My dealer says I need my tranny overhauled for $1300-$2000 or a remanufactured one for $2600. What should I go with?

 

It is a 94 Z28 with 65,000 miles

 

Buy a used one off of someone for $400-500 that works fine

 

First of all, I don't know if I can find a used one. Second of all, I would need someone to put it in. Any other suggestions?

 

I'll move this over to the Drivetrain forum!

 

2600???? lemme ask you somethin', is your old lady happy? j/k.... seems like a lot of money, a place here will take mine out, rebuild it and put it back in for 800 bucks, sometimes you get what you pay for but 2600? seems like a lot

 

The terms are imprecise, but "remanufactured" and "rebuilt" usually mean two quite different things. A rebuild is taking it apart, cleaning, replacing worn/broken parts and putting it back together. Reman means taking it apart, replacing ALL the soft parts even if they are functional, inspecting evreything else and replacing if needed, and reassembly. In theory, a reman is as good as a new tranny. Typically, a rebuild will have a short warrranty (30-90d) and a reman much longer (1-3 years).

So, a lot depends on how long you plan to keep the car. If you are going to put a lot of miles on it, reman is the way to go. If you aren't going to use it much before getting rid of it, a rebuild makes sense. Of course, rebuild or reman does not speak to the quality of the work. That's why a good reputation and warranty are important.

One thing to keep in mind, depending on what happened to your original tranny, the torque converter should also be replaced as it is probably contaminated. If it's a high end aftermarket converter send it back to the manufacturer to be disassembled and cleaned instead.

$2,600 does seem a little high though, even for a reman. The tranny ought to be ~$1,700-1,800. If it includes a new TC plus R+R than it's not really out of line.

Rich Krause

 

1800 for the part

800 for labor

 

The tranny price is good, but unless you are in a major urban area in the NE or CA the labor seems high. Even at $70/h that's 11+ hours. It should take maybe 6h max to R+R a stock tranny. The gaskets and fluids will cost a few bucks, but not more than $50-75. Check a price somewhere else.

Also, you should get a new converter (or have yours rebuilt) with either a rebuild or a reman.

Rich Krause

 

I would check around.
I R&Red my auto in my 94Z and if you get 800 bucks for that I,m going to do it for a living.
I had a local shop do a performance rebuild on mine and it was 750. New TCI converter and fluids and stuff and I had about 1200 in it total.