mrj1813

Hello, first post, just signed up.
I have an 04 TL with 186,000 miles. I've owned it since 90,000. It's got a few small issues but never anything large. I love this car.
So, my son just started driving it when he got his license. I've now been told the tranny is shot. He was driving it and the rpm's shot up to 5000 with no increase in speed and then at the next intersection when he pushed on the gas when the light turned green, rpm's went up but the car stood still. I got there in about 30 min and was able to drive it at low speed to my neighborhood garage (maybe it cooled down?) who told me the tranny is bad and that it would cost 2800 for a used tranny with 132,000miles or 4800 for a remanufactured one with 3 year warranty (1400 labor cost). Needless to say, the car isn't worth that much on the market so I started researching 04 TL tranny replacement and found on this site that a lot of people chose to replace it with an 06/07 Honda Accord V6 tranny, which I guess is a better transmission per the threads I've read on here. I had the tranny fluid changed at 101,000 and 140,000 miles. Currently the fluid is pretty dark.
I searched some auto part finder sites and I could probably get an Accord tranny for around 1000 or so with 100,000-120,000 miles on it. I am NOT mechanical so now I want to find a garage that will do this swap for me. The mechanic at the local place I took it to at first (who I think isn't too experienced with large jobs on imports) really thinks it's a bad idea and that using an Accord tranny will lead to problems with the install, even though I showed him some threads from here where people stated it fit like a glove. I called another guy recommended to me be a co-workerwho works on imports and his opinion was that there was no difference between the quality of the TL and the Accord tranny's except gear ratio and I don't know enough to debate it. So......I have some questions for all of you.

1. Is it just the 06/07 Accord tranny's that fit the 04 TL? In looking up Japanese tranny's on JDM website they seem to group the Accord tranny's all the same from 03-07.
2. Is there anything else besides gear ratio that is different between the Accord and TL tranny's? Why is the Accord tranny better?
3. Is there anything else besides the range sensor that would need to be transferred over from the old TL tranny to the Accord tranny?
4. Is the Accord V6 automatic J30A tranny the right one? Also, when I look on auto salvage yard sites, is the Accord sedan 3.0L VIN M (5th digit) the right one?
5. What is a reasonable install cost/hours of labor to remove the old tranny and install the new one by a mechanic who works frequently on imports/Hondas?
6. What are your opinions on getting a used JDM tranny (either TL or Accord) from Japan that has 55-65000 miles on it per the website?

thanks in advance!
Sam