Need a new transmission!

[Ladyhawke]

Hi everyone! Just joined today, having discovered this list while researching my problem. Seems I learned yesterday that my 1998 LS needs a new transmission - just 5,000 miles past my extended warranty and having have twice the recommended maintenance - done to prevent this problem ocurring. I had heard about this potential problem from others. Is my dealers price of $2600 reasonable? Anyone had any luck in gettig Mitsubishi to pay for this?

Thanks,
Ladyhawke

[MitsuMan]

First off, welcome to the board!

Galants are KNOWN for their tranny problems

and unfortunately yes you are being ripped off....is that the price he quoted for a NEW transmission?....

...you can rebuild one for ALOT less!, not yourself but i mean but a rebuilt one...


...also do u have an AAMOCO near you?

they have decent prices and garuntee the trannies for life...

dealers are always gonna ripyou off, definately go somewhere else, preferably a well respected place, this is not a small job, and is neccessary

be prepared to spend between 700-1200$ and thats a GOOD price.....

Let us know how it goes!

[manybrews]

2600 bucks is quite reasonable.

the factory trannies are 2100 bucks by themselves.
ammcos and other tranny rebuilding places are absolutly terrible. i cant count how many of their trannies ive had to rebuild less than a month after they "rebuilt" it.

you may save some money, but not in the long run.

its your choice, but i strongly recommend avoiding aftermarket tranny shops with a passion.

[Ladyhawke]

Hi All, Once Again,

I'm still dealing with my transmission replacement on my 1998 LS. It's been one giant nightmare because I requested a goodwill replacement from Mitsubishi. I figured I was deserving since I also have a 1996 Galant that needed a new tranny at 18,000 miles and therefore had been very diligent about doing more than required maintanence on the 1998, which was very slightly out of the warranty mileage-wise - but within it timewise.

After much runaround (details upon request!) I was told that the goodwill was available, but it depended upon the reason the tranny failed. I spent nearly a month trying to obtain this info from the dealer. Finally today, when I picked up the car, someone looked at some internal record (that I was not allowed a copy of) and I was told that the reason was a "burnt clutch head."

Is anyone able to expalin this to me? What causes this? Does it mean the entire tranny must be replaced?

Thanks!

[Kain]

Just an aside, but I worked in a transmission shop over the summer. The cost to rebuild a transmission is usually almost as much as a new one. The cost mostly comes from the fact the shop has to maintain all the parts, tools, workspace, etc for a transmission rebuild, but rarely uses them also there is a HUGE amount of labor involved. OEMs can offer slightly cheaper rebuilt transmissions because they do them in mass and as we all know things done in "bulk" are almost always cheaper. Usually it's something fairly insignifigant that fails in an a transmission, but the effort to get to the part is often so great that you're better off with the new transmission and the waranty that it comes with. Most small shops' warantys aren't worth the paper they're printed on. AAMCO is a definite no-no. My shop rebuilt many of their transmissions after they failed well within the waranty and than the big A refused to repair them citing "user abuse" As far as the bad clutch, or "burnt clutch head" as they put it is a really small part. Without going into the approximately 2500 parts in the average automatic, I'll try to keep this as simple as possible. It is a small piece of steel/aluminum that when the torque converter builds enough hydraulic pressure, the clutch is moved into place and transfers power to the output shaft and eventually to the wheels. When it wears down, it will for one reason or another not engage properly, causing slipage or no engagement at all. But, in the long run you're probably better off having the whole transmission replaced rather than just have it repaired and have a diffrent part break only a few hundred miles later. All in all this is probably my #1 beef with automatic transmissions. As far as transmission shops, basically find one you've heard good things about. Even OEMs make mistakes (in the case of both Chrysler and Ford far more often than most would tolerate) The shop I worked for was very good. Not only was every person who worked there an ASE "master" tech, (myself excluded) they offered a real guarantee on their work. Of course they also had the exclusive right to deny working on any vehicle. (they almost always turned away Mitsubishis, Nissans, and German/Italian/other exotic cars) Well, that was a long tangent. Hope that helps.

[BEAST]

I had my tranny rebuilt for about $1500. They had to rebuild it 3 times before they finally got it right. They fixed it twice with the original tranny with new rebuilt parts inside and then they finally had to get a new refurbished tranny from Mits. Mine still shifts really hard when it downshifts and is just pretty rough. It works though. Kain is right Mitsubishi's have horrible transmissions, they are weak and have a cooling problem from what I hear. I believe that that is one reason they crap out is because the pump gets clogged with little metal shavings and what not and it isn't able to pump and cool efficiently. That is one reason that things burn up in there. That is what happened to mine though, is that my cluches burned up. I would suggest checking out www.levelten.com or maybe getting a talon or eclipse transmission.