Hi,
I have 2002 Volvo V70 wagon with 125,000 miles on it. I purchased it used and the previous owner replaced the transmission once because of a recall. Now it looks like I will need another transmission. (And yes I realize now that this car is a money pit.) My mechanic has suggested a rebuilt transmission from Volvo with a one year warranty. I also got a quote from a transmission specialist who claims that they rebuild the transmission with all of the updates but they give a two year warranty. (Both will cost around the same $3600). My question is, which is the better option? Obviously a two year warranty is much more appealing considering the horrible track record with these transmissions but am I better off getting it from Volvo with just the one year warranty?
Thanks for any and all advice!
Is the “transmission specialist” the owner of an independent shop that has been in business for at least 3 years? If so, then I would recommend getting him to do the rebuild.
Or, is the “transmission specialist” a guy who runs a franchise, like AAMCO, Lee Myles, Cottman, or Mr. Transmission?
If the latter is the case, I suggest that you run away from that shop as fast as you can, as their workmanship tends to be very poor and they frequently have so many “weasel clauses” built into their warranties that the warranty may not be worth the paper that it is printed on.
My experience with that car, owned a '98 and an '00, is it takes the term “money pit” to a whole new level. My experience was at least one $2000 and up repair bill per year on a car driven about 6000 miles per year. If you keep it budget accordingly, $3000 per year. My advice - don’t repair the tranny. Accept that it was a bad decision to buy it - junk it take the loss and move on. I had mega repair bills for: a new fuel pump, front end work, mass airflow sensor, new drive shaft, and on and on. In fact I didn’t have any tranny or viscous coupler problems.
“I had mega repair bills for: a new fuel pump…”
It’s nice to see that Volvo has retained some of their traditions.
;-))
In the 7 years that I owned my bought-new POS Volvo, I replaced the fuel pump 4 times.
And then there was the electrical system, the CIS fuel injection, the transmission, the excessive oil burning…
“Used trans.”
Then sell it. There’s probably a “greater fool” out there that’ll take it off your hands.
If you’d prefer to keep the car for many more years, I’d go with a rebuild of the existing transmission. Provided you trust the shop has the needed expertise to do the job of course.
When doing a rebuild, in many cases they can install heavy duty parts that are of a better quality and reliability than the original. Ask the shop if they offer this service. They’ll charge more if you opt for the higher quality parts, but you’ll end up with a transmission even better than new.
If the transmission shop owner says they have never heard of there being various optional grades of rebuild parts, and they just install what comes in the rebuild kit, that’s an indication the transmission shop is not one of the better shops. You might want to avoid doing business with them in that case. If they say they commonly install heavy duty parts on other brands of transmissions, but not on Volvo transmissions, that might be the case, so don’t dismiss them straight away if that’s what they say. Best of luck.
If you want to avoid having to think about complicated things like this, suggest a manual transmission for your next car. How hard is it to shift gears? I mean really?
How hard is it to shift gears? Well George for some of us ( a knee replacement that did not go well ) it is out of the question and a lot of vehicles only are made with automatic transmissions.
Sorry to hear of your disability VolvoV70. Your are absolutely right, a disability may disallow certain car options available to others without the disability.