Tranny Help!!!

[Famousgunner]

Okay, the transmission from my car has failed for the second time!! First time I had to buy a used tranny and swapped it for the old one, but after about 6 months the new tranny my car had stopped working. All I felt was the car shaking like crazy and then all of a sudden my car won't shift, I tried everything and I don't want to buy another automatic transmission for $600 and it is only going to last me for 6 months. I've read about a lot of people swapping automatic for 5speed. Is it VERY complicated? or is something that someone with a little experience on auto and manual trannys could do? If so how much money would I be looking at to spend? Or should I just buy another automatic transmission, if so where can I buy one at a reasonable price? By the way, buying another car is not the option, still paying for my car(2 more years to go) . I would really appreciate any kind of help or advice.

 

[Zerocygnal]

What were you doing when the car started shaking and wouldn't shift? Were you accelerating or slowing down, turning? Did your first tranny make the car shake when it went out? Did the mechanic whom swapped out the first transmission diagnose the actual problem with it?

If you're not sure what happened to the first tranny, it's going to be difficult to say the same thing happened to the second. If the exact same thing happened to both tranny's you have two possibilities.
1. A manufacturing flaw (which with autos on DSM's i've never really heard any complaints, that is not to say no one else has)
2. Something in your drivetrain is causing the problem when a specific function is called upon (i.e. torque application, load increase downshifting, hard acceleration etc. etc.)

If you do know what happened to the first determine wether the problem was caused inside the tranny (just plain ol' tranny failure)
OR you need to take a close look at your drivetrain and see if anything is causing this, (i.e. worn wheel bearings, unbalanced crankshaft causing vibration, half shafts,)

and lastly, did you use the same torque converter from the first transmission?

Hope some of this info helps

 

[Famousgunner]

All I did was make a stop then when I tried to turn the car started shaking. A few days before that, I noticed something weird; maybe this will help: When I was driving at speeds greater than 35 and had to stop then when I accelerated again the car wouldn't shift into third, it will only stay on 25-30 MPH and then I just felt a big thump and the car will then accelerate to 35 and up. Hope that with this info someone can help me out. I would really hate to spend $600-$2000 when I really just need to plug in a wire or I'm missing a screw.

 

[Famousgunner]

Okay, I made some phone calls to some tranny shops and I got a shop that's willing to make the swap from auto to manual transmission for $2500. This includes all the parts and hand labor. Is this a fair price or is too expensive for a professional shop??

 

[Zerocygnal]

Actually if that price includes that transmission, labor, pedal assembly, clutch assembly and everything I think it's a damn good price. The real problem sounds like you're torque converter thou....

When you stop the fluid drains back out of it, when you start moving it spins sucking fluid up into it. If you are accelerating and you feel a sudden thump and then it shifts, that is either the valve body, or the torque convertor. Neither of which should be that expensive used.

Not a whole lot can go wrong with a torque converter, and a valvebody is a relatively simple device. I noticed it's real easy to pull the wires out of the solenoids on it...so it could very well be a loose wire to one of the valves.

Had a similar problem in my friends GS. One wire...car shifted like crap or wouldn't shift at all. After the fact, ran great for an N/A

If you're already out money on the car and you have had work done to it I can't see any reason to convert and put that much more into it just yet. The manual has grinding problems and to my knowledge is not shimmed from the factory. So that could be a whole new line of problems...possibly worse than what you had.

Think it through before you make the final choice...

Best regards.

 

[Famousgunner]

Thanks for the information. I really appreciate, and I sure hope that it's just as simple as a loose wire cause I sure will like to save my $$$$.

 

[Zerocygnal]

Not a problem. You might want to ask the tech who's working on your tranny to check those things out that I listed.
Hope everything works out for you.