Here's my problem. Last year I had my tranny rebuilt. A year later, the governor became stuck and was replaced for free. A couple days later, the transmission stopped shifting into high gear. The fluid was burnt, etc. They rebuilt it under warranty. A week later? Same exact problem, but worse. Again, they rebuilt it under warranty and added a tranny fluid cooler. Immediately after starting the car and driving it away after that rebuild, there was now a very noticeable vibration. It went away, seemingly at idle/500-550 rpms. Anything over than that, vibration. Last week, the torque arm mount broke. It was only 2 years old at the time. They replaced that and still couldn't find the cause of the vibration. Drive the car for a week and... The transmission stops shifting into higher gears again. Now they don't want to replace anything under warranty anymore. It has expired, but they obviously never fixed the original problem.

I already spoke with Dana at probuilt and he recommended that I get in contact with someone else local down here to first diagnose the problem.

I need to talk to someone in the south Florida area that knows these transmissions, or has a shop and is reliable. I CANNOT and will not keep throwing good money after bad anymore, what with rental cars, and all these extra fixes that aren't solving the problem. I would prefer to talk to someone on the phone or in person with the car to diagnose the actual problem and get it fixed PROPERLY. Can anyone please help me out here?

 

I really think you ought to take it to a big time shop, like an AAMCO. If you are more readily having yours fixed than replacing it with a hi-po unit. These shops will often diagnose your problems without charge and, in any event, you will have a qualified second opinion. Their warranty is as good as any.

I think you may have gotten hit by a low budget tranny shop. Their main sources of work are buy here, pay here car lots. They strip 'em down, replace only what needs to get going, and slap it back together. They re-use everything that they can.

Sorry I can't help any more than that.

 

I've actually decided to take it to the Chevy dealership right down the street. They are going to diagnose the ACTUAL problem before they do any other work. I'm guessing the tranny is again blown up inside, so I'll have them put in a completely different tranny. It's a bit more expensive than the usual shops, but I have had it with being given the run around and not having my problem fixed. I talked to the dealer and the new tranny will have a 5 year warranty. I'm not gonna let them replace a thing until they tell me concrete what the problem is and why it keeps happening over and over again.

They are gonna know beforehand that if they find a bad governor, or blown 3/4 pack that that likely is not the ROOT of the problem. Once I find out exactly what the problem is, I'm gonna post it here so noone else winds up with this kind of issue.

 

More than that, get those results in writing from the dealer and then visit the Better Business Bureau. You will now have a valid complaint to try to get some of your money back from the first guy that did the work.

It doesn't cost anything, and they have gotten me partial restitution before. If nothing else, the business will get a bad listing and people like me who check them out before giving them work will go somewhere else.

 

That works for me about the BBB. I am definately getting this in writing signed by the tranny tech and the service manager. It's currently at the dealer now. I'm going to call tomorrow and see if they've discovered what's wrong yet. I spoke with the service manager and the transmission tech who is going to work on it and completely explained the situation, so they have a full picture of what has happened so far.

Should I get the new GM reman tranny, it is 2500 installed and comes with a torque converter and a 5 year 100,000 mile warranty. I cannot imagine the tranny in my car now is saveable in any fantasy world and I am most definately getting that new tranny. Quite frankly, I don't even want that old thing in my car anymore. It could have any number of issues such as metal fatigue and is most likely a tranny from a junkyard as I just was told that's where he likely gets his trannys. Due to the fact they ship out trannys and don't get one in return unless the car comes into the shop, they have to get em from somewhere. Most likely I received a junkyard case last year from who knows what vehicle type and service record and it's now showing problems.

As a bit of an update, after my last posting and on the way to the dealer, the car would only shift from 1st to 2nd and nothing else. At 20mph it started to rev up, I'd guess at its predesignated shift point that no longer functioned for 3rd anymore. You could only go above 20 by letting it extremely gradually meander its way up, but I don't think I hit even 30mph or so the entire way to the rental car place or the dealer.

I will say it was a PLEASURE sitting down with the service manager and tranny tech and going over the problems with them. Both were surprised about the numbers of times its been rebuilt within such a short period. Basically it's nice to talk to people who have a clue, other than someone who winds up shrugging their shoulders at me(literally) and most likely did next to nothing to solve the problem other than throwing a few more parts at the tranny because "it was costing me time any money". That last bit after because is in their own words too.

The sad thing is, as soon as I described some of the various problems such as at highway cruising speeds(50-60-etc), the rpms are constantly dropping and rising about 100rpms, the tech INSTANTLY said that that part sounds like the torque converter cycling on and off when it is "NOT SUPPOSED TO" This problem has existed since about 2 weeks BEFORE the tranny was rebuilt the 2nd time/1st governor went out, 1st rebuild under their warranty.

The guy who installed the tranny claimed he not only didn't see that problem after driving it 176 miles the last time(I checked), but that it was actually not a problem to begin with. Next he says that my "30 year old car" then he said it was 20 when I reacted in shock at the 30 year statement(I actually had to firmly state that it was 16, not 20 or 30) and that due to that age the vibration problem wasn't a problem but due to age even though the vibration did not exist in any way, shape or form before driving it off their lot the very last time.

I feel better now after ranting a bit, lol. Once I find out more tomorrow from the dealer, I'll post an update.

 

The car is back from the Chevy dealership. ALL problems associated with the old junk transmission that was sold to me by the other company have been solved. The old transmission was the source of the horrible vibrations and TERRIBLE shifting including part throttle upshifting off the line WAY to early in all gears, such as 2/3 shift 1-2 seconds after shifting into second.

There are no more abnormal vibrations. The car shifts factory perfect now, exactly like it did before I brought it to the other shop a year ago. This all stemmed from crappy workmanship and apparant lack of knowledge or lack of caring to solve the problem. The previous shop drove my car over 180 miles over the course of 3 warranty "rebuilds" and claimed there were NO problems whatsoever. The final rebuild culminated in the car having a horrendous vibration and very poor shifting, such as the near instantaneous 1-2/2-3 shifts. The vibration didn't occur until he replaced the torque converter.

After getting the car back from leaving it with the owner for 5 days straight and 176 miles added to the odometer, I was told the car was perfect and there were no problems other than the one year old tranny mount needing to be replaced(they replaced it a year ago) because it was broken, most likely due to either damage they did working on the transmission so many times or the horrible vibration that felt like it was shaking the car apart. I was also told that the vibration was due to the car being 30 years old, then he corrected to 20 years old, then finally had to correct both his years with the actual age of 16. I'm truly sorry I ever brought the car to them in the first place since he can't even tell the difference between a 3rd gen 1991 TA and a 2nd gen 1977, especially after having the car at his shop for roughly 2 weeks total in the last 2 months.

2 days after getting the car back, the tranny blew up. Anyway, as I stated in previous posts, the car went straight to Chevy this time since he would no longer even attempt to diagnose the problem anymore without me throwing more money at him. Not only did he just want to rebuild using the SAME casing, but after asking them to use another case they told me to find one and he'd rebuild at cost.

The dealership discovered the crappy work done, that there were problems with the casing and torque converter, etc. Nice shiny GM transmission was installed and everything is perfect. The car hasn't felt this good since the original tranny was replaced.

My impression is that the original shop is only good at replacing parts. Should any problems occur such as a bad casing or blown tranny, or whatever, they do not seem to be able to diagnose the problem and just continue to throw more parts at it in the hope that it fixes the problem they can't figure out. From now on, my car goes to the dealership down the street.

 

You should give us all the name and address of the shop so that we know who to avoid...

 

That would be Total Car Care. I don't have the address as they just moved to a new storefront, but it's on Commercial and Prospect in Fort Lauderdale.

I THOUGHT they gave me a great deal last year until a year passed and I had to rent 3 cars because they couldn't fix or replace a transmission they are supposedly specialists at. I wound up paying, lemme see... paying about 4500-5000 EXTRA in rental fees, needless work added to try and diagnose the problem by pin the tail on the donkey method(fluid cooler they installed), lost time at work and finally the cost of the new transmission from Chevy. Good lord, for 5000 I could have bought the new SD TPI motor I have been wanting to get for a while.

Also, the GM tranny comes with a 5 year 100,000 mile warranty and the old shop rebuilt tranny had a 1 year warranty. By the way, the 2nd time they rebuilt the tranny one of their techs decided to, for whatever reason, swap the driver side(ONLY) tires, front to rear on a 91 TA... Does anyone see where this is going? I pulled the car out of the space and heard a horrible grinding noise... Yeah, they figured that out finally after damaging the inside of my rim. Oh and after I picked up the car the last and finaly time, I had a look under it to check out the mount they installed and saw a HUGE shiny new gouge about a foot long on the passenger side floor pan.

I guess I'm done ranting about it, so beware if you deal with them. You get treated reasonably well, but possibly at the cost of quality workmanship.