As the mechanic in the family, everyone comes to me for advice and repairs. My dad drives a 98 Accord auto and the transmission has bit the bullet for the 4th time in 14 years of ownership. Car has 200K plus on it, paint is shot, starting to rust, in other words your average beater. I presented him two options
-
Rebuild the existing transmission, big money, has already been rebuilt twice
-
Lowish mileage junkyard tranny, not as much money, unknown history
Am I missing a third option? Are there any rebuild parts that are better? I'm aware of level10 but perhaps there is something else out there. WWGRMD?
I am fine with r&r'ing the tranny, not so much with rebuilding it.
One thing to check no matter which option you choose is the axles. My parents have a 2001 Accord (same generation) and the dealer told them they needed a new transmission and quoted some huge sum for it. We took it to a trustworthy independent shop and they said yes, we probably do need a new transmission, but also your CV joints are binding and that's what actually caused the bad transmission. So swapping just the transmission would have caused the transmission to go bad again eventually.
I ran into this situation with my girlfriend's 98 V6 Accord. It had about 200k on it, tired paint, ect. I ended up buying a remaned unit and got it thrown in. Think the box cost me $800, they gave me i think $100 for the core, and like $200 to put it in. It worked good, not great, when we got it back. It was kinda jerky in transition from Park or Reverse into Drive. Car ran for another 20k until the timing belt tensioner took a dump. Within that time frame, it also ate an alternator, tires, brakes, power steering pump. So I kept throwing money at it and i didnt want to anymore.
Bobzilla wrote:
dculberson wrote:
One thing to check no matter which option you choose is the axles. My parents have a 2001 Accord (same generation) and the dealer told them they needed a new transmission and quoted some huge sum for it. We took it to a trustworthy independent shop and they said yes, we probably do need a new transmission, but also your CV joints are binding and that's what actually caused the bad transmission. So swapping just the transmission would have caused the transmission to go bad again eventually.
You got took. 
Nope, well actually yes we got took by the dealer because they brushed off the noise complaints from my parents until the warranty expired then refused to do anything for them when the transmission went out after the warranty expired. Turns out there's a TSB for the axle carriers in the transmission.
But the independent shop that found the bad axles and eventually ended up rebuilding the transmission was awesome.
