RJ55
Probationary Member
- 2
- 0
- Jul 30, 2003
I've dealt with TRE a lot and they have changed a lot over the years. A lot of complaints about TRE from a few years ago were valid. I must say though, Jon's really turned the place around in the last two years. I just got my tranny back 3000 mi ago with a full rebuild and it went in flawlessly. I've had 0 problems. Now I'm from nearby (within an hour) and I've spent a few days around the shop. Jon had the time to explain why his rebuilds can get to be so expensive. Many of the transmissions come in either broken already or with over 100k on them. TRE wet magnafluxes all gears and shafts to check for stress fractures. When an input or intermediate shaft has a stress fracture in a gear that increases the price of a basic rebuild by over $200 right there. I'm sure he could open up a used tranny, replace all the synchros and replace any bearings that look worn, re-shim the shafts and return the tranny to you for under $1000 but when you start to make some power and shear the teeth off a gear that had some cracks or wear it's going to cost a lot to fix and it won't be a warranty issue. I also know that TRE does a significant amout of work cleaning up the crappy parts that Mitsubishi has been sending out as well as some machining to make shifting better. This isn't something I've just heard but I've seen it on the lathe.
Anyhow, many people have had luck with Shep and BM Tranny and I know I've read posts about tranny problems from both shops too. All I know is that Jon rebuilt my first tranny in '98 for a FWD and it's still shifting and my AWD feels great. I guess the point is that Jon knows what he's doing. He's done over 500 DSM transmissions over the years and if they weren't better than most he wouldn't still be doing them and he wouldn't have repeat business like mine.
To address another note, NO TRANSMISSION IS BULLETPROOF! You put enough torque on something or powershift like a gorilla you will break it! 'nough said. If you have seen the guts of an EVO 8 tranny it looks like an Eaton Truck transmission compared to the crap DSM stuff we got. It seems there is only so much that can be done to a DSM tranny.
To address some of the points Chris made:
Going into this post I will acknowledge that you are an established tuner and that you know a lot about DSMs.
It sounds like a lot of your troubles were due to miscommunication and bad information.
Did your customer send a '90 trans in or did Jon end up thinking a '93 trans was going to be put on a '90 car? If you were using the selector cable brackets it would be almost impossible to put the cable onto the '90 arm. It's much longer than the 92-up style. I don't know how the thing shifted in the first place.
Why would you change out the cables and console if it was TRE's fault? Why not just tell them the selector arm was wrong and have them replace the arm?
How many miles did your customer get on the trans before 3rd went bad?
Was it ever sent back within the 90 warranty period?
The GVR-4 first gear is a stock Mitsu part with a different gear ratio. It makes first gear a little taller. Being a stock part it's no stronger it just has double synchros as an option to shift longer. Nowhere does it say it should be stronger.
Once again with the free fix, was it a warranty repair or just a good will, free labor repair?
I've seen TRE tear down over a dozen tranny's in my presence and it has never taken more than 20 minutes to pull apart a whole tranny just because clearances were tight (probably from NEW PARTS) and you don't have the tranny experience doesn't mean they beat your tranny together and it was stuck.
Anyhow, I'm sorry you had a real bad experience. Anybody can break a tranny though. Pruven ran last season on one TRE tranny without breaking it. I suspect there is a bit of driver skill involved in not destroying your tranns. These are cars, not playthings. If you want to treat them like playthings you will break them. Good luck, get the best deal from whomever you think has it, and have fun.
Anyhow, many people have had luck with Shep and BM Tranny and I know I've read posts about tranny problems from both shops too. All I know is that Jon rebuilt my first tranny in '98 for a FWD and it's still shifting and my AWD feels great. I guess the point is that Jon knows what he's doing. He's done over 500 DSM transmissions over the years and if they weren't better than most he wouldn't still be doing them and he wouldn't have repeat business like mine.
To address another note, NO TRANSMISSION IS BULLETPROOF! You put enough torque on something or powershift like a gorilla you will break it! 'nough said. If you have seen the guts of an EVO 8 tranny it looks like an Eaton Truck transmission compared to the crap DSM stuff we got. It seems there is only so much that can be done to a DSM tranny.
To address some of the points Chris made:
Going into this post I will acknowledge that you are an established tuner and that you know a lot about DSMs.
It sounds like a lot of your troubles were due to miscommunication and bad information.
Did your customer send a '90 trans in or did Jon end up thinking a '93 trans was going to be put on a '90 car? If you were using the selector cable brackets it would be almost impossible to put the cable onto the '90 arm. It's much longer than the 92-up style. I don't know how the thing shifted in the first place.
Why would you change out the cables and console if it was TRE's fault? Why not just tell them the selector arm was wrong and have them replace the arm?
How many miles did your customer get on the trans before 3rd went bad?
Was it ever sent back within the 90 warranty period?
The GVR-4 first gear is a stock Mitsu part with a different gear ratio. It makes first gear a little taller. Being a stock part it's no stronger it just has double synchros as an option to shift longer. Nowhere does it say it should be stronger.
Once again with the free fix, was it a warranty repair or just a good will, free labor repair?
I've seen TRE tear down over a dozen tranny's in my presence and it has never taken more than 20 minutes to pull apart a whole tranny just because clearances were tight (probably from NEW PARTS) and you don't have the tranny experience doesn't mean they beat your tranny together and it was stuck.
Anyhow, I'm sorry you had a real bad experience. Anybody can break a tranny though. Pruven ran last season on one TRE tranny without breaking it. I suspect there is a bit of driver skill involved in not destroying your tranns. These are cars, not playthings. If you want to treat them like playthings you will break them. Good luck, get the best deal from whomever you think has it, and have fun.
. I recommend test driving a car with that gear (like any GVR4 with original tranny) before you make that determination...
