well i took the car in to aamco because it is slipping pretty bad in first gear. they did the free electronic diagnostics and nothing came up. this leaves me with no choice but to have the tranny pulled and looked at. i got a quote for a soft parts overhaul of $1,313.00. it doesnt sound like i would need a torque converter but if so its another $379.00. anyways just wondering if anyone has dealt wtih them or knows of a good place in austin, texas that could do it cheaper. by the way i just had the fluids changed and they said they looked good but it apeared it had been burnt before the change.

 

1. Locate a used 4th Gen auto tranny from www.car-parts.com, or PM THT - he has one lying about.
2. Just pay a shop to swap it out.

Done. Like most auto chain stores, each one varies drastically in competency - AAMCO is no different.

 

How do they electronically test the tranny??

 

Plug it into an outlet. If it spins something is terribly wrong.

 

Watch out for thier crappy warranty, 90 days on my 5spd.

 

Stay far far away from them.

 

aamco is a nightmare!!!!...do not deal with them...

 

Ok here's my story. My tranny was rebuilt by aamco and has been vibrating ever since, so I brought it back and they were plugging computers into it saying stuff like "it might be the iacv motor hmmm. Those are $$$." OH! To top it all off before they did the work the guy said we only use oem clutches, so I was like Ok GOOD! Then when I brought it back the mechanic who went for the test drive was like "yeah Luke clutches are really good, we only use Luke clutches." So needless to say I got my car the hell away from there and have been putting up with it.

 

now a days for the cost of a rebuild you can buy another low milage tranmission for same price or even cheaper.

 

well now i dont know what to do. i called nissan and asked them what they do. they said they just call the junkyard and buy a used one and throw it in. my 95 max has 97,000 miles on it and i dont want a tranny with more miles than my car has, who knows it could have problems too. i guess i will stay away from aamco but i need to get this fixed. maybe i'll find a low mileage tranny and just have it swapped. any tips on doing this, meaning making sure i am getting a good replacement. glad i asked before taking it in though.

 

quick question.. what year models tranny will fit in my 95 gxe.

 

all 95-99. Get a low milage and toss it in, get a later year like 98

 

if you know anything about a transmission, you aren't allowed to work at aamco.

 

I had mine rebuilt at a Cottman transmission here in NJ for about $1500. It came with a one year unlimited mile warranty which I thought was pretty good. There's a couple of places about 45 minutes away from me that advertise $250 to replace a tranny. So if you bought a junkyard tranny you might be able to do it pretty cheap.

 

$250 is a decent price to put in a new tranny, or you could pay an org member and get it done faster, and by some one who knows our cars specifically. I'm sure an org member somewhere would do it for half that, plus do the work in about 3-4 hrs vs a shop where you will most likely have to drop it off and come back in a few days, or a week.

 

I hate AAMCO transmissions they ripped me off real bad. They charged $3500 for a rebuilt auto tranny, I was really pissed about the price. If I were you I would go some where else.

 

Odd... my old car was a 93 Maxima SE auto and I was able to drive it 150K before any real signs of slipping. I drove that damn thing hard too. I'm hoping for the same results on my current 99 Maxima SE-L. I'll keep my fingers crossed...

 

Stay away from AAMCO - i went there just to have my transmission diagnosed (5spd with bearing whine) the head mechanic calls me back and says that I need to replace my "clutch-packs" along with a bunch of other parts that 5spd transmissions don't have - the guy is a complete idiot and I think a pretty good representation of AAMCO as a whole.

 

Please stay away from Aamco. They screwed up my girlfriends gen3 max when she had it. Don't say might. Tell us you won't go.

 

I'd like to give my .02 on this. No flames please. Just trying to help.

I owned an AAMCO franchise in the past but have sold it. I also spent over 17 years diagnosing, installing and rebuilding trannys myself. I'll tell you I'm pretty damn good at what I do.

Now for the reality.

Bear this in mind. The automatic transmission in your vehicle is by far the most complicated thing under the hood. Good tranny guys exist but winning the lotto is easier to do than finding a good guy to take your car to.

Like someone said earlier, franchises are all going to be different in how they treat you, pricing, service, etc. Very true words.

Transmission repair costs are IMPOSSIBLE to determine until you have the unit out of the car and apart. Period. Anyone who tells you anything else doesn't know what he's talking about. Estimates based on historical data is helpful but unless you've got someone working there with x-ray vision, you just can't give an accurate price before you pull it.

You can of course, quote the labor charge. We know what that is. But parts are an unknown. The price range can run from absolutely no cost all the way up to 4k. More on foreign vehicles especially the exotics.

A good electronics guy is the absolute requirement. You wouldn't believe how many tranny problems are electronic components and transmission repairs are not needed. If the shop where you are does not have a full time electronics guy, it's time to go.

So how are you going to find a good shop? It ain't easy but here's some pointers:

Look for a shop that has been around and owned by the same people over a long period of time. 5 years minimum. Once you find one, go down and talk to the service manager in person. Don't bother calling on the phone. Size him up. Ask him what his procedure is. If he tries to hard sell you, run (don't walk). If they tell you they instantly know what the problem is, they haven't looked at the car and the price is 2k, run away.

What you want is for someone to take the time to actually check out the car by the book. There's several aspects of this and it takes time to do it right. Some shops will do it for nothing but those guys are just trying to get you in the door (most of the time). Expect to pay for an hours labor for a diagnosis that will actually take closer to 2 hours if done properly.

Here's the kicker. Ask them for a couple of recent references. If they don't have anything to hide, they'll give them to you. If they try and BS you, walk away.

Don't waste your time going to a new car dealership. They are replacement transmission kind of guys and diagnosing is usually not in their vocabulary.

Chains like AAMCO can be good because of the nation wide warranty. You can get a lifetime warranty if you like. Independents are good but they just can't offer the same warranty.

If you're more of a do it yourselfer and don't care so much about the warranty, I've had good luck with GreenLeaf. http://www.greenleafauto.com/

They will sell you units that are guarenteed and they deliver. They are all over the country and are reasonably priced. Their web site is pretty decent. I've never had any problems with any of their units.

However, I HAVE had problems when people ordered a tranny from them, installed them selves and then had the same problem when they got through. That's because the problem wasn't the tranny to begin with.

Got to have a good diagnosis. That's the bottom line.

If you're in the DFW or Waco area, I can point you in the right direction. Otherwise, you're on your own.

 

New here, but posted a few years ago, just let my membership lapse. I've been having problems with the tranny seals leaking. The car is about 11 yrs old and noticed a few drips in the driveway. Took it to my mechanic and said the seal needs to be replaced. It was replaced but continued dripping, said the pump seal needs to be replaced, there are obviously more than one . The part is cheap the labor is expensive. Any ideas on how long it would take to replace the seal so I know I'm not getting ripped?

 

I know this will sound silly but the first thing you have to do is establish the source of the leak. Might be tranny, engine, transaxle, radiator, etc. Are you sure you have a tranny leak? Lots of leaks get blamed on the tranny and sometimes the leak is coming from somewhere else.

These units have probably a dozen places where they can leak from. Cost to repair depends on whether or not the leak can be fixed in the car.

If the trans works good when it's full of fluid and you're planning on keeping the car, your best bet is to have someone pull the unit and reseal it completely. This prevents the "I fixed this leak now it's leaking over here scenario). Yes, the parts are relatively inexpensive. It's getting to them that's expensive. It wouldn't surprise me if shops are charging 6 hours labor to R&R and reseal. Multiply 6 times their hourly labor rate and you'll get the labor charge (assuming of course, 6 hours is what they're charging). Add $100 for parts and you won't be too far off.

You will most likely have a harder time finding a shop that will just reseal the unit. You'll probably have to press them a bit to do the reseal and will likely have to sign some papers saying that the only thing they are warranting is that the tranny is not leaking fluid. Reason being is that by the time people notice a tranny leak, it's usually een leaking for awhile. When fluid gets low, this is the first step in frying the unit. And then after people discover the leak, they tend to put fluid in it "only when it starts shifting funny" which of course is slowly tearing up the unit. If they never ran it low on fluid, theortically, you could drive the car a very long time without fixing it. Trans repair shops know that by the time you get around to bringing in the car to have a leak fixed, it's probably been leaking for quite awhile, you're done some damage and they don't want the liability of you coming back on them. That's why they don't like to reseal a unit only.

Best of luck to you.

 

Thanks for your response. The leak is definitely transmission fluid. It hasn't been leaking that long, noticed the spots in the concrete driveway so it's easy to spot. The shop is esitmating about 8 hours to put the new seal in. I don't know how many tranny seals there are. I had one replaced a few weeks ago when the leak first started.