Transmission reliability on long road trip

If you're on a long road trip in a 1993 Grand Caravan with 4-speed
automatic transmission, and the transmission goes bad and needs to be
rebuilt, what's the best solution? Should you go to a transmission
shop, or a Dodge dealer, or what? How much should you expect to pay?
How long should you expect to wait for the work to be done? How can
you be sure it will be done right?

 

Thats a tough question when in a strange town miles from home. I would
probably take it to the Dealer for the factory warranty. If you have AAA
towing they may recomend someone? with upgrades & rebuilding
$1500-$2,000 from independant Guessing $3,000 from dealer
93 model- Junk it and take a bus home where you can Buy another vehicle

 

You can't do anything other than hang a sign on the side of the vehicle
"for sale cheap" and take the bus home. If you get it fixed at a dealer
and something goes wrong when your back at home you could easily
end up in a finger pointing match and lose big time. It's a risk I wouldn't
take myself.

Ted

 

How do you figure that you can get in trouble with getting it done at the
dealer? If it was done at the dealer, It is covered by a one year warranty!
Good at all Chrysler dealerships! you'de be in trouble at an independent and
having something go wrong in another town!

 

I had a 1993 T & C and the transmission failed while I was out of
town. It was still under warranty, so I went to a dealer. They
rebuilt it. Cost me the driving time both ways (Home in the rental
car 300 miles, back to get the vehicle in the rental car)

The rebuild lasted just about 12,000 miles. The next dealer (the one
I bought it from) replaced it with a rebuilt transmission. Then he
did it again 20K miles later. This time it was out of warranty, but
Chrysler, because of the continuing problems, paid for half of this
one.

If it had not have been for the 7/70 they gave back then that vehicle
would have broken me.

Cost for that last one was just under $2K in 1998.

If I had a 1993 Chrysler mini van with a bad transmission today, I
would sell it for scrap and be looking for a new ride, the rebuild
will cost much more than the vehicle is worth.

I replaced the '93 with a '99 (yeah I know, why would you do that
after all that trouble with the '93, answer- wife thinks highly of it)
The good news is that it just pushed over130K miles with no
transmission issues. (looking for some wood to knock on as I type).

Frank

 

Because the dealerships don't actually "rebuild" them at all (at least
MOST don't). They swap in the most god-awful shoddily mass-rebuild
lowest-bidder junk that you can imagine. :-(

 

With a 93, you should be looking for that next transmission failure as your
signal to take it to the junkyard. If you're out of town, no problem.

If you were driving something worth fixing, then in addition to what's
already been suggested, you could sell it to a repairman, have it
towed/shipped home, or rent a box van and a trailer and pull it home
yourself. Those (including the junkyard) are about the only 4 options I can
think of other than fixing it. The overall best option financially is going
to depend on just where you are, and how much vacation you have left.

 

No it would not, depending on how many miles were on it and what
condition it was in. I just did this about 9 months ago with a 94 T&C.
Granted, I did the in-an-out and so saved some money that way, but
not that much more than if I had someone else do the in-and-out. And
the transmission has been fine ever since, and I drive it every day. We
also have a 95 T&C and if the trans went in that one I'd do the same
thing in a heartbeat. They may be minivans but they are one of the
few vehicles that I can drive for an hour and get out of and not feel
cramped and stiff with my back killing me.

If you get the transmission rebuilt by someone who knows what
they are doing with these transmissions, they last perfectly fine.
The key is finding someone who knows what they are doing.

Ted

 

I guess the people at the factory who built the original transmission
that failed in less than 30K didn't know what they were doing? In '93
there were problems. Lots of people going through the same thing on
OEM as well as rebuilts. I hear less about it these days and my own
experience is better as indicated below.

Hope you continue to get good service out of yours.

Frank

 

How about a pre-emptive strike???

Find a good trans shop before you leave town. Look around, they DO
exist. Have them read the computer codes from the tranmission
computer. This will also get data which tells them approximately what
the condition of the transmission is. If the trans looks like it might
be in bad shape, then have it rebuilt a month or two before you leave.

There is a shop not too far from where I live which will read the
codes for free. If they need to rebuild, then you are looking at $1800
CDN$ plus tax. This includes ALL labour, the re&re, the ATF+4
fluid.... Best deal around. And best of all, they are HIGHLY
recommended and respected. They are usually rebuilding 4 or 5 A604s on
any given day, and have a dedicated TEAM of mechanics that do nothting
else.

Preventive Maintenance is always best.

And to those who think a 93 or 94 van is crusher bait, well, that
depends. High mileage - maybe so. But remember....

The newer vans are smaller. The newer vans have the Big Brother option
in the computer that allows police and insurance companies to read the
computer information for things like the speed you were supposedly
going just before a crash. And last, but certainly not least, a new
van is going to cost you $25,000 to $40,000 depending on equipment and
options, taxes....... You can do a hell of a lot of preventive
maintenance for that kind of money. I sure as hell can't aford a $600
a month car loan payment, can you? And, no, I refuse to "lease" a van
for $300+ per month for something I wont even own at the end.

Something to think about.

 

Actually, no they didn't. If you pick up a Chrysler transmission manual
it has a section in it that details changes to the transmissions that have
been done over the years. There were LOTS of changes in this transmission
to improve reliability post-1993.

The A604 was Chrysler first computerized transmission, and it hadn't been
in production that long in 1993. And it was a big redesign, they simply
didn't
just take an existing, proven, transmission design they had been using for
years and hang a computer on it. (that would have been the prudent thing
to do, in my opinion, but nobody asked me ;-))

Yes, because 13 years ago rebuilders were putting them back to the same spec
as when they shipped from the factory 13 years ago.

Chrysler's experience with the A604 parallels how Microsoft approaches
software
development in many ways. Microsoft always comes out with shit, but they
keep working and working at it, revision after revision. With Windows, it
wasn't
until Win2K that they had something actually worth fiddling with, and it
took 10
years to get there.

Chrysler had the same experience with the A604. As a result, the A604 of
today (41TE) is pretty well debugged, and reliable. When a rebuilder of
today
that knows what they are doing rebuilds a 1993 A604, they put it back
together
with the revisions of today, not of 13 years ago.

And the same to you!

Ted

 

Someone wrote: "If you're on a long road trip in a 1993 Grand Caravan with
4-speed automatic transmission, and the transmission goes bad and needs to
be
rebuilt, what's the best solution? Should you go to a transmission shop, or
a Dodge dealer, or what? How much should you expect to pay? How long
should you expect to wait for the work to be done? How can you be sure it
will be done right?"

My neighbor was 600 miles from home when his went out. He had just
purchased it 3 months earlier from car dealership. It had the purchased as
is warranty in the window. It had a little over 85000 miles on it. He
drove it to visit his brother in another state when it broke down. He had
it towed to the dealership. They did not rebuild but replaced the
transmission but a brand new factory transmission and gave him a 12000 mile
warranty on it. The cost was around 2000 dollars and they had him in and
out in one day. He then wrote Chrysler and they reimbursed him 500 dolars
towards the cost of the repair. He then wrote a letter to the delearship
where he bought the vehicle from and they also reimbursed him 500 dollars.

I guess they all felt bad taking advantage of a 72 year old WWII veteran on
a fixed income. He then refused to pull his boat with the van and would
only go fishing with me if I pulled his boat or we went in mine.

Sarge