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We just dodged a crazy expensive (unnecessary) repair. 2 weeks of sleeplessness and stress later we pried our 10 year old diesel van back outta highly-positive-reviewed local shop and took it to authorized repair. Quoted 10k for transmission replacement, then 7k. Got it repaired for $400. Was a hole in a hose, not transmission at all.
My exact words when I took it to 1st shop for oil change was "ask them to look at transmission fluid, seems a little unsmooth shifting 1st to 2nd gear." The horror began...
I'm a mechanic, do my own work so no worries about "shady" mechanic practices...
But one used vehicle I bought turned up non-working ABS during the pre-purchase inspection. Get to looking and a dealer would charge about $4k for the parts (parts, not labor) ~ negotiated $1000 on the sale price and I drove home. Upon inspection, it was worn carbon brushes, $20 ~ including the bottle of brake fluid ~ and about 3 hours of time.
Plenty of "shotgun" mechanics out there who'll just throw part after part at a problem without spending any effort in diagnosis of the actual problem. And no one "repairs" anything these days, they do parts replacement. Like my ABS unit, it's just a simple electric motor that wasn't energizing. Electric motors aren't complicated, pick up common skilsaw and you are expected to change the brushes at some point so they are designed to be easy to access. ABS unit? $4k from the dealer, about $1k on the used market (unknown miles/use), and not designed to be opened despite carbon brushes wearing out with use.
I'm like Brian, I do the majority of my own repairs, only using a local guy when I don't feel like doing something.
I have generally put together my daily drivers by buying one car that has a blown motor but is in excellent shape otherwise, and then buying the same model car that is wrecked. Then I blend the two. It will cost me a couple of thousand to do the swap, with a lot of new parts while I am in there, but then I get a car that I can depend on for a long time without having to touch it very much.
So, I guess my most expensive repair might be in the $2-3,000 dollar range.
$3,200 for clutch and rebuilt transmission on the old GSX. R&R would have been another $900 but did that myself. $10,000 sounds absolutely insane for a transmission. Maybe if we're talking about a Porsche PDK replacement, those do run around $10,000 as no one rebuilds them so you're looking at new from Porsche, that or overbuilt Nissan GTR. For anything normal that's just crazy talk.
I needed the whole transmission replaced for my 1994 ford escort sedan it would have costed 1500 dollars to replace but it costed more than the car was worth so I traded it in for another car
The rule of thumb is to ditch the car if the repair is more than the car is worth. Not always. I had an otherwise impeccable 98 Explorer that needed a transmission. A completely rebuilt transmission installed would cost me 2 grand and I went for it. I just couldn't see the truck end up in the junkyard. 30,000 miles later, it developed a rough running problem that nobody could fix. Curtains.
2005 Ford Escape. In 2015 with 125K miles, the ECM (engine computer module) blew out. Ford quoted $2400 with new ECM and new plugs/coils as the plugs/coils caused the issue. Another Ford dealer quoted $1800 with rebuilt ECM and new plugs/coil. Local repair guy did it for $1000 with rebuilt ECM and new plugs/coils. Kept is for two more tears and sold it.
Mine was probably a grinding 2nd gear on a 5.0 Mustang. Having never worked on cars, I bought a T5 rebuild video, had my mechanic neighbor take it out and rebuilt it in my bedroom. It was a actually pretty easy. I believe it cost me about $200-300. Not sure how much a shop would’ve charged but I’m guessing $1000+.
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