The car stopped moving had to be towed to the shop

RICKHYPPA

MEMBER
1999 DODGE CARAVAN

6 cyl Front Wheel Drive Automatic

Has 195,000 miles on the original transmission. The car stopped moving, had to be towed to the shop. The mechanic said he could do a diagnostic check, which resulted in 5 codes, 2 of which were transmission related. Then said they would have to tear it apart to tell what was wrong, when they tore it down, they said we have to replace virtually everything-need master rebuild kit, torque converter, planetary set solenoid block, valve body repair kit, forward drum, input drum, pump assembly and other parts. Cost of tear down was $850 in Campbell, CA.

My question is, couldn't they tell, by the fact that the car wasn't running, and the codes, plus mileage, that they would have to replace just about everything? Am I paying $850 for very little value? He said it took a whole day to do the tear down and determine what needed to be replaced. Thanks a lot.

1 Reply

DOCFIXIT

MECHANIC
18,828 POSTS

Hi Did they give you an estimate of the tear down? Did you sign a repair order stipulating what work was to be done? Book time on a rebuild is only 10.7 hrs. I find all day to do what could have been done in 3-4 hrs. A little rip off. Will they apply that towards repair cause its out and apart? Al;so seems unlikely all that needs replaced it's like the only thing there going to reuse is the case.
Hope this helps
Thanks for donate