Shop claiming transmission "clunk" is the differential

[Matticus]

Check the u joints and rear half shafts for play too. Plus check trans mounts and motor mounts. Clunks can come from lots of places.

Those being bad just doesn't add up to what I am experiencing. If the transmission and/or motor mounts, rear half shafts, or u joints were bad, I should be able to recreate the problem by manually downshifting to 3rd or causing it to downshift by pressing the gas pedal down to initiate the shift. Just about any hard torque event should reveal any play or worn parts in that category. But it only occurs on deceleration. I could even see those parts being this issue if it only occurred on hard deceleration when you have stress throughout the drive train, but it happens under incredibly mild deceleration. I'm talking a completely flat road, taking 10 seconds+ to go from 30 mph to 25mph and you'll still feel and hear it with the same magnitude as if you were braking.

 

[1955moose]

A soft load on the drivetrain, is going to be a tuffy. You never know how the past owner drove the vehicle it came out of. The E350 Transit six speed that I drive daily kinda does the same thing. It's intermittent, sometimes all is fine, and then I hear a weird clunk. It only does it once in awhile, and my people don't want to ground a vehicle, unless something is bad. Why did you replace your old trans?

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[1955moose]

Don't know if this will help, but I was scrolling the Tsb bulletins and found one SSM 46451 that's for an updated manual control valve. Problem is this is not the original trans, but you might check into it, along with any re flashes of the power train module. Their was another TSB for clunking, but it was at 70 mph at throttle tip in/out. You might want to do your homework, and see if theirs others. It's possible it could be the computer needs to sync up with the transmission.

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[Matticus]

It had (what I incorrectly thought) was some odd shifting behavior when it was cold. I took it to a shop to get it checked out and they said something along the lines of "the computer is showing a little slippage and there are metal shavings in the fluid". Kind of a long story, but in hindsight, I'll bet I could have run that transmission for quite a while and I wish I hadn't spent the money on the swap.

For the TSB bulletins you mentioned, is that something I would ultimately go to a dealership to ask about/get done?

 

[1955moose]

Yeah Tsb's are dealer fixes. Their bulletins that are sent to service dept. Mechanics will always look these up when a customer comes in with a problem, that is similar to the fix sent to them. Saves the shop a lot of diagnosis. Don't know if they have some sort of time limit. I wouldn't say anything about your new trans though. If it comes up, play dumb. Say, this is the way I bought it.

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[Matticus]

This sounds like a good idea. I'll run it by the dealership and see what happens.
People tell me I "play dumb" like a natural

 

[1955moose]

I think when asked, George Harrison from the Beatles said, I play guitar a little! You can always release your knowledge on them later if they try to bamboozle you.

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[Motorcity muscle]

No trans expert but did installer disconnect battery and drain computer capacitors after/before replacement of trans. ?

 

[Matticus]

Update:
Sure enough, took it to another shop and the tech immediately identified the problem as the transmission. It doesn't surprise me one bit. It just seemed so obvious that, given the repeatability or the symptons, there was no other culprit. Definitely NOT the diff. If you are in/ever in Salt Lake, avoid Tanner Transmission like the plague. Zero pragmatism. They are basically monkeys looking at a scan tool. If it doesn't say "broken" on the screen, they don't have the ability use a little bit of logic to come to the obvious conclusion some guy who just turns a wrench once in a while in his driveway can come to with 60 seconds of logic.

Now that I finally had a shop backing up my claim, LKQ had me take it to a dealership and make sure the computer/solenoid strategies were all correct/matching. $150 to find out that wasn't the problem. They are going to warranty the trans, but even after their $50/hr labor compensation, it's going to cost me about $800, plus another programming fee. I'm kind of disappointed in how LKQ's warranty process works.

So:
$1900 for the first trans
$85 to get a proper diagnosis from another shop
$150 for useless reprogram
$800 for labor on replacement trans
$150 for another reprogram
-----------------------------------
SubTotal: $3085 and a bunch of wasted time with Tanner Transmission
Grand Total: Wish I hadn't done the swap at all. Also, perhaps stick with officially re-manufactured transmissions unless you are doing the swap yourself

 

[1955moose]

Sorry to hear about LKQ's bad business practices. Guys you know who to avoid on buying Transmissions. As far as fees you paid. I'd get ahold of your local automotive consumer affairs, fill out the form and get a refund from the shops that misdiagnosed, charged you, then you had to pay again. You can try getting refunded by the shops but $1100.00 their not going to cough up. Does LKQ just sell the transmission, or are they involved in the installer. Remember the squeaky wheel gets the grease! Good luck.

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