What would you do?

[05caddyext]

My mom has a 2002 Jeep Liberty with 91,000 miles. She has owned it since new, and has been very religious about keeping up with maintenance, including all the xx,000 mile services. She found out today that she needs a new transmission, 4th gear is totally gone. Dealership tested it and said that it can either be rebuilt at an unknown cost, or they can put in a re-man one with an estimate of $4100. KBB on it is about $6000 give or take, its in immaculate condition, always clean. Should she fix it or just dump it before dumping that kinda money in it? I wouldn't spend that kinda money on it, but that's just me. And it's been paid for for years, so that isn't a concern.

[GTSLOW]

The question is what is KBB on one with a bad tranny? Is this a 4wd or 2wd?

[wrath]

I believe that is the 42RLE and that is a dime-a-dozen transmission. Get a junkyard one.

[Al]

The stealership wants to sell you a new transmission or a used one which they say is new.

Find a tranny shop that can sell you a used one with a warranty. That should all stay under 1 grand.

[05caddyext]

The kbb is with a good trans. My point being that the truck is only worth 6k and shed have to put 4k into it. Not worth it. It's a 4wd. And any recommendations on shops? I've never had to change a trans, so I have no idea where a good place is to go. I don't want her to get ripped off.

[Car Guy]

Call TNS Transmissions and talk to Tim......

[Slow Joe]

I'd either get a used transmission and dump it, or if she wants to keep it and have it rebuilt not at a dealership...

[BoosTT]

No way I would dump $4k into a lower end, almost 10 year old car. I would pay about $2k to have it fixed and I don't think it would be too hard to find a place that can repair it for that.

Do you really have an option besides getting it fixed? Can you decide on a new car and locate one quick enough? Most people dump too much money into cars for this reason.

[88Nightmare]

Call TNS Transmissions and talk to Tim......

This.

[twicks69]

I agree, talk to him, he has a good name :wink:!

There is no way in Hell a rebuild on that auto is more than $2000 let alone 20 labor hours to remove/replace it. Cost a junkyard one from car-part.com. there is a great parts yard up in Rio, WI if you do a 100-150mile search that may have a trans for you otherwise. I can't remember the name of it off the top of my head but they were great prices, great service and were easy to deal with.

Tim Zimmer via Evo Phone

[Prince Valiant]

I've had to do the same trans, albeit a slightly older version, for far less than that; rebuilt the transfer case at the same time...still came to around 2500 using a jasper remanned unit. While I'm sure prices have gone up since then, it still wouldn't be that bad.

For the 02, the trans will likely be the 45RFE...the 42RLE became available later and on lower models. Make sure you use your vin# to confirm which trans you have.

I often look at it in terms of this: What is the price of the repair, and can I get a better used vehicle for the cost of that repair? And more importantly, can I get a better used vehicle with a known history, and in this case, a known good transmission with likely a warranty for that cost? You can add the value of the trade in to that price too...

...so Liberty Trade-in w/ bad trans (2000 dollars?) to a 4000 dollar rebuild as a worst case scenario, you then look at what 6,000 dollars in the used car market can get you. My guess is nothing quite as good as an otherwise religiously maintained 9x,000 mile Liberty; it's worth the look though in helping you decide what to do. But then factor in the cost of what a lower mile, lesser used vehicle would be to you, and now is the difference in cost make it seem like a better value? If you can get low mileage/newer small SUV's for the 9-10G range, it might be better. If the cost of what you're looking at is 14-16G, well, maybe not.

BTW, I looked up the cost of a remanned unit from Jasper, that when you use an authorized Jasper dealer (a number of local shops) to install for you comes with a 3 year, 100,000 mile waranty, and the cost, I'm assuming without core charge, was 2,300 dollars for the 45RFE.