Ze car

[dancerjodi]

The dealer wasn't able to get the car to slam into gear (like it did for me) yesterday, despite letting it run for a while to get it hot. Thus - they can't diagnose it. They did all of the relevant diagnostic tests and just charged me $35 for the time they spent (which is good). They seem to think that *if* anything's wrong I'll need a new transmission valve body.

They told me that if that's the case, the problem will happen from time to time, and then more frequently. He said to watch it and come in if its doing it reliably again. The repair would be $600. He also suggested that I not go to a transmission shop whenever that time comes, because they'd probably "just give me a whole new transmission" which would cost over a grand. They've served me well before, so I'm just going to have to trust them for now.

Its too bad really, because I like Saturn and haven't had major problems before now. According to this http://consumeraffairs.com/automotive/saturn_trans.html it seems that some cars have lots of tranny problems. Its looking like this will be an on-going adventure.

At least I'm at over 100k (where most people on the above website had problems starting at much lower mileage).

Comments

[tiamatlady]

I'm sorry, especially about your issues, but I'm VERY gratified it's NOT just me and my car. I looked over the website you refered to. Like I'd said, I hope mine just gets me through to after the tax season.

197,000 and counting *grins*

Re: *raises hand*

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

i seem to recall a couple cars having a part inside the tranny essentially "give up" because users wouldn't actually come to a complete stop when changing directions.

have you ever: backed up a ways, and without actually stopping, change to a foward moving gear, and applied gas? or done the reverse? be slowly moving forward, switch to reverse, and gas it?

seems to be an audi issue in that vein. the broken part is now "loud and annoying" and can cause a "slam" like feeling sometimes (or surge), but that's it. repair: replace or rebuild tranny.

#

[deadbabydisco.livejournal.com]

Heya, I'm bored, poking around LJ and I saw this. Couple of simple things you can try would be to have the tranny fluid changed and to reset the TCU (just disconnect the negative battery cable for about 15-30 mins), if they haven't done all of this already. As far as the valve body, I would be surprised at a $600 repair...I don't know Saturns at all, but I would think they could replace it without even having to drop the tranny.