Will a shift kit prolongue my transmission life?

[Adam Connell]

Ok... I got quoted 2600$ for a "stage 1" tranny rebuild today from Mike at century auto... Well Im not too fond of dropping 2600$ at any time for anything that wont even make me faster, so I want to keep my tranny in as good a shape as possible.

A far as I know it is the stock one that has 107k miles on it. Seems like 2nd gear slips a bit much for my taste with my new drag radials... Would installing a shift kit make my tranny last longer by reducing the slippage of the clutchs for each gear?

Also is 2600$ what a 2004r cost to rebuild!? Yikes! He told me all of the new or improved crap it comes with but honestly I just want another one rebuilt to stock specs... quoting me 2600$ does not make me want to come back... neither does a 700$ brake job either picked up the car today and what I was expecting to be a 2-300$ job cost more than double! I needed new front rotors, and I got new pads, and 4 big shoes in the back and a system flush... 310$ for parts 300$ for labor add sales tax and other crap and your at 700$... Also they are a bit grabby for me and they smell horrible with just normal driving so Im going to give it a week and see if things get better...

 

[brian]

Adam,
Sent you mail...
Brian

 

[wagon]

Well, it sounds like you have already figured out not to use them. I wouldn't go to anyone for a TR tranny, unless they specialized in them, and even then, be very cautious. You can probably get a stock rebuild for just over a grand, then a few hundred for an install. But $2600?? As for the brakes? sounds like they charged you a little too much, but I haven't paid for anyone to do my brakes in decades. It is just too expensive, and from what I have seen, it is getting even more expensive. I have been picking up brake jobs like crazy. If it wasn't family, then I'd be rich! If your brakes stink, then maybe they did something wrong, or maybe they are just a little tight, and will wear in, but I wouldn't take any chances. Tell them now, so that if something is wrong, they won't say, "Well, it has been two weeks. Warranty is over." As for your tranny, snug up on the TV cable a notch or two, and see if that improves your shifts. It is only a band-aid, but I have been driving my GN that had horrible 1-2 shift for over a year. With the cable snugged up, it is still going strong, and doesn't slip. It just shifts a little late, when I get on it. Start saving your money for a good tranny, and I wouldn't waste my money on a shift kit, it'll just be wasted. Oh, and don't use the drag slicks for anything but regular tires, or you will need that tranny rebuilt alot sooner. The tires'll last a little longer, too.

 

[bison]

Ok... I got quoted 2600$ for a "stage 1" tranny rebuild today from Mike at century auto... Well Im not too fond of dropping 2600$ at any time for anything that wont even make me faster, so I want to keep my tranny in as good a shape as possible.

A far as I know it is the stock one that has 107k miles on it. Seems like 2nd gear slips a bit much for my taste with my new drag radials... Would installing a shift kit make my tranny last longer by reducing the slippage of the clutchs for each gear?

Also is 2600$ what a 2004r cost to rebuild!? Yikes! He told me all of the new or improved crap it comes with but honestly I just want another one rebuilt to stock specs... quoting me 2600$ does not make me want to come back... neither does a 700$ brake job either picked up the car today and what I was expecting to be a 2-300$ job cost more than double! I needed new front rotors, and I got new pads, and 4 big shoes in the back and a system flush... 310$ for parts 300$ for labor add sales tax and other crap and your at 700$... Also they are a bit grabby for me and they smell horrible with just normal driving so Im going to give it a week and see if things get better...

Most buiders wont just do a stock spec rebuild. Since 1987 there have been many improvements over the stock calibration. $2600 does sound a bit pricey but mike has a tremendous rep for building quality units that last. I doubt he would sacrifice his integrity to build a cheaper unit. Does his price include a new converter? A lot of builders will insist on a new converter or at least having the one in there cut open and inspected. They dont want any garbage getting in the fresh transmission.

 

[Adam Connell]

Yup, thats the last time I pay someone to do my brakes... Im going to drive it to school and back tomorrow and put some good stop and go driving and then see if I want to take it back or not... I think im going to take it back...

The crazy thing is Century is a board supporter! They specialize in 200rs

2600$ is more than we used to pay for a monster truck prepped turbo 400... and thats designed to hold 1500+hp in a 10,000lbs truck!

 

[Adam Connell]

Most buiders wont just do a stock spec rebuild. Since 1987 there have been many improvements over the stock calibration. $2600 does sound a bit pricey but mike has a tremendous rep for building quality units that last. I doubt he would sacrifice his integrity to build a cheaper unit. Does his price include a new converter? A lot of builders will insist on a new converter or at least having the one in there cut open and inspected. They dont want any garbage getting in the fresh transmission.

No that was without a new converter... he recommened a restalled D5 for my application though. I will ask him about it again tomorrow and see if he offers a better price than that. I DO NOT want a race tranny, just something to get me around and that I can play with everyone once in a while. I know Mike has an awesome rep, but 2600$ shocked me and so did the 700$ brake job...

 

[WE4]

That is CHEAP!!!

No that was without a new converter... he recommened a restalled D5 for my application though. I will ask him about it again tomorrow and see if he offers a better price than that. I DO NOT want a race tranny, just something to get me around and that I can play with everyone once in a while. I know Mike has an awesome rep, but 2600$ shocked me and so did the 700$ brake job...

See this is the problem here. $2600.00 is NOTHING for the work and parts that go into these.
If you do not want to spend that kind of money, Sell the car. They are only going to get more expensive.
Just a question?. How much money have you spent on the motor?
I wouldn't touch it for any less than that.
Go look at our site, go look at Janis' prices. Go look at Eric at dynotech's prices. We have to pay rent, pay ridiculous amounts of money for wrkmans comp and for the lease on buildings. This is where guys like Brian ( No offense B-man) on us. He doesn't have this overhead. Make you a deal. You pay my bills and I will build your trans for free.
NOBODY take this the wrong way, but if you are not in business, ask someone who is as to what it cost them each month just to break even. ESPECIALLY in this tight arsed market!!!

Bruce
WE4
Performance Transmission Services

 

[Adam Connell]

See this is the problem here. $2600.00 is NOTHING for the work and parts that go into these.
If you do not want to spend that kind of money, Sell the car. They are only going to get more expensive.
Just a question?. How much money have you spent on the motor?
I wouldn't touch it for any less than that.
Go look at our site, go look at Janis' prices. Go look at Eric at dynotech's prices. We have to pay rent, pay ridiculous amounts of money for wrkmans comp and for the lease on buildings. This is where guys like Brian ( No offense B-man) on us. He doesn't have this overhead. Make you a deal. You pay my bills and I will build your trans for free.
NOBODY take this the wrong way, but if you are not in business, ask someone who is as to what it cost them each month just to break even. ESPECIALLY in this tight arsed market!!!

Bruce
WE4
Performance Transmission Services

Hahaha thats exactly what ran through my head today... Selling the car is a very real possibility... I just dont know if I can afford it. Im 19 and a college student... I work my ass off for the cash I got and Im just not sure if I want to spend it ALL on this car... if the cash trand keeps going this way Im going to just go back to motorcycle racing

 

[m233roller]

First off PLEASE !! understand I am not trying to start a Piss--g match here, but lets get REAL. First and foremost Bruce. Mike and many other of the old guys (myself included) have owned these cars from the start. You will find any of the GOOD Buick tranny guys don't want to do just a stock rebuild. Why? You already answered it in your build up. BIGGER this, this and this and drag radials and you will more than likely keep on going once you hit high 12's you'll do like SOOO many of us have. Man I'm in the high 12's it won't take to much more to run low 12's high 11's. The stock tranny just itsn't going to take it. Yes I know some have beat the p-ss out of them for quite sometime and had good luck. $2600 for a stout 200 4-R ? I just spent $1700 for PARTS !!! for my trans. If the BITCHING of what parts are costing for these cars doesn't stop we will be lucky to have anyone left to even give a Sh-t about making anything for our Turbo Cars. Do you stop to think, how many Turbo Buicks are even on the road running today?? Maybe 20,000. How many Mustangs or Camaro's are out there? MILLIONS !!!! As Bruce stated running a business is VERY, VERY expensive and demanding. If you have never been in business you won't have a clue of ALL the expense and headaches there are.If these guys had to try and make it on Buick parts alone they would shut the doors in 30 days or less.They are NOT!! and I repeat NOT!! getting rich selling Buick parts. I personally THANK Each and Everyone of the vendors for keeping in there and supplying us with NICE parts and of a GREAT variety. Bruce Thanks much for the parts and Service.I guess about all I can say is if you think everything is so out of sight for your Turbo car. SELL IT !!!!
P. S. as far as what your brake job cost, you should of got a quote up front and then you could of made the decision to go ahead or not.
Merry Christmas ALL !!!

 

[83hurstguy]

just as a comment on the brake cost...

my uncle is the owner of an auto shop, and I get parts at his cost, which are extremely good prices... I had to do my front brakes two years ago, and for a set of Raybestos rotors, quiet stop pads, and bearings, it cost me around $200.

Not sure what he did on the rears, but if he did shoes, wheel cylinders, new hardware, adjusters, etc... and cut the drums, you're easily looking at a total of $300 in parts.

The labor at $300 might be a little excessive, equates to 4 hours at $75 an hour... looking at it, 4 hours doesn't seem all the bad of a time estimate. $75 is a pretty normal labor cost per hour of a high quality shop near a city area. If you think that's bad, a lot of import shops are up to $100 per hour.

Here's a suggestion... learn how to do some of the work yourself. What's so difficult about doing front brakes? Rear drums are a real pain the first time through, but you learn and get better for the next time.

I'm 21 and a college student... I work on my cars on any break I have from school. Paying for other people to work on your car isn't cheap. I had Brian do my trans for me, he fit within my budget, did an excellent job, and offered a TON of helpful advice throughout the process. Waited patiently, found a fresh Neal Chance converter for sale on here for $150 local to me... It's all about the patience

Stick with it... I have 6 months of school left... had a few rough times when the car went down and needed work right away (I managed to blow the motor a month before I started college, nothing like started the year 2 grand in debt on top of books and tuition). Almost had to sell the car a few times, but I've managed to scrape through with it, and in the end, been real happy I kept it.

 

[bison]

First off PLEASE !! understand I am not trying to start a Piss--g match here, but lets get REAL. First and foremost Bruce. Mike and many other of the old guys (myself included) have owned these cars from the start. You will find any of the GOOD Buick tranny guys don't want to do just a stock rebuild. Why? You already answered it in your build up. BIGGER this, this and this and drag radials and you will more than likely keep on going once you hit high 12's you'll do like SOOO many of us have. Man I'm in the high 12's it won't take to much more to run low 12's high 11's. The stock tranny just itsn't going to take it. Yes I know some have beat the p-ss out of them for quite sometime and had good luck. $2600 for a stout 200 4-R ? I just spent $1700 for PARTS !!! for my trans. If the BITCHING of what parts are costing for these cars doesn't stop we will be lucky to have anyone left to even give a Sh-t about making anything for our Turbo Cars. Do you stop to think, how many Turbo Buicks are even on the road running today?? Maybe 20,000. How many Mustangs or Camaro's are out there? MILLIONS !!!! As Bruce stated running a business is VERY, VERY expensive and demanding. If you have never been in business you won't have a clue of ALL the expense and headaches there are.If these guys had to try and make it on Buick parts alone they would shut the doors in 30 days or less.They are NOT!! and I repeat NOT!! getting rich selling Buick parts. I personally THANK Each and Everyone of the vendors for keeping in there and supplying us with NICE parts and of a GREAT variety. Bruce Thanks much for the parts and Service.I guess about all I can say is if you think everything is so out of sight for your Turbo car. SELL IT !!!!
P. S. as far as what your brake job cost, you should of got a quote up front and then you could of made the decision to go ahead or not.
Merry Christmas ALL !!!

Mike these are great points. I build my own transmissions and spend $1500 on parts myself to build it to hopefully take punishment for a while in between freshening. I do a few every year locally for guys with TR's and i am at a point where i dont even want to touch one unless the owner is willing to spring for a billet shaft forward drum minimum. Were throwing nearly twice the torque at these things they came with in a lot of instances. If you dont want to spend $ then sell your cars. It wont ever get cheaper for us. Im suprised that a lot of TR vendors are even sticking around for the niche market and all the BS that is thrown around on the net.

 

[vics86]

Not too familiar with buick trannies but 700 for a brake job sounds expensive for just swapping break pads. they may be changing bearings or have to turn a rotor or two. didnt give much info on what they were going to do for 700.

I wish I had the money back in college to even put gas in my car. Now that I have a business to run, every minute I spend with my car I feel bad because Im not working on something with my business!! Yes running a business is hard work/demanding/expensive - I agree totally there but has many more upsides to it. As for as parts go, just looking at what ck has, I dont have a problem with price but Im not trying to make a 9 or 10 second car either.

 

[forcefed3.8's]

Sell your car. If you don't want to spend the money to do it right, it will be breaking all of the time. Get a Honda.

 

[JDSfastGN]

Adam a shift kit will help the tranny live. Add a shift kit and cooler. Neither are hard to install. Messy but not hard. Don't take your car to any more shops lol, 700 no matter what was done is a lot of money for brakes. If you have a place to do your own work for basic maintenance and basic mods then I would highly recommend that. It will be much better in the long run both for the car and the wallet.

 

[GNational86]

They should call the internet the B*tc%ernet. Nobody needs to be bashed in any situation on the net.It should be settled like a man and talk to whomever did the work in person if there is a problem.

 

[Grumpy]

ok ...shift kit "MIGHT" band aid it OR may not .. my "opinion" is to sell the car and get something dependable seeing that your counting on others to work on the car for you .. remember it's a USED CAR ... ummmm and a performance one at that

 

[Adam Connell]

I dont think you guys quite understand my reason for having this car and not doing my own work... I dont do it because I dont want to and I have the money to pay people to do it for me... to me it's worth it.

I am a fabrictor/weldor(as a hobby currently), and I build mini rock crawlers and work on monster trucks in my spare time... the thing is those two things take up ALL of my spare time. The reason I dont work on this car is because I dont have the time to put into it. I have this car because I like it and enjoy it as a semi-daily driver. I have drag raced motorcycles in several different classes all over the south for the past two years, but I had to stop racing due to me moving to another city for college. I sold my racing "team" and bought this car...
I still wanted something to get my kicks and this car is my sollution... I am a full time college student with a full time 40 hour a week day job, and a second night job delivering pizza's(not in the GN)... Im busy!

So, as you can see I dont really have any other options than to have people do the major work for me... Im lucky that I have two nationally known GN shops here in Houston to work on this car... Now, I dont take it to them for everything, but for major time consuming work I take it to a shop. Installing hop ups I do myself, but most regular maintinance I take to someone who can do it quick and make it as painless as possible for me.

All I simply wanted to know was A) if a shift kit would firm up my shifts and possibly add life to my tranny(I already have a cooler) and B) is 2600$ the going rate for a 2004R?

I asked around today and 700$ for what I got done to the brakes aparently was not that bad of a deal... hell they work great and I can hold almost 10lbs on the street now so it's worth it to me.

Just thought I would let you guys know a little history on me :biggrin:

 

[Roc87]

I'm sure you could find a "cheaper" rebuild than $2600, but how long will that last? Like others have said, it's quite a bit just for parts. I have right around $1k in parts for mine, and nothing is billet except for the servo. Rather than spending more on billet parts, I ordered a nice 9"11" converter from PTS, this tranny has taken the abuse quite well, but I know that having 500ft.lbs of torque on demand will quickly take its toll on the tranny (even with a fluid change every 5k miles). You can either do a "stock" rebuild for probably around $1500, but it won't be what you want and may not last very long. Save up some $, and in the mean while, just take it easy on the car so you can have a tranny that will hold up.

 

[matswtt]

Sell your car?

ok ...shift kit "MIGHT" band aid it OR may not .. my "opinion" is to sell the car and get something dependable seeing that your counting on others to work on the car for you .. remember it's a USED CAR ... ummmm and a performance one at that

Off Topick but,I couldn't not say something.
I cannot belive that all the regular posters on this form. People that i've gotten good advice from are telling this guy basicly that he should JUST SELL HIS CAR he started the thread asking "is this a normal price". if you haven't replaced a tranny than 2600 sounds like alot.

I'm new to this board and it's been more helpfull than any.
but, I think it's alitte harsh telling this guy "if you don't like the prices, tuff. SELL YOUR CAR" I've put alot of money in my car and i'm still not done, but that doesn't mean i like it. I own my Business and I could never tell a customer some of the stuff thats been posted. If people on the board are such purest "buick lovers" than more positive replys should be posted..
sorry my 2cents

 

[notacarlo]

No, I don't think that is what they are saying....per-se.
The money needs to go to the things that are damaged. Don't put money into "go fast" parts if something else prohibits it from going fast.
That being said, these cars go fast. I would not advise someone to buy a TR if they were not prepared to keep up with a USED car. If you go into it knowing the 200R4 is a weak link, you are one step ahead. Park it in the garage until you have the funds....or sell it. The "bandaid" will still end up costing you (most likely more) in the long run. If you have the tranny done by Mike, the tranny will be the least of your worries for a good long time.

DO NOT get the tranny done by anyone other than the reccomended vendors, you will regret it - this from experience.

TR's can be a whole hell of a lot worse than a woman when it comes to maintenance.

I would consider a well-built tranny to be a go fast part. If you have slipping - you are slower.