Light of death suggestions

[robert southerland]

I have a problem here. A little back ground info first. I have a 2001 white 4x4 trac with 140,000 miles. I owe $1,500 on it. Nada bluebook is $5,925 for a clean trade in. Retail is $8,500. It is real clean inside and out. I got the "blinking light of death". I took it to the local certified transmission and was quotes $2,300 to replace with a 1 year warrenty. I called the local ford dealer and was quoted $2,980 to buy a tranny and do it myself. Come to find out the cerftified transmission factory is located here and it is owned by someone here in Omaha. They supply the dealers with there remaned trannys here. I know a salesman that says he can slip it thru with out a test drive before i trade it in. So i should be able to get the clean trade in value for it.Long story short do i put a $2,300 tranny in a truck worth about $5,000 or take the $5,000 and trade it off before it costs me anymore money. I'm looking at a 2010 f150 CC with 12,000 miles on it. It will get better milage, haul my car trailer, and give me more room for the 2 car seats. I just can't decide. Part of me wants to run from this but a part of me likes the idea of no payments(well almost, damn thing had to go when i finally paid for it.)

 

[EddieS'04]

Since it is an '01. It could be simple. The earlier valve bodies had trouble with seperator plate and gasket and solenoids. $500 to $700 fix. Get a second opinion.

If you like your trac and no payents. worth a try. 140k is not many miles.

 

[josh ryan 3]

Trade it. No payments sound great. But think about it. In the long run the new truck with save u money on gas and suit u better, the st will have more mechanical issues and cost u money to. I would go new so u can get what u need. A dependable truck that can pull ur trailer and save gas.

 

[Richard L]

You will never get the money you spent on the transmission back unless you keep it another 5 years....But trading it in would depend upon what they are going to give you for your truck. If it is just the valvebody, it's something that can be fixed for about $500, but the longer you wait, the more damage it will do to your transmission and then it starts to get really expensive



The only problem I have is that I question the authority of a "Salesman" to just skip the test drive on your trade-in??? Where I worked only the New Car or Used Car Managers could quote a trade-in value and I think that is a pretty common practice. The other thing is that they will probably just deduct the cost of a new transmission from the value of the truck....That way you are still paying for the new transmission, but never getting the benefit of ever using it.



I would see about getting te vavlebody replaced, and then look at getting rid of the truck ASAP.



...Rich

 

[Ricardo Aguirre]

I had that same problem with mine (02 2WD) about 40,000 miles ago, all I did was change the fluid and filter add some lucas trans fluid and its still going. I now have 171,000 miles on mine good luck

 

[robert southerland]

I think you guys are right . I messed around with the truck tonite and the light went off. All went back to normal as far as I can tell. So I'm going to trade it in as soon as I find a truck i really want. Until then it will sit in the driveway while I drive 1 of my rangers. I can't risk driving it before a trade in and having it start acting up again. I will however have some ST stuff to sell here soon.

 

[robert southerland]

It's gone. Got $4,800 with a trashed tranny. Had 140,000 miles. Hate to say it but Damn I'm glad that thing is gone. I got a 2008 crewcab f150 variety with the 6.5' bed. It's long and nice. Black out with tan leather.