When you pay a shop to fix something, you expect to get your vehicle back fixed. Most of us never think about what happens if it isn’t, or how many times you should keep driving it back after a transmission rebuild before you stop trusting the repair.
A truck owner who posts as @SlickStevie says he found out the hard way. By his account, a shop charged him $8,862 to rebuild the transmission in his Ford diesel pickup, and what followed was two months of overheating, return trips and calls to lawyers before a second shop finally got the truck back on the road.
Steve is upfront about how it started. First, he had added power to the truck, and the transmission began to slip. He called around and took it to a shop with a five-star rating that told him it could handle the job.
A $1,500 Teardown, Then An $8,862 Quote
Steve says the shop first charged $1,500 to take the transmission apart and diagnose it. The verdict was burned clutches, which he says he expected. He chose a built rebuild over a stock unit so the problem would not come back. The quote, he says, was $8,862.
However, about a month later, he says, the shop called with problems. A replacement valve body was bad. Then the transmission would not shift correctly. Steve says he loaded his own transmission tune onto the truck to get it moving, and it began to shift better.
On the way home, the transmission temperature hit 254 degrees. Steve says it had never gone above 211 degrees before, and he was not towing anything.
Six Trips Back
According to Steve, the shop asked him to drive it back. He refused and had it towed. What followed became a loop: the shop replaced parts, said it was fixed, and the truck overheated again.
“This happened six times. Six times I brought it back to them.”
Steve says he spoke with several attorneys, who told him to give the shop a fair chance to fix it and to document everything. He started recording, saving texts and keeping notes. Later, on one last test drive, he says, the temperature reached 257 degrees, and the shop told him that was still inside Ford’s limit of 270. He didn’t accept that.
Eventually, he set a deadline of Friday, October 2. When he arrived, the truck still was not right. Steve says the shop agreed to refund him the following Monday, and he says the money did come back. By then he was also about $400 into towing bills and a couple hundred dollars into legal advice, and had only had a rental car for three of those days.
Even so, Steve chose not to name the shop and says he doesn’t think the people there are bad people. He believes the job was simply beyond them.
What The Second Shop Says It Found
After that, Steve took the truck to Josh of PSC Repair, who installed a replacement Suncoast transmission the crew describes as good for 700 horsepower, along with a new Motorcraft cooler and a lower-temperature thermostat.
As they pulled the old unit, the crew pointed out a transfer case drain plug Steve says he could loosen by hand, silicone between parts they say should not have any, a cross-threaded fitting and a freshly installed seal that was already leaking. They also say the torque converter looked stock and spray-painted, not the new part Steve had expected. Still, those findings are the second crew’s read on camera.
“Just take it to the good shop the first time. Pay the money. Do it right.”
Steve’s answer was the one many customers would give: he thought he had.
“I thought I was paying the money. Nine grand.”
Lessons For Anyone Paying For A Transmission Rebuild
- Ask a shop how many of your exact transmission or engine it has rebuilt, not just whether it can.
- Get the quote, the parts list and the warranty in writing before work starts.
- If a repair keeps coming back, document every visit with dates, texts and photos.
- A strong online rating is a starting point, not proof the shop knows your vehicle.
- Modified vehicles put extra stress on parts. Budget for components built for the added power.
Where Things Stand
On October 17, more than two months after he first dropped it off, Steve drove his truck home. He says it shifts well, and the new transmission carries a two-year unlimited warranty. His wife, watching him celebrate in the yard, mostly hoped she would never have to live through the saga again.
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