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Is it worth putting in a used or rebuilt tranny for my truck? It has 145,000 miles on it, leaks about 1/2 qt oil per week, tires are good, a little rust under the doors, no dents, interior is good. The reason I’m asking is because I just bought $500 worth of parts I.e brakes, rotors, calipers, hoses, shocks, ball joints to put on the truck for my son to drive as he just got his license and I wanted him to be safer with this older truck. Before I got a chance to put all this on, then the transmission goes out. Before he started driving it, it was fine! I think he was hotrodding it. F 150s can last 300,000 or more miles and I haven’t had any other problems with it, and I’m the original owner. Should I do it or not? I won’t have to pay much in labor since my son-in-law is a mechanic and will help me do the work.
Need a replacement transmission? Quality transmissions are hard to find. Free estimate to your email.The short answer is this: if you think it’s worth an investment of about $3,000 then go ahead and have the tranny fixed. You have a large investment ready to put into the old pickup, but, are you ready to put in the money you will need to replace the transmission. Frankly, at this point, it might be a better idea to find another pickup — if that’s the way you want to go — and cut your losses because of the amount you are going to invest will make a good downpayment (or complete payment, if you can find a bargain — check a local shopper or Craigslist). It is more than likely that with an investment approaching $4,000, if you decide to replace the transmission, you are just starting down a rocky road that leads to the “nickel and dime” syndrome where you just keep throwing more money into a what will likely become a bottomless pit.
One other thing, it is more than likely you will find that with rust starting to show under the doors that the frame has more rust damage hiding out of sight so, bearing this in mind, as well, it’s probably time to let the F-150 go.
Here’s an idea that I hinted at in the earlier answer. Take the money you would have put into the tranny and use it to buy another F-150 of the same vintage, with a working transmission, of course, so you can restore it for your son. This time, if you choose this course, see if you can find a place to put a governor in there so that your son won’t hotrod around as much, ripping up future transmissions. If you can find a rev-limiter kit — they do exist — and say limit the revs to 6,200 — the F-150 will live a lot longer.
Fair Replacement Transmission Cost by Vehicle
- Use the Year / Make / Model lookup tool to determine what transmission your vehicle has. [transtar]
- Find your transmission model in the table below for fair prices from reputable suppliers. Also fair labor cost for local installation at a local auto repair shop.
- Get a free estimate on a remanufactured transmission by email.
Fair Remanufactured Transmission Price Ranges by Transmission Model Updated May 1, 2018
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