours to get done. When finished I poured oil into it, started the car for just a couple of minutes then drained the oil. It looked a bit black still. When moving it around I could see black traces of worn metal in it. Very sceptic I filled her up once again and checked oil level / filled / checked... blablabla the usual until I was completely satisfied. But still... and this is the fun part...

IT STILL ****ING SPINS ON ALL GEARS. ****. ****ING ****.

I'm just about as tired as you could ever get on this damn tranny bastard... I ****ing hate it. Why won't the bastard just work??

So of course the obvious response is:
Oh, I have to take the crap down again, take the thing apart, clean the whole **** out, replace the recently purchased master kit with another one, put the thing together and then HOPE the **** will hold up. It's so fun!

I don't have either the money or the time or the energy to do this now so I'll take a break for a couple of weeks / months. Maybe I'll even try a 5 speed swap instead. Damn auto.

 

Sorry to hear about the sad facts of your great scandic auto matic... U now have two boxes: carry them to a autotrannyshop and betala bara 2500kronor ? to get a warranted box. Or start online odyssey for japanese gearbox. Also you can find 80.000km ("like new") max from germany starting from 800Euros, so maybe go get one of those.

As for reasons behind, I would suspect your former mechanic skills. (Still, pour that mixture into u max to keep u head working for the taxes. Might clean injectors?)

 

Hey... well this time I paid the guy 4000SEK + parts (3000) and that was still 'tax free'. From what I've heard (checking over 10 shops) the least I'd get away with is 15000SEK. Apparently no one will ever guarantee anything otherwise, as if they know there's gonna be problems.

My preliminary plan is to get a spare parts car, a manual one, and do a 5 speed swap. That's probably the most cost effective thing to do. I've seen some cars for around 6000SEK and that would give me not just the tranny but the whole car which would be great as there are other stuff that needs changing as well, mostly due to rust.

But I'm gonna be back, you be sure about that!

 

Dam!!!!!! And I thought I had problems. Good luck with whatever solution you pursue next. How long does it take you to pull the tranny? I'm debating whether to take it to a shop or droo it myself. You must have it down to a science by now.

 

It takes about 2 hours (less second, third and fourth time) to take it down, and about 4 hours to get it back up again. That's kinda slow though, you could do it faster but I prefer taking it slow n easy so no miostakes are being made (which btw seems more easier than you ever can imagine).

Well lets say I know down to the last bolt what size they are, what tools are needed and in what order to do things. Basically just start with the drive axels then hold the tranny up with an overhead crane while losening all the bolts to the turbine and the 4 holds (2 fastened to the engine, 2 in the chassis), and disconnect all electricals. Now all you need to do is lower it under the car and drag it away. That's the easy part (sounds easy doesn't it? well it's more to it than it seems).

The hard part is getting it back up. You'll go crazy about a zillion times, cut yourself, hurt yourself and terrorise your fingers at least a hundred times, invent 20 new ways of saying '****ing sonofa***** you ****ty damn piece of ****', and go nuts about 2 more times before you're done. And when you're all done and test the car you'll notice that the car still slips, or it will work perfectly for a couple of days then start to slip. Or it will make loud noises and sound like it's gonna explode. Then it will die again.

So take my word for it... you'll be better off letting some other poor shmuck do it.

And I'm not being ironic. At all.

 

I just spoke to Ted (the service guy) again and he's supprised it didn't work. (no **** sherlock??) He guessed it could be some metal chips or pieces that could have come into a pressure piston and made it lock in open position, therefore losing oil pressure. He said there's a posibility to try them with air pressure to see if they work alright.

Meanwhile I've borrowed a 1987 Ford Escort 1,6 that I'm gonna use until this is resolved. If it'll be resolved that is.

 

at this point it really does sound like the tranny is totally done. it'll probably require a total tear down. check that input shaft because that might be a little work from all the hard pump grinding.

the guy is right that it might be something stuck in the valve body causing a fluid/pressure problem. total PITA to clean that out and put back together.

actually on second thought...what the he11 happened to the filter? that should've kept some of the VB area clean or at least free from foreign objects.

 

Phasta:

I started reading your long followup and must tell you, before reading about the inside of the oil pump and damaged bolts I said to myself (or even screamed internally): man, your luck, cause it was the mech who screwed it, not you. Then I read about the bolts and your thoughts of that Ted fella... well, my experince tells me that your time and money are gone for good and your best bet would be a 5 speed swap or buying another auto. You have no clue and no way of finding out what else is damaged or stuck in your existing one.

 

actually I was thinking in the same direction... the input shaft felt a bit hard to move, compared to what it did before. hell, the whole turbine felt a bit harder to spin by hand this time, but that could be just me as well... no idea.

you think I should move the once mounted master kit that's in this tranny over to the other one and try that?

don't know about the filter... it was replaced as well but I guess it takes a bit of time for the oil to go through it and cleanse the stuff out. or if there's a valve issue the oil might not even pass through the 'normal' way?

I'll bring that d@mn camera next time and get some pictures... maybe you guys will see something I don't.

 

yeah... I know

we'll see what happens.

 

since it's such a PITA to tear it down and put it back in again...i would just get a new kit in the better tranny. you should be able to spin the input shaft by hand...make sure the spines are not worn down.

there's a main filter on the tranny itself...then there's (i believe) 2 small screens in the valve body itself. check the main filter and magnet..make sure it's all clear. it wouldn't hurt to clean out the VB with some brake cleaner and see if you find a lot of grit and shavings coming out of it. if it's pretty clean then you might be ok.

 

I definitely agree with the logic of letting a shop do it. I want someone I can hold accountable and ***** at if something goes wrong. An unhappy customer in a relatively small area is bad for their business and for their brakelines!!
(kidding)

 

hehehe be careful, someone might read what you're saying and do the work for you, leaving you to take the blame...

 

Yeah thanks, I'll tear it apart and redo the whole thing in my own time. This time I want to be sure it's done right. I'll probably get a new kit as well...