Transmission Education

If I hadn't just recently experienced this myself I wouldn't believe
it!
Last Tues. evening my son called on his way home, a 20 min. drive, &
said his 2002 Neon SXT automatic was making a whining noise & seemed
to be slipping. He wasn't sure he'd make it home. Ten min. later he
called back & said he was stalled on the side of the road & come
rescue him. So I grabbed some transmission fluid & a rag then headed
out. He'd made it about 8-10 miles from work when the car would no
longer go any further. I checked the fluid & the level was fine & also
looked & smelled good. I managed to drive it a 1/4-mile or so off the
paved road when it gave out again. Whirring & winning ever so slightly
but wouldn't move. We had it towed to the dealer. The first diagnosis
was the torque converter, second was the pump after calling other
dealers & looking online for failure analysis. The dealer then
suggested a TRANSMISSION FLUSH saying that about 85% of the time this
works. Well it did.

Nowhere in any Internet groups, web pages or talking to a bunch
of people did anyone suggest something so simple & inexpensive.

Please share this with everyone who might be in a similar situation
thinking that they need a major trans. repair.

 

Before you declare victory, make sure it doesn't happen again within 100
miles or so. There's no reason on God's green earth that a HEALTHY
transmission would need a flush, or why a flush would "fix" a
transmission unless there's another very major problem lurking...

 

We had it towed to the dealer. The first diagnosis

My guess izzat the flush cleared the filter of restriction and wahlah the pump
could pump again. You may ask the dealer about that 85% fix rate. I would be
courious how that got established.
Respectfully submitted,

Loren Knighton
Woodland, CA.

Under the hood since 1964
Member TRNI IATN
http://www.lubegard.com/automotive/trans_atf.html
http://www.longmfg.com/web/longwebframework.nsf/home/web.trucool

 

I don't know about the tranny in the Neon, but we had similar trouble
with one of our minivans. New fluid fixed it. This is a transmission
that is very sensitive to the fluid condition.

 

Well it lasted less than 100 miles. Now they want to replace the trans &
can't find a rebuilt. $3500.00!!

....the saga continues!

 

That isn't surprising as a transmission flush will not fix a
transmission that is seriously broken. Aren't there any good
transmission shops in your area that can rebuild your current transmission?


Matt

 

Absolutely ridiculous. Stop *NOW*, and get the car away from whatever scam
artist has possession at the moment. Rebuilding that transmission
including R&R ought to cost you half of what's been quoted, tops. Even
assuming the present transmission cannot be rebuilt because it is severely
damaged, a used transmission can be purchased and installed (or rebuilt
and installed, as appropriate).

Let's get on www.car-part.com (searchable used auto parts nationwide) and
have a look, shall we?

*cleek* 2002
*cleek* Dodge Neon
*cleek* Transmission
*cleek* Georgia
*cleek* search
*cleek* A.T. (4spd)
*cleek* search

Why, lookit there...twelve used transmissions, one with only 5k miles on
it for 750 whole dollars.

Guess your dealer(?) couldn't find one because he didn't look.

 

"Daniel J. Stern" <[email protected]>

They can be notoriously myopic.

My beef is when they get willfully stupid not only when the
dealer-approved fix is outrageously expensive but when the overpriced
or underspecified factory part is a long way away thus putting you out
of the car for days or worse. (I expect them to make money....someone
is getting rich in the auto repair business, I realize it isn't always
the mechanics-of course they like to buy Snap-On male jewelry at
outrageous prices often even when they don't need it...)I had a Brand
F RWD sedan that was just OOW and developed a leaky thermostat
housing. This is a little trivial part that is an absolute c*******er
to get to based on the location of the alternator, distributor, and
the lower intake manifold casting itself. (Putting me largely off
Brand F even though this engine is actually excellent.) The leak
occured in a small-to-middling college town.
I had no tools with me plus I had several injuries from an accident
leaving me just able to drive, sore as hell, and had to get home as a
family member was about to die.
So I went to the dealer...

No they didn't have one, and it had to be sent in, and we were
looking at four days.

Four days for a common part for one of the most common engines in the
country??

Yep.

This is, like, 11:30 in the morning. Couldn't they, if I paid the
shipping, have one FedExed in overnight?

Well, no.

Why not?

Well, because.

Don't the local parts places have one of these maybe? No, it's a
dealer part only.

I decided, just for the hell of it, to walk literally across the
street to a chain auto parts place. Just for s***s and giggles. And to
relieve the boredom.

Of course they had one. Theirs was cast iron instead of aluminum,
said CHINA, and had an extra hole in the top. But, hey, it was ten
dollars, with gasket and a hex female cap screw for the hole in the
top. (The F*** part was $70!) I bought it, and the clerk put the
capscrew in with some sealing goop and said to let it dry an hour or
so before installing.

So around one in the afternoon, I walked up to the service writer
with thermostat housing in hand.

Nope. No, they would not install a customer part.

Why not?

We are not in the business of installing our competitor's parts,
plus, we can't warranty it.

Welll...How about if I paid for the F*** part and brought the car
back for you to put it in, later,so I can get home?

No.

So...Okay, I'll have to do it myself.

Not on our property you won't.

Sooo...I called AAA and explained the situation. While they ruminated
I called the parts place from the showroom courtesy phone and
explained the situation. The guy said he gets off at 4 and he'd help
me get the car to their parking lot where I could swap it out if I had
tools. Told me I'd need to pull the distributor and swing the
alternator out and probably would need a wobble socket. He had limited
tools for sale and told me they frankly were overpriced-but Mr. Mac
Tool lived within walking distance. I called him and told him what I
needed and told him I'd buy cash all the tools I needed if I could get
just what the job required. He said he'd be home at 6 and if I could
wait he'd be over.

Bottom line, me, the parts guy and the Mac tool guy (for whom the
dealership was off his route so he technically couldn't sell to) got
the job done in 45 minutes and I bought about $90 worth of stuff from
him...plus a $50 ratchet as a gift to the parts guy. I was home at
2:30 that morning and my aunt died twelve hours later. She was
comatose so it wasn't as if I missed her final words or anything, but
my mother took it a little hard so, no thanks to that dealer, I was
glad I was there.

 

If I hadn't just recently experienced this myself I wouldn't believe

Well we got a used transmission with 4000 miles for $600.00 & had the
dealer, Claxton Chrysler, install it. They had the car for 2 weeks!
$135.00 labor @ $24.55/hr. & $60.00 for what they say was 3 gallons of
fluid at their cost. The dealer was "WORKING" with us on the parts &
labor due to the fact that it was out of warranty, 2nd owner, non
transferable warranty because of build date. They still have the
original & are going to disassemble & diagnose it to find out what
failed.

 

I am somewhat surprised to see a transmission fail on a Neon that is
only two years old. How many miles were on the original transmission?
I got 110,000 miles on the 3 speed transmission in my 1990 Spirit
beforre it failed due worn out thrust washer.

-Kirk Matheson

 

The Neon 3-speed auto was "cost-reduced" in a number of key areas compared
to the earlier version used in your Spirit.

 

The Neon had 56,000 on it when it "FAILED"

We had a 1990 Shadow that went 75,000 before any trans problems.