Replacing a transmission in your vehicle is enough to send the strongest man to his room weeping. Why? Because transmissions are an expensive replacement part, and most people do not have the spare money sitting around to pay for the job, that’s why! Let’s face it, next to replacing an engine, no other part in your vehicle costs as much.
So how much exactly will the replacement of a transmission costs? Well, that’s not an easy question to answer, mainly because you have several options, and also because the make and model of your vehicle plays a big part in the cost of replacing the transmission.
Basically you have three choices to consider in replacing a transmission. You can go with a remanufactured transmission, a rebuilt transmission or a used transmission. Let us explain the three options for you.
A remanufactured transmission is one that has been sent back to the factory and has been completely disassembled with all vital parts replaced. A rebuilt transmission is one that is disassembled in an auto shop with all worn or damaged parts replaced along with new gaskets, seals and other hard parts. A used transmission is one you buy usually at a salvage yard or off of craigslist or other similar site.
Now for the cost. A rebuilt of remanufactured transmission can cost in excess of $1,000, again depending on the make and model of your car or truck and the amount of damage that has been done to the transmission. For a passenger car, you can figure between $1,000 and $$4,000, and for a truck the price will be somewhere between $2,200 and $4,500. Of course, you then have to figure the labor costs, and those will be, on average, $75 per hour and plan on ten hours or more of labor involved.
A used transmission from a salvage yard will cost you between $200 and $600, again depending on the make and model, and the labor costs can be zero if you do the job yourself. Be forewarned, though, that buying a used transmission is at times a crap shoot; you really don’t know what you are getting. The best you can hope for is to get a limited warranty on the used transmission.
There are approximately sixty steps involved in replacing an automatic transmission, so the labor involved is long and costly.
The best tip we can give you at PDQ transmission parts is this: if you do not have the adequate knowledge necessary to do this repair, then let the pros handle it and cough up the money. The transmission is just too important to leave to guesswork.
