i have had transmission problems with my blazer 01 for the last 6 years. AAMCO rebuilt it in 05 and i have had it checked each year. it has needed rebuilt 2 times and now a 3rd time. they told me that my lifetime warranty was no good but they would reinstate it and make the needed repairs for 750 dollars. my blazer 01 needed o2 sensors and they are saying a u joint. also the transmissino repair was a transmission bracket. now they are telling me the repairs will be “around 1300 dollars” i think i am being taken advantage of. what do you think. aamco has “repaired” the transmission every time it needed it and also checked it each year. problem is i do not have all papaerwork.
I guess that you are new to this forum. If you had spent more than a day or two perusing the posts here, you would have seen how we consistently warn people to stay away from AAMCO, Lee Myles, Cottman, Mr. Transmission, and all other chain operations.
These places are known for
Replacing or overhauling transmissions that needed only simple repairs
Poor workmanship
Overcharging for the work that they do
Failure to stand behind their work
So, apparently your experience confirms what we state here regularly, sad to say.
If you had the necessary documentation, it would probably be sufficient to get AAMCO to do another poor-quality repair job on your transmission, but in the absence of the necessary documentation, it is clear that you are on your own with this one.
Look at your loss of documentation as a God-send, in effect. Now, you can start with a clean slate, at an independent transmission shop. Ask friends, co-workers, relatives, and neighbors for the name of an independent transmission shop with which they have had good experience.
If you go to a well-reputed indy transmission expert who has been in business for at least 3 years, you will be likely to get a more honest diagnosis, better quality workmanship, and a lower price. And, you should get into the habit of retaining ALL documentation of your car’s maintenance and repairs in a binder dedicated to just that purpose.
AAMCO = All Automatics Must Come Out
Get away from these guys before they bankrupt you. Find an independent transmission shop.
Then start a file and keep records.
Friend of mine who owns a dealership in upstate NY LOVES the AAMCO dealer down the road. Says he gets so many of his MISTAKES each year. And people have gone there for diagnosis and they tell them they need a new transmission…Then they come to his shop and all it needs is a fluid and filter change. They are now happy repeat customers.
What was Aamco’s justification for saying your lifetime warranty was no good? Did you get the transmission properly maintained with regular transmission fluid changes? Something is missing from this story. We need more details.
Aamco should have a copy of your records. Losing your records isn’t sufficient justification for voiding your warranty, unless you got the transmission maintained elsewhere and didn’t keep [b]those[/b] records. If that is the case, go to where you got the fluid changed and ask for a print-out of your maintenance history. Then you can show those records to Aamco to get your warranty reinstated.
I echo what others have said about Aamco. That is the worst place to take your car for transmission work. However, just because you lost the paperwork doesn’t mean you don’t still have options. [b]Please give us more details that are missing from this story.[/b]
Has anyone else seen the new AAMCO TV ads in which they are touting themselves as the place to go for A/C service and for other maintenance and repair jobs?
If people continue to fall for the slick advertising of these corporate charlatans, Tom & Ray will need to set up an additional website just to handle the questions from a new crop of naive people who were rooked by AAMCO.
First, sincere thanks for your military service.
My feelings about AAMCO are they same as the others, however it’s way too late for that advice. I would however, suggest that you accept the fact that they’re unable or unwilling to give you either a proper repair or justice. You may be able to get justice through a amll claims court, but that’s another question you’ll need to ponder. Lack of paperwork would be a problem…perhaps in future you’ll keep all car repair and maintenance records just in case.
At this point you may want to consider having the transmission evaluated by an independent owner-operated shop and see what they say. They may be able to get everything back in working order. If they say yours is toast, you may wnat to ask about the cost of replacing it with a boneyard tranny.
Other than agreeing that you should avoid AAMCO and unless there is an outside reason for repeated transmission failures (abusive driving, towing heavy loads, leaking transmission fluid cooler, etc.) then it could be that the rebuild was of a halfxxx nature.
With automatic transmissions there are 2 classes of rebuild in my opinion.
One is a proper by the book rebuild with all new bushings, updates, new converter, and all soft parts; generally referred to as a “hard rebuild”.
The other is what I call a “soft rebuild” and this means the trans is torn down, new sets of clutches and seals installed, and it’s called good. It’s possible for a transmission to go a long time on one of these; or maybe not.
I have no idea which rebuild you got or whether you even got the one you were charged for.
With the latter, one sees ads in the local paper here for rebuilds like this. These rebuilders generally offer a rebuilt trans for 395 bucks exchange and this is what you would be getting; a soft rebuild.
Back in the late 1960’s, my brother had the automatic transmission rebuilt in his 1962 Buick Special at AAMCO. I think that this transmission was called a dual-path Dynaflow. At any rate, after the rebuild, the transmission wouldn’t always drop back into first gear. The AAMCO place said that this was the nature of the transmission and nothing more could be done. My brother then took his Buick to another AAMCO franchise. This franchise said that the transmission needed to come out and be rebuilt. My brother had them do the work. When it came time to pay up, my brother just showed them the warranty that was good at any AAMCO franchise. The second franchise threw a fit, but they did have to honor the warranty. The second franchise said they shouldn’t have to clean up after another AAMCO franchise.
In this day of computers, the second franchise could have looked up the car and found out that they might be stuck with the bill. However, my brother did make them honor the warranty.
I like this story. I’m not sure I’d have the gonads, but I really like the idea.
I like this story too. Makes me like that two of our three cars have manual transmissions.
I know it was quite a while ago but do you remember the actual failure? parts or workmanship or maybe something easy that they didn’t tell you about.
This happened back in 1968. To the best of my recollection the workmanship was bad from the first AAMCO shop. I do know that the second AAMCO shop did get the job right. I do remember that the Buick Special (and I think the Oldsmobile F-85) of this time period were known for transmission problems. I do remember that the second AAMCO shop did pull the transmission from the car and tear it down.