That’ll Leave a Mark

Cars, Dude Stuff, Get r' Done

The hoopty’s been smoking lately.

I notice it more when I pull up at a light after being on the highway. An acrid smoke will waft up from under the hood. Not quite an oil smell, more like plastic. I’ve broken my ass trying to figure it out.

Turns out, it’s transmission fluid.

What appears to be happening is that the seal from the torque converter to the tranny is leaking. The way it’s built, I’m guessing it pools in the bell housing. So when I brake from the highway, it dribbles on the exhaust crossover pipe. BTW- that bad boy has 3” pipes. Pretty cool.

This is why there’s no ATF on my driveway.

Turns out there’s a highly rated local transmission shop right near me. I called them and got a $1250 estimate on replacing the seal.

Ooof!

They have to lever that big bastard out of the truck to do it. I’m sure nearly all of that is labor.

You know, it just cracked 100k. Time for transmission service anyhow. I’ve had the thing two years and haven’t spent much on it at all, other than normal maintenance – oil, air filter, that kind of thing.

I was toying with buying a newer truck, or a car, as a backup, but the extra cost in insurance per year (If I don’t buy a beater outright) is like 1/2 the cost of this repair.

Ain’t worth it. The repair is half or so of what I planned on putting down on a car. So all in all, it’s cheaper to fix the one I got and move on.

I’ll throw some love at the old girl. I have a good set of seat covers to put on. It needs a detailing.

Worth the time and money, to me anyhow.

Unknown's avatar

Published by Himself

Published

One thought on “That’ll Leave a Mark”

  1. It’s a little unsettling when you get an estimate like that for sure. Last time I was in for a fix at the dealership they left a hang-tag on the mirror offered a “Special Financing” program for repairs. Yeah. Really.

    Of course! The fact that this particular repair (not that I couldn’t afford to pay it outright) was more than twice what I paid for my very first car en toto does speak volumes as to the state of affairs vis-a-vis the value of the dollar, etc. stands on it’s own. That “Special Financing” is now not only available… but in some cases for some folks, possibly the only viable alternative is more than a little disturbing.

    I could not imagine making payments on a vehicle AND having a credit card bill on top of THAT to pay for a repair.

    Debt Slavery…. God help us.

    Glad you’re getting it sorted.

    Like

Comments are closed.