Firstly, I had the truck inspected by Auto Exam in Houston, TX before it was purchased. It came back clean as a whistle minus a little surface rust in the undercarriage. Nothing some light sanding and rust inhibitor didn't knock out. Turns out the extended warranty through my bank was also through Auto Exam conveniently enough.
So, the first weekend, I was driving it the transmission slipped and wasn't going into gear smoothly under acceleration while pulling into traffic.
I pulled off into a parking lot and a less congested road to check things out and test it by stopping and then speeding up slowly at first and then more aggressively, not in any way similar to launching as if in a drag race, and the truck was fine. It's had smaller instances where I suspected something was going on with the shift sensor in the 30k miles I've owned the truck but no codes were ever thrown and no unsettling sounds ever came from the vehicle until it completely crapped out.
I was simply shifting into gear to leave the house to go to work bright and early that morning and as I shifted from P to D, the truck clunked and the CEL lit up.
I ran the OBDII scanner on it and came up with the P1774 code indicating a possible shift sensor issue. The truck drove ok for the next 2 miles to the bank where I was getting another copy of the warranty info but as soon as I started the truck to leave to head to my mechanic the transmission made another clunk sound and stopped being able to shift from 1st - 2nd or higher.
I made it the <1 block to my mechanic, Christian Brothers in Friendswood, and dropped the truck off for the initial inspection and repair. Turns out it they needed to replace the Automatic Transmission Valve Body and in turn drop the pan and replace the fluid and gasket.
The total ticket came out to $1700ish.
The warranty was up at 99k and some change and mileage racked up at the time of the failure was 97.6K so it was a close one. The warranty didn't cover all of the repairs, I came out of pocket almost $200 plus a car rental, but I'd say the extended warranty was definitely worth it.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
Firstly, I had the truck inspected by Auto Exam in Houston, TX before it was purchased. It came back clean as a whistle minus a little surface rust in the undercarriage. Nothing some light sanding and rust inhibitor didn't knock out. Turns out the extended warranty through my bank was also through Auto Exam conveniently enough.
So, the first weekend, I was driving it the transmission slipped and wasn't going into gear smoothly under acceleration while pulling into traffic. I pulled off into a parking lot and a less congested road to check things out and test it by stopping and then speeding up slowly at first and then more aggressively, not in any way similar to launching as if in a drag race, and the truck was fine. It's had smaller instances where I suspected something was going on with the shift sensor in the 30k miles I've owned the truck but no codes were ever thrown and no unsettling sounds ever came from the vehicle until it completely crapped out.
I was simply shifting into gear to leave the house to go to work bright and early that morning and as I shifted from P to D, the truck clunked and the CEL lit up.
I ran the OBDII scanner on it and came up with the P1774 code indicating a possible shift sensor issue. The truck drove ok for the next 2 miles to the bank where I was getting another copy of the warranty info but as soon as I started the truck to leave to head to my mechanic the transmission made another clunk sound and stopped being able to shift from 1st - 2nd or higher.
I made it the <1 block to my mechanic, Christian Brothers in Friendswood, and dropped the truck off for the initial inspection and repair. Turns out it they needed to replace the Automatic Transmission Valve Body and in turn drop the pan and replace the fluid and gasket.
The total ticket came out to $1700ish.
The warranty was up at 99k and some change and mileage racked up at the time of the failure was 97.6K so it was a close one. The warranty didn't cover all of the repairs, I came out of pocket almost $200 plus a car rental, but I'd say the extended warranty was definitely worth it.
- Barry N., Friendswood, TX, US