The Denver Area's First and Only Transmission Remanufacturing Facility Designed to Produce the Highest Quality Transmission Available Today.
When is it Required to Rebuild or Replace the Transmission?
Simply because a transmission exhibits abnormal behavior, such as not shifting up or down, slipping, falling out of gear, or even harsh shifts, it does not mean it needs to be replaced or rebuilt. Many of these problems can be caused by non-transmission related components. Auto manufacturers have instilled numerous sensors and controllers within vehicles since the 1980’s that cause a great number of complaints with the vehicle’s transmission operation. For example, a coolant temperature sensor can fail and cause an automatic transmission to lose overdrive and converter clutch capability. This usually creates a symptom of a higher revving engine at speeds over 45 mph and one may think the transmission is bad.
An Intake Air Temperature Sensor measures the temperature of air entering the engine and is intertwined with the transmission and its pressure control system. The failure of this sensor may cause the driver to experience hard shifts through its increase of pressure inside the transmission. Another example is related to the vehicle’s Mass Airflow Sensor, which can cause a multitude of transmission symptoms ranging from harsh shifts to soft shifts, to no shifts at all. This sensor measures airflow into the vehicle engine and communicates with the Powertrain Control Module in determining engine load and shift timing and performance.
It is important to have a transmission specialist perform the correct diagnostic procedures before replacement or rebuilding of your transmission or transaxle because there are so many control issues in today’s vehicles that can cause transmission problems.
Transmission Rebuilding and Pricing
Today, consumers requiring transmission repair have the options of rebuilding the transmission currently in their vehicle, replacing the transmission with a remanufactured or used transmission, or buying another vehicle. Cost of these options have a wide range of prices that depend on variables such as parts cost and parts needed during the rebuild and various manufacturers list price for those parts.
Quality transmission rebuilding always consist of replacing internal friction lined clutches, bands, seals, bushings, gaskets, molded rubber pistons, filters, sealing rings, and updated components. Other components, considered hard parts, are replaced when they do not meet critical tolerance limits or are high failure rate items for the particular application. Hard part components can often add to the cost of rebuilding a transmission, thus making it very difficult for someone to get an exact cost estimate on transmission rebuilding.
These days we are faced with pricing factors on rebuilt transmissions that require us to offer transmission rebuild options. For example, we may find several hard part components damaged inside a transmission that drastically increase the rebuild cost and give the customer the option of replacement of such items with used parts when available. Other options may include, per customer request, the replacement of the transmission with a remanufactured transmission or even a used transmission if so desired.
With the large number of transmission remanufacturing companies entering the market, a wide range of pricing and warranty structures exist, making it difficult to receive an exact figure and straight answer when shopping transmission rebuilding or replacement prices. Another factor is the large number of used transmission suppliers entering the market and making the price variables even more difficult for consumers to understand. Pricing differences for used transmission replacement is based mainly on unit miles and condition of the transmission and often judged by external appearance and the originating vehicles condition.
The point is simply this, when shopping for prices in this industry it is advisable to visit and get to know the company you have inquired on for your transmission repair. Doing this will allow you, as a consumer, to get realistic answers and scenarios for rebuilding your transmission and learn what is involved in the process. You will then get answers to important questions and concerns as well as get a feel for the mechanics abilities, cleanliness, and most important, ethics.
