Does this series of MPV have more transmission troubles than other cars? My girlfriend (who doesn’t drive much)has a '92 MPV with less than 70k miles. At just about 60k the tranny disembowled itself. AAMCO “rebuilt” it and less than 10k (and 2 years)later it did it again. It’s out of warranty so I put a junkyard trans in. Bonehead that I am I accidentally overfill the thing and know it has shiny metal flakes in the fluid, makes funny sounds, and won’t drive the car anymore. I find it hard to believe that in 100 miles driving with too much fluid it has wrecked the trans. Any ideas?
Hate to say it, but your first mistake was going to Aamco. Chain stores like that are the LAST place you want to take your car, especially for something as sensitive as a transmission rebuild.
I’m curious how a transmission with only 60K on the clock “disembowels” itself. Was it maintained properly with regular fluid/filter changes? Since this one isn’t driven much it should be done after a certain period of time rather than mileage, preferably every two years at the minimum.
Metal flakes in the fluid and lack of drive means that now the unit is pretty much toast. It’s hard to know for sure since it came from a boneyard…it might’ve been ready to kick the bucket all along, and it just needed to operate for a bit to finish things. Overfilling the fluid certainly didn’t help matters, for sure.
What you need to do at this point is locate a good local INDEPENDENT transmission shop and let them look at things. Stay away from Aamco or any of its chain lookalikes (Cottman, Lee Myles, others that I’m forgetting).
I can’t explain why the original transmission failed, but the name AAMCO explains the second, rapid failure. Never take a vehicle to AAMCO. That’s like going to JiffyLube. You’re asking for trouble.
How do you know the junkyard transmission was good before you installed it? It may have been on its last legs.
I suggest you find a transmission expert, not AAMCO, and let them figure it out.
AAMCO = All Automatics Must Come Out.