3000GT left me on the side of the road

[bosoxvr420]

Pretty similar thing happened to my friends car right after he sold it.

Drove it to Chicago to meet the guy he was selling it to, make the transaction, get on the expressway and the guy is right behind us. He floors it and everything is good, next thing we hear is the car redlining and not acceleration anymore. We pull over to the side and figure everything out, big argument.

Guy hands the keys back and my friend hands the money back. He gives us $500 to tow it back. Wait about 20min then turn the car on and my friend drives it back down state about 2 hours. We pull into a rest stop and the tranny is extremely hot. Driving it back was a fairly dumb move.

Gary Cooper, for those of you who know who he is, took out the transmission computer and it was stuck in 3rd. He sold the car to some guy he worked with who didn't care for $4,000, only lost $200 on the car. He went out and bought a vr4 about 2 weeks later from Gary and hasn't had any problems with it since.

[Brandonscar]

Oh the Irony! The tow truck broke down on the way to get my car from aamco. The tow truck had to get a tow.

[Brandonscar]

I should get the 3000GT back tomorrow with a rebuilt tranny and a waranty on it all. yeah! Fun way to blow a few G's. The torque converter was bad so I paid another $350 for a torque converter, no labor costs as the tranny was out for the re-build anyway.

I can't wait to get the car back. I plan to give the tranny hell because if it breaks it is not my problem for awhile. I might as well buy an engine for the car, it is the last part I haven't replaced now.

[vegasidol]

[quote=""Brandonscar""]I should get the 3000GT back tomorrow with a rebuilt tranny and a waranty on it all. yeah! Fun way to blow a few G's. The torque converter was bad so I paid another $350 for a torque converter, no labor costs as the tranny was out for the re-build anyway.

I can't wait to get the car back. I plan to give the tranny hell because if it breaks it is not my problem for awhile. I might as well buy an engine for the car, it is the last part I haven't replaced now.[/quote]

So what was the final diagnosis and cost? I have a hard time believing it needed to be rebuilt AND it needed a new TC?

[Brandonscar]

Remember I am not well versed car guy and tend to pay pros to fix my cars. Here is my best recolation of the diagnosis. I had the car towed to 2 shops to confirm.

I stripped my 3rd and 4th gear clutch plates. This caused a great deal of metal to get into the ATX fluid. My ATX fluid was burnt. The metal all in my tranny means I needed to get all wearable parts inside the tranny replaced. I also had to get new 3rd and 4th gear clutch plates. This cost $1,728.44 including labor.

Once they had the tranny out the torque converter was detected as bad. They determined this by measuring it. Apparently they get fatter when going bad. He said I could probably run with it, but while he had the tranny out I might as well replace it and skip labor costs. That was $350 ish.

The total bill is just over $2,000. It has been at the second shop since late afternoon Friday, it should be ready to go on Tuesday. There may be a delay of a few days if the torque converter ships slower than he thinks it will. I get a 3 year unlimited mile warranty on all solid parts. I get a 1 year unlimited mile warranty on all wearable parts.

[Brandonscar]

I have lined up a bearing replacement and 3rd gen lifter install when I get the car back with a member of the 3SI board who is a master of 3000GT's by all accounts. He quoted me a good price on his labor for these parts. Good by sometimes ticking. The bearings I wanted replaced because of the horror stories I have heard on 3SI.

[Brandonscar]

Oh sad news. The mechanic can't guarantee rebuilding my tranny. It was just too messed up. He is ordering a rebuilt from someone else to replace my tranny.

My TCU has leaky caps. It isn't messed up, but will be if I don't deal with it. He sent a picture for me. I am having it replaced as well.

I needed new front axles. I knew this before he took at look at it. He has agreed to let me buy the axles from NAPA and he will install them for free.

My valve something or another also needs to be replaced not re-built.

I am into the $3,000's now.

He told me he will tow my car free of charge up to 3 times for other opinions. I am having the car towed now to another mechanic. He said this is always a good idea and encourages more than one opinion on work this expensive. I have to assume with him offering this to me that he is not ripping me off and I am looking at 3K now. I am going to need to get drunk tonight to deal with this kind of sticker shock.

[TajMan]

Not a too 3/S specific issue, just auto trannys, go bad very often on many cars.

I got my 94 3000GT with a bad auto tranny.

I got a used tranny from someone on 3si for a couple hundred bucks to my door. Didn't know beforehand, but the 91 tranny I got had a lot of different things than the 2G ATXs. I ended up swapping valve bodies and electrical stuff all around the tranny, sourced 1G axles, etc. All said and done I had less than $400 into ATX tranny stuff and a running car.

I'd never pay any shop to rebuild or put in a new auto tranny, unless I planned on keeping the car FOREVER.

Shop ATX rebuilds tend to not last. A Caravan my aunt then my family had went through like 6+ rebuilds/different trannys.

[Brandonscar]

[quote=""TajMan""]Not a too 3/S specific issue, just auto trannys, go bad very often on many cars.

I got my 94 3000GT with a bad auto tranny.

I got a used tranny from someone on 3si for a couple hundred bucks to my door. Didn't know beforehand, but the 91 tranny I got had a lot of different things than the 2G ATXs. I ended up swapping valve bodies and electrical stuff all around the tranny, sourced 1G axles, etc. All said and done I had less than $400 into ATX tranny stuff and a running car.

I'd never pay any shop to rebuild or put in a new auto tranny, unless I planned on keeping the car FOREVER.

Shop ATX rebuilds tend to not last. A Caravan my aunt then my family had went through like 6+ rebuilds/different trannys.[/quote]

Sucking with a wrench is expensive.

[BigAngryRichard]

[quote=""Brandonscar""]
I can't wait to get the car back. I plan to give the tranny hell because if it breaks it is not my problem for awhile. I might as well buy an engine for the car, it is the last part I haven't replaced now.[/quote]

Is there a break in period with an auto tranny? I would imagine so B!

[Brandonscar]

[quote=""BigAngryRichard""]Is there a break in period with an auto tranny? I would imagine so B![/quote]

Guy said no WOT for 500 miles.

[BigAngryRichard]

^^^ haha... Brandon are you capable of such a thing?

[Brandonscar]

[quote=""BigAngryRichard""]^^^ haha... Brandon are you capable of such a thing?[/quote]

We shall see, it does have a waranty, so if I F it up I will take it back to them and pretend I don't know what happened.

[Brandonscar]

I got my car back on Saturday. The damage was 2800 and change.

My old tranny was pretty messed up so I had to get another tranny from a place that rebuilds tranny's. When that replacement tranny came in the shop cracked it open and replaced seals and such to make sure I wouldn't have any problems. I had to replace my TCU, and both front axles. Torque converter was also shot, so I got a new one of those.

The mechanic told me he could rebuild my old one tranny for less but said I would be disappointed in it. He said I may have to bring the car back to him to fix it often because with so much internal damage there was no way he was going to get it perfect on the first try. At least he was honest with me about that!

The ass whole tranny mechanic wouldn't take a check. That is fine but he didn't tell me this until I drove 60 miles to his shop. There was a bank not too far away, but it was still a pain in the ass to go get cash for it. I can understand him not wanting a check, but I can't understand not telling people before coming to pick up their car.

Anyway, I have a 1 year unlimited mile warranty so I am going to drive the hell out of the car until something else huge breaks. Probably next week the way this car has been treating me. My car must have been abused in its former life. The car drives different now; I suspect the torque converter is responsible for this. It launches much, much better than before. I have to take the car back to the mechanic after 10 days so he can check it all out again to make sure there are no issues, so far so good.