Car Trouble
Categories: LifeMy truck has started whining when I give it gas, so I made an appointment with my garage to have it looked at on Wednesday. Tuesday night, I dropped it off with the shop. Cowgrit and the boys would take me to work Wednesday morning, and pick me up that evening.
Well, Wednesday morning, we all loaded up into the mini van, (including the dog), and headed out to my office. Half way there, the mini van became possessed by the devil. Stuff started malfunctioning and warning lights started coming on all over the place. What the hell!?
The transmission started slipping gears, and we lost first gear completely. The brakes started stuttering when I applied enough just to slow down. The traction control warning light came on. The emmissions light came on. The drive light started flashing. OMG! WTF? BBQ!
I got us turned around and headed back towards home. We were at least 15 minutes from our house, and traffic was very heavy during the morning rush, we had both boys and the dog in the car with us, the school start time was approaching, and we were worried the van would break down before we got somewhere less inconvenient. And then the gas tank light came on.
“Oh, funny,” I said out loud, “if the van doesn’t break down, we’ll just run out of gas.”
My stress level reached a height usually reserved for falling out of an airplane without a parachute. But we made it home.
I called the garage and told them about the van’s problems. Unfortunately, they’d didn’t have time to work on it that day. But, since my truck was scheduled for the day, they suggested we switch the vehicles — since I can drive my truck safely with its problem, but the van is unsafe/unreliable with its problems. So I took the van in and got my truck back.
Now I’m not stressing over whether I can get the family home, I’m worrying over how much this repair is going to cost. I can’t imagine so much mechanical failure costing less than a 4 digit figure to repair.
* * *
Aaaand I just got the repair estimate. The mechanic told me that all the problems and lights were from the same source. I said, “Oh, good.” He said, “But there’s bad news.”
The problem is the transmission is failing and has to be completely replaced. Well, shit.
Bullgrit
get a second opinion…michelle had her tranny done and it wasnt that much. do you trust this guy? they generally run around 2k.
We investigated around beyond than just this one shop, including getting online info. For this vehicle, the part is much more than 2k, and then labor adds to it.
ok, my engine rebuild and a couple of extra things was 2200…just dont want you guys to get screwed
I’ve actually had to replace a trany twice…once while with brogrit and once before him…two different vehicles and neither of them cost anywhere near $4 grand…you either have a very special van or as your bro says, you are getting screwed…I’ve had to do tons of repairs and get tons of things fixed…that’s a bit expensive> Oh and your trany has nothing to do with all the electrical stuff that your van seems to be struggling with…if you get it fixed all the other lights and whistles should go away
I would get a second opinion. My wife’s van did the same thing. My brother looked at it, and it ended up being a $180.00 sensor.
I’m sufficiently confident in our repair shop and the price they’re charging. I don’t like the price, but I’ve investigated enough to know it’s not undue for this work on this vehicle. For one, I chose to get a new tranny instead of a used one — new = warranty.
I know the stress and fear involved with having the family in car when things go wrong. It’s a sickening feeling.
We took our van on a road trip a couple years ago and all went well until the last day of the trip home. It was a Sunday and 10 minutes after we left the hotel (and 7 hours from home), the car started acting crazy with the gauges bouncing back and forth and the car lurching. I pulled over to check the fuse panel, but it all looked good. I start out again but the car wouldn’t shift out of 1st gear. I couldn’t do more than 25MPH so I limped it to the next exit where a Texaco mechanic told me it was a transmission problem and needed to go to the dealer. I limped it back to the hotel and got a room for the night and discovered that a Chrysler dealer was less than a mile away. I was at the dealership at first light. Six hours and $650 later it was fixed. It was an “input/output speed sensor” on the transmission (a known problem on the model we own.)
$4k seems like a lot of money though. I don’t know that our old mini van is even worth that much.