Two months ago we had a transmission issue with the Cirrus. I wrote about that here.
Well after about 2 months and approx 3000 more miles the baby cloud car decided the transmission no longer was acceptable and rejected it.
It started with a high pitch whine, then quickly deteriorated into gnashing, grinding and the inability to shift gears.
I limped it back to the Chrysler dealership on Tuesday. They started their diagnosis for which they waived the fee since we just had the transmission looked at.
That escalated into, “Uh, this is bad, the next step would be a $200 transmission service” Drop the pan, check the filter and see what’s in there.
OK.
That led to, uhm, it’s toast, and needs to be rebuilt, which was pretty much what I had figured based upon the audio clues given by the transmission a day earlier.
A remanufactured unit started at around $2300 with labor to install it, would put the ticket at $3200. That’s a little much for this car. (a 1999 with 120k miles).
A used unit is cheaper, $1300, but same labor and you don’t know what you’re going to get.
We negotiated and thought about it some more. $2350 later we have a rebuilt tranny with 12k mile warranty, as well as both axle’s replaced.
Kings Chrysler service department was very reasonable to deal with, although if you want to give me $2300 I’ll be very reasonable with you too.
Am I happy about this? no, but considering the car is otherwise mechanically sound, the body is in great shape, the interior good, and the AC still works, it’s paid for and I don’t think we could replace it for that.
Yippe!