Looking at a 2000 with a bad trans.. questions

Hello! As stated, bad auto trans, Im new to these so looking to see if its worth buying to fix. He said it has rust under, the rear bumper is rusted out, but it has no rust holes or anything like that....

So, what do I all look out for, and anyone rebuilt the trans? What typically fails on these?

Thanks

 

The frames are known for rotting out. I would triple check the frame for rust-throughs. The steering is known for having problem with looseness. My guess is that the transmission fluid was never changed, which could also indicate other maintenance was skipped. The motors are known for being very reliable, so that is not too much of an issue as long as it is running well and not burning oil. A certified refurbished transmission will run around $1500, not including installation. A rebuild honestly will not save much money, unless you are doing the rebuild yourself.

 

Buy a 03-04 Transmission and swap it in, has the upgraded internals and you can normally get them for under $600 used.

 

This is truly your cheapest and best upgrade if you are going to swap it out. What symptoms are you experiencing with the trans? Toyota does a drain, filter change, new gasket and fill for around $200. If its a shudder, can be fixed with new fluid in the rear diff. You can also do all the fluids at home. Just make sure you can open the fill plug before opening the drain plug.

 

Not sure what happened to the trans yet, Ill find out more. I would do the work myself. The 03-04 trans idea sounds good. Can those guts be put into the older cases do you know?

 

The 03-04 trans will bolt on with no mods needed.

 

I would imagine so but don’t think it would be worth the effort.

 

Just thinking out loud, if I bought a few of the upgraded guts and put them in the trans thats in it now, so I was wondering.

 

http://www.car-part.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi

They have a trans w/ 35k on it for 150 plus shipping out of Fairmont Indiana.

I got mine with 50k on it for 350 plus 150 delivered to my fire station out of Kenosha WI.

 

The 2000-2002 have a known issue with the OD planetary gears imploding, my '02 went at 83K miles (a lot of boat towing), picked up a complete unit from LKQ with 60K miles on it from an '04...supposedly a direct swap..It wasn't. I had to remove the tailpiece and swap them out, not a big deal, used some gray gasket maker in place of the factory paper one, that was about 190K miles ago and still no leaks.