My girlfriend has a 2013 Chrysler Town & Country with 130k miles. Last month the transmission failed, and she said that there was transmission fluid all over the road when it stopped working. A few days ago she got the van back from an independent mechanic that replaced the entire transmission, but the transmission has failed again, and there was also transmission fluid all over the road. I don't know which shop she took it to, and I haven't looked at the work order to figure out what they did.
I told her to get rid of it after the first transmission was replaced, but she didn't. Any advice?
Was it a used transmission that was installed? If so there is a high probability of failure on those. I'd say it was either that or instead of replacing the transmission they just patched up the old one. Check the paperwork to see if there is a warranty in effect.
Definitely get rid of the thing this time.
@chucktobias I'm not sure, but I do know that the replacement transmission came with a warranty, so there's that. She told me that her father got into a dispute with the shop regarding price, and that the mechanic had a bad attitude when he gave her the keys. The Chrysler dealer quoted her $6k to replace it, but she had it "fixed" at this place for $5k, but it appears the savings wasn't worth it, especially since it took them a month to fix it.
I think you're right about the independent shop just repairing the old one, since it wouldn't make sense to charge $5k for a used replacement, since the Chrysler dealer was going to put in a remanufactured unit for $6k.
But she doesn't want to get rid of it even though it's falling apart. She works at a vet 3-4 days a week, and is attending college using her own money, so buying a new or CPO car is out of the question. I told her to look at used Hondas, Toyotas, Hyundai's, Kia's, even high-mileage ones, but she doesn't want any vehicle that doesn't have more than 100k. 🤦
Well you definitely would not want a Hyundai or Kia product (that would be out of the frying pan into the fire, quite literally) but that $5000 would have been much better spent towards a good used Civic or Corolla. I'm afraid that Chrysler has entered "endless money pit" status.