I bought the car about a year and a half ago for $5600. At the time, I had it inspected by a mechanic, and all was fine.
About a week ago, I notice that the transmission (I assume) is making noise when I let off the gas in 5th on the highway. Worse, sometimes the noise sounds like high-pitched grinding, like metal on metal.
I take it into the shop today, and got a call this afternoon. The mechanic says that they found shards of metal in the transmission oil, and that a tooth got sheared off and has been rattling around and shredding in the transmission. He says that it could seize up at any time. I’m guessing it’s basically just a matter of time before a chunk of metal gets lodged somewhere it really shouldn’t be.
He says that it’s not worth trying to repair this one, that my best bet is to put a used/refurbished tranny in. He asks if I’ve ever replaced the clutch, and I say no (but I don’t know if a previous owner did). He suggests replacing it while they’re replacing the tranny. He says to replace the tranny and clutch will be about $2200 in parts and labor. Since the car otherwise seems to be in good condition and is still worth around $5K private party blue book (104K miles), I’m inclined to go with it.
I called around to a few other places to see if they could give me an estimate on this job, but none has gotten back to me, yet. Is that a reasonable price? Is there something else I should ask about? Any advice?
It seems pretty cheap to me but you can only find out by getting more estimates.
As I always say on this subject, people tend to look at it slightly the wrong way. They usually look at it in terms of the vehicle and “is it worth it?”. Assuming you want to keep it for a while after it is fixed, the Blue Book value isn’t that important. What is important is how much you like the vehicle and what else you would get for $2200. In all likelihood, you won’t be able to get much for that amount and you would end up shelling out even more to get another vehicle so fixing it as has some immediate financial benefits. Besides, if you do sell it somewhere down the road, you will get more for a vehicle with a functioning transmission so you will get some of the money back. If you don’t fix it, you will still take a serious hit on the selling price in essence costing you money immediately. The cost of fixing the transmission isn’t as much in real terms as you may think.
I don’t know if that’s necessarily a good price for a clutch job and rebuilt tranny in your area, but $2200 to keep “the devil you know” is not bad, considering its value is around $5500.
Otherwise, you’re looking at spending $5500 to get a different used vehicle in similar condition, plus stuck with trying to sell something that’s going to need a $2000 repair - realistically, you’d have to try selling it at $3000, and hope you find someone willing to take on a project, rather than have a car they can drive off in.
Definitely get a couple more bids on the job. Just because one shop says it’s cheaper to install a rebuilt doesn’t mean a shop on the other side of town can’t rebuild it in-house for less.
I did call around a few other places. While I didn’t get a firm estimate from any of them, they told me that $2000-3000 was probably the range for installing a rebuilt transmission (at least the ones who bothered to call me back and could find a transmission to install).
The mechanic I took it to didn’t say that they couldn’t rebuild it, just that it’s probably not worth spending the money to rebuild a transmission with 100K miles on it that’s had a gear tooth rattling around in it for a while.
I told them to go ahead this morning, so we’ll see how this goes.
The price strikes me as reasonable. It can be really hard to make precise comparisons. The price of a used (or rebuilt) transmission can vary a lot depending on the exact model of vehicle, and even for the same type can vary with the source. In this case, I’d be more concerned with the competence and integrity of the shop than with the price. Two good signs are their recommending clutch replacement (at that mileage it’s very likely the original) and offering the option of replacement rather than overhaul of the unit (manual trannies don’t always need gears, but when they do - like yours - the parts can be quite expensive). If it’s a good shop, saving a few hundred by going elsewhere might not have been a better choice.
Make sure you understand the guarantee, and make sure that whoever does your oil changes is indeed checking and topping up the tranny oil.