MSG C5

Has anyone rebuilt their tranny with Aamco? They claim to have a lifetime warranty as long as annual maintenance inspections are performed. I am wondering whether or not they truly honor the warrenty or if they have a loop hole "gotcha".

I know many of these lifetime warranties are not transferrable and they bank on you selling the car. In comparison Acura only offers a 1-year/12,000 mile warranty.

Mahusay3g

Do you really want a tranny from a chain company like aamco? They're famous for turning around and diagnosing everything as a transmission problem. Plus labor rate is going to kill with them, they probably are gonna ask 1000 bucks in labor alone in the rebuild.

TheMightyQuinn

As Mahusay said, every car brought in "needs a rebuild"--that's how they make money. Plus, their "lifetime warranty" is a joke as they treat you like a criminal for trying to get warranty work done for "free".

Story:
I had a transmission (`94 Ford Escort) rebuilt by them with their awesome "lifetime warranty". When I had the same problems after the rebuild it was a pain to get an appointment with them. When I could finally get in, they looked at it and couldn't find anything wrong. They eventually did find something wrong (on third appointment or so), and replaced the part, charging me for it. So after a $1500 rebuild, the problem turned out to be a $100 fix.

MilwaukeeDave

iTrader: (3)

Get a jasper transmission installed. It's what I did for my odyssey a few years back. They just rebuild them so you'll need an installer as well. Using their site you can find distributors and installers that will take care of you. It's a 3 year/100,000 mile warranty they offer and the price was fair. They even threw in an additional trans cooler with it as well. For the odyssey it was about 2500 I think total and its been perfect since.

Mahusay3g

You can get a used transmission for 600 bucks. From what I've learned accord and odyssey trannys fix the issue altogether.

acutee

Stay Away from their lifetime warranty, especially them, they will find every dirt execuse to reject warranty work; plus yearly inspection cost with them, and they will come up with something and if you dont do it, warranty will be voided and is good for an execuse. What the heck is yearly inspection anyway? it was supposed to be maintenance free if it wasn't the known issues. So, if they found a paint flake and if you dont fix it for 350 bucks, warranty will be voided? You will become their cash cow.

3.2TLc

Chain stores all claim to have a great warranty, but it's always in the fine print.....that they will attempt to baffle
you with the gray details involved to ever cash in. Truly artists of deception, unless you are able to follow their
disclaimers to the letter !

Get a good used '06/'07 Accord tranny installed for half the chain's rebuild pricing.

MSG C5

Thanks for all the feedback. This is the first time I've read about swapping in a later model year transmission. Can you simply drop and install the 06/07 Accord transmission? is the performance the same and does the newer transmission fix the design flaws of the original 2002 TL/2nd generation transmission?

3.2TLc

Hey MSG C5, yeah the '06/'07 Accord tranny's are of a much improved design and have been the best choice for a replacement to the older 5spd AT's in the 2nd gen TL's.

Do some research on the threads for this swap giving more details. It's definitely worth checking out as this swap is a better and cheaper alternative to rebuilding your old tranny.

Sperry

iTrader: (1)

Depending on the quality of the interior, paint, and the engine, I might even spring for a dealership install.

Mahusay3g

Stealership

the-G-ride

I've had my transmission replaced by aamco a total of three times (all within a year span) and it seems like there is going to be a fourth . My uncle works for aamco so I got a good deal, but damn do they suck. The aamco I took it to uses an outside transmission shop to repair transmissions. So it's not actually aamco thats repairing it. The owner was pretty cool about honoring the warranty, dunno if it was cauz my uncle worked there though or cauz he had a 2g cl, so he might have been feelin my pain lol. I didn't get lifetime warranty though, I think it was like 18 months or something.

buzzkillington503

i went local when my tranny went out about 2 years ago. i eventually found a shop that did it for 1400 with a 2 year warranty

MSG C5

Yep, I will perform some more research on a tranny swap. Anyone know off hand what is the latest year/model tranny that can be used on a 2002 TLS?