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So the other day I noticed that I lost overdrive in my 2003 SSEI. I looked at the common problems thread and losing overdrive was on there. Along with no overdrive, when the car is started cold and first driven, the shift lags a couple seconds too long in all gears... until it warms up to operating temp. Then it shifts fine, but still no overdrive.

So I can't seem to find much advice regarding getting a tranny rebuilt. The car has 125k. Since the tranny has to come out I might as well get it completely rebuilt. Any estimates on what this could cost if I find a good shop to do ALL the labor? What about taking out the tranny myself and bringing it to the shop in order to save. Is this recommended? Is it an absolute nightmare to take the tranny out?... or is it just a bearable pain in the *ss? Would I need any special tools?

It isn't too bad of a job taking the transmission out. If you have a hoist it will make it a lot easier. As for a rebuild I don't know how much that will cost. The hardened 4th gear clutch hub to fix the overdrive issue is about $50 and it can be done with the transmission mostly in the car.

Check out these guys.....
http://www.tripleedgeperformance.com/Transmissions.html

Thanks for the link. Man, this is going to be expensive. I'm just trying to weigh my options here. I've only had this car for 6,000 miles too.

Anyone out there go through a tranny rebuild on one of these cars? I thought I heard that it was pretty common for these trannys needing rebuild around 150k - 180k miles.

Mine needed a rebuild, that's why I got rid of it for cheap.

Some here had them done but in those threads they still have problems when they were done by a "shop". Auto trannys can be a biznitch if the persons "thinks" they know them. That's why there are seperate trans shops.

I'm guessing you want to keep the car, right? This really is they one fail place that's a pain with this drivetrain. I would really suggest getting a Triple Edge trans and having it installed. Most places are gonna charge what they charge. And Triple KNOWS these transmissions.

01bonneSC wrote:Mine needed a rebuild, that's why I got rid of it for cheap.

Some here had them done but in those threads they still have problems when they were done by a "shop". Auto trannys can be a biznitch if the persons "thinks" they know them. That's why there are seperate trans shops.

I'm guessing you want to keep the car, right? This really is they one fail place that's a pain with this drivetrain. I would really suggest getting a Triple Edge trans and having it installed. Most places are gonna charge what they charge. And Triple KNOWS these transmissions.

The thought has crossed my mind to just trade it in on another vehicle. It just hurts that this happened now. I paid 6 grand for this car and trade in value with a bad tranny is gonna be squat. All this after losing over 2 grand in my prior truck before I got this car.

Your paid about $2K too much

No he didn't. $6k is a very fair price for an 03 SSEi with 125k.

More than I would have paid, that's for sure.

But that's being said, it all really depends if you wanna keep the car if you wanna put a trans in it. Don't drop 1700 if you are gonna get rid of it in 10k miles, imo.

Think of it this way, if you do the TEP trans, and if you have done the LIM gaskets, you will get A LOT more life out of this thing.

I had to rebuild my trans at 144k, 5k after I bought it, and I've put another 45k on it with no issues. A family friend who worked at Aamco in Mankato did it for me, and I've had no issues.

00Beast wrote:I had to rebuild my trans at 144k, 5k after I bought it, and I've put another 45k on it with no issues. A family friend who worked at Aamco in Mankato did it for me, and I've had no issues.

May I ask about how much it cost? I'm going to call a couple tranny shops tommorow, see if I can get a quote.

Getting a TEP tranny plus getting it shipped here plus getting it installed = big money. I don't know if the LIM gaskets have been replaced. I like this car yes, but I don't see myself in it 3 years from now honestly. I tend to hop from car to car. I shoulda looked at that GXP before I bought this thing lol.

It was $2400 out the door, including a new axle, and a LOT of new parts. The original "overhaul" quote was $1800...

Ehhhh GXP wouldn't have been much of a better choice, they tend to have their own problems.

And getting a TEP trans shipped should not be more than $150. I work in shipping.

My price was me driving car in, picking car up. No labor on my part.

Well thanks for your input guys. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do. I'm going to drive it the way it is for a while, or atleast till it strands me on the side of the road. I didn't realize this was going to be such a big money issue.

You could put in a used transmission for about $500, and another $400 in labor.

I went with a Jasper when mine quit. 3 year 100 K warranty. 2300 out the door if I remember correctly. Something you might want to consider if you plan on keeping it awhile.

Mark

I kinda got the same deal with my 2000 SSEi. I got it from a guy for $3,000.00 with 120,000 and I drove it for a few days and straight into my garage it went for intake gaskets and a whole lot of other fixes including trans kit, fluid and filter. There was tons of clutch material in the pan and the fluid looked like oil.

I lucked out. I payed 5995 for my SLE from a dealer because ive had bad luck from private party/half rate used car salesmen. I checked it out in the Rain because i dont like leaks and it all turned out great. Anyway, i snagged it up before i even test drove it, risky i know, but because i got it from a great dealer, when i started throwing the p1811 code (Pressure control solenoid) I brought the repair paperwork off line explaining the issue (Because they jerked me around for 2 weeks saying they couldnt do anything because i couldnt replicate it on test drives) and because it was intermittent, i got them to finally listen. They finally scanned it and found the code and im like YAY new PCS...And they were like no...New/Reman tranny for you...Double YAY.

SO some say 6k is too much but after the new tranny i believe i did good.