Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Transaxle Girlfriend's tranny on the fritz...any ideas?

I posted this in General forums but I'm moving it here so it'll be more "On Topic".

I know this isn't a Contour question, but I wanted to see if anyone knows what could be wrong. My girlfriend has a 1994 Chrysler Concorde, and the transmission had already been serviced previously early this year (Around Feb/March). I'd have to dig up the service report to see exactly what was done, but I believe it had to do with something called a Planetary (It's an auto trans). My guess is that the T-Tech tranny service she had a few months before this (Where they flush the tranny fluid out via high pressure instead of draining it) caused the problems and loosened deposits from the detergents in the fluid; after all, it did have over 115k miles on it at the time.

Anyways, now she just called me and said that her transmission isn't working again. When you move the gear selector into any gear it grinds very bad, almost like putting gravel in a blender is how she described it. Also, none of the gears engage at all. Anyone had something similar happen with an auto trans?

The place where she had work done previously is going to pick it up, and possibly fix it, but I don't know if their 1 year/12,000 mile warranty covers the ENTIRE transmission, or just the parts they fixed; anyone have experience with a shop's tranny warranty like this? Most likely this car is junk, because if the warranty doesn't cover it I'm not letting her put more money into this car. She just paid $1500 and wasted her entire income tax return on it, and I have a feeling this car will nickel and dime her to death.

If we junk the car, the plan would be for me to give my girlfriend the Contour and let her take over the payments, and then get myself a new car. I'm looking at either a Civic or a Toyota (Corolla or Camry), something with a stick and something fun to drive that's reliable. Anyone else have suggestions on a new car?

For $1500 it sounds like she got the tranny rebuilt, if that was all the $1500 paid for.
She should have some type of warranty to cover the entire tranny on a rebuild.
Let us know what the shop says when you call them to tell them they need to come and get the car and fix it right...

Well, it was $1500 for parts and labor. The tranny wasn't rebuilt, just the planetary plate, or something similar sounding, was replaced. The way he explained it, that part for Chrysler transmissions was pretty expensive, and the labor was up there too. When my girlfriend gets home I'll see if she can dig up the invoice and find out exactly what was done.

My question is though, to anyone who's had transmission work done...did your warranty usually cover the ENTIRE tranny, or just the parts that were replaced?

1) It's a Crysler...only way to fix it so there's no more transmission problems is to get rid of it and not buy another Chrysler (at least untill they can prove they can make a transmission)
2) Get an SVT 'tour

3) Funny storie about Chrysler trannies actually:
When we were looking for a car for my girlfriend, they had a '96 Mystique down at a local Chrysler delear. I ended up going for a testdrive with the sales manager and we got talking about her parents chrysler minivan. He was impressed that it was up to about 320,000 km and said that's a good testament. I mentioned that that hadn't exactly been trouble free as it'd been in the garage about one every 2 weeks. I then told him that my dad had owned a '94 Caravan and that we sold it at 325,000 km and never had any powertrain problems(interior fit and finish is another story) The Salse manager was absoultley amazed that we managed to get that many km out of the original transmission. --There's food for thought