Transmission leak repair costs...

Hey y'all, just wanted to get some opinions on something. I have an M1009, and I'm trying to call around and see how much it'll cost to get my transmission resealed. After spending what felt like countless hours trying to diagnose where my leaks come from I've somewhat hat to give up the goat so the speak... All I know is that my starter is soaked with trans fluid, and it leaks only when running in the front end of things... Oil cooler lines look great (including where the fittings are on the trans) and dipstick tube seems dry throughout... Recently it puked a bunch of oil all at once but strangely hasn't done it since... I lose about a quart over 3 weeks of daily commuting so it's starting to get on my nerves a bit. I called a few shops and I'm getting estimates ranging from $700-$1500 which seems high to me... Some say I'm gonna need a whole new torque converter and the whole 9... Some just inner and outer seals, and it's just been a mess. Anyone able to weigh in? Thanks folks!

The seal is cheap, however it is somewhat labor intensive. You would have to disconnect and slide the transmission back far enough to get the torque convertor out to replace the seal. Doing this by myself I would figure a day of work, a shop set up to do it 4-5 hours perhaps. I would think $450 for such a job if you hired it out to a shop, but in NJ they may be higher I don't know. If you did it yourself easily less than $100 to cover the cost of seals and ATF.

The other way of going about it is to have tranny "rebuilt" and replace torque converter, if you are paying to have it out anyway. If it high mileage truck and or if there are any shifting problems, this is the way I'd go. But if it is all original, low miles and shifting great, I'd probably just do the seals.

dependable said:

The other way of going about it is to have tranny "rebuilt" and replace torque converter, if you are paying to have it out anyway. If it high mileage truck and or if there are any shifting problems, this is the way I'd go. But if it is all original, low miles and shifting great, I'd probably just do the seals.

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Well on the 30 year old truck if your going to pull it and replace some seals your better off just rebuilding it . Since you have external seals leaking most likely the internal seals are getting hard and about to fail , once you seal the outside it puts pressure on the internals.

porkysplace said:

Well on the 30 year old truck if your going to pull it and replace some seals your better off just rebuilding it . Since you have external seals leaking most likely the internal seals are getting hard and about to fail , once you seal the outside it puts pressure on the internals.

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I agree here- a rebuilt turbo 400 won't cost much more than having one resealed. Your labor costs are almost the same.

porkysplace said:

Well on the 30 year old truck if your going to pull it and replace some seals your better off just rebuilding it . Since you have external seals leaking most likely the internal seals are getting hard and about to fail , once you seal the outside it puts pressure on the internals.

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The only reason I would consider leaving it alone if it works well and is low miles ( a couple of my trucks with less than 20K on them) is the questionable quality of many of the replacement parts these days. So many times what is available is imported 'stuff' that will never last as long as the OEM USA made parts from the last century. But you have a point, if the seals are failing, there is probably a reason.

Rebuild it.
Agree about cost.
It's either a lot of $$ now or a whole lot of $$$$ later.
That way you will know it's fresh inside and out.

agree with re-build it. (yourself). Save dollars, learn about your truck some more. And very Satisfying. It really isn't that difficult, just take your time and be methodical/ There are plenty of manuals on the subject.