Daughter's Dodge Spirit Tranmission

mammer49 · #1 Apr 11, 2008, 10:20 AM

My daughter's 1990 Dodge Spirit has 150,000 miles. She says when she was driving, it stopped pulling itself. It just got really slow and stopped. Does she need a new transmission or maybe just a new filter & fluid? Any help would be appreciated.
How much is an estimated repair cost from simple to extreme?
Thanks.

this8384 · Apr 11, 2008, 12:20 PM

Seems kind of funny that it just "randomly" slowed down and stopped. If the tranny was really going out, there would have been other symptoms. Did the vehicle stall or just stop moving?

this8384 · Apr 16, 2008, 03:50 AM

Chrysler is notorious for bad trannys; I've seen late 90s Rams with under 100K need a trans replacement because they're just junk to begin with.

However, one of my co-workers owns a '91 Spirit and he's got 220K+ on his on the original tranny. Granted, it is starting to slip now but that's almost 100K more than the OP's car has on it. I'm leaning towards someone never servicing the fluid and filter, the daughter kept driving it when it was slipping and now it's completely shot.

ddollinger · Apr 18, 2008, 11:30 AM

GreaseMonkey, I am not taking a shot at you and even agree with your prognosis that the tranny needs to be replaced but you need to tell your Ford Engineer to back up his claim. Parts are not "engineered" to last a certain length of time. Quality of the parts will determine lifespan and contrary to popular belief as I am sure you are aware, most auto makers try to make quality vehicles. Let me relay this to you. My son-in-law and I had identical vehicles (1996 Blazer), his transmission went out the first time at 75K, had it rebuilt, went out again at 175K replaced it and then it went out again at 250K so he got rid of it and bought new. I sold mine at 325K and never had a problem. Both stuck to the maintenance schedule. Of course this is only one case but I could relay many more. In my experience for every 10 vehicles sold, 2 will not make it due to accidents, etc., out of the 8 left, 1 will experience failure at 100K or less, 1 or 2 will last about 150K, and the other 5 or 6 will far, far, exceed that limit. What your Ford Engineer is telling you is his opinion. Far more exceed 150K then fail at that point and most of them are not maintained anywhere near what the maintenance schedule dictates. Now if your Ford Engineer has some proof to back-up his statement I will gladly eat-my-words and apologize to this whole board.

BTW: Your how-to's are spot on and I use them myself. Very well written, concise, and very easy to follow.



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