Advanced Transmission & Emissions

This review is long overdue, now that I just paid a Reputable shop to install a reman tranny after I paid Advanced Transmission in Phoenix for a rebuild. I’ll take some of the blame — I took the car to them based solely on the dealer telling me they thought they heard something going on with the gear changes, but they said a new tranny would be $ 5k+. What I didn’t know was I should have waited to see if the transmission actually started slipping or something, and THEN taken it in. (mistake #1). So it was my fault, I took it to Advanced and said I wasn’t noticing a problem, just wanted to proactively fix whatever the dealer was hearing. I was so naïve, so I’ll take responsibility for being dumb.
It took me awhile to figure out exactly how badly I had been scammed by Greg and co.
The problems started right away. First, they failed to properly replace the axle, and I drove a long way and damaged something (seals, boots, whatever, I don’t know all the damage, just remember the bill for new axle and stuff — at the dealer — and that was $ 1500 or something.)
Mistake #2 — I left AZ right after getting the car ‘worked on’ at Advanced. Within 2 days of getting the car back, the transmission started going into neutral when accelerating from stopped — so, I was concerned, but not freaking out — I had that ‘warranty.’ What a joke. I took it to 3 different shops and they all said the same thing, they weren’t getting a code so there was nothing for them to do. To Greg’s credit he did say to bring it back in to him, but as I was living in another state, I never did bring the car back to him. Finally after the year was up (no more warranty) I had the car at another transmission shop and the owner there said from what he could see without taking the transmission out, it didn’t appear that the transmission had been rebuilt. He said ‘basically, there are items one would expect to be replaced during a rebuild’ but he could see they had not been replaced. The paperwork I got from Greg listed no parts, which all the shops found odd (they all said «He’s supposed to list everything he replaced.») So I asked this shop to call and speak to Greg to find out what exactly he replaced. Greg admitted on the phone with this owner that when they do a rebuild, they only replace parts if they are broken, and they don’t follow the protocol of replacing certain parts which one would expect when you go to all the trouble of dropping the tranny and doing a rebuild. Now it was all starting to make sense to me. My car didn’t actually have anything ‘broken’ when i first took it to him, so they probably rebuilt — nothing!
Finally took it to a dealer, to see if they could diagnose the issue — and after spending a lot of time talking to the technician after his diagnostic efforts, we think the issue was a damaged seal, which is commonly caused by doing a flush. Options: rebuild, reman, or let it die. I felt like I was getting cheated out of some of the longevity of the vehicle — and I was responsible for leading her to her early death!
Fast forward to a week ago, I took the car to a shop with outstanding Unilocal reviews, and they put in a reman (all new parts) transmission for guess how much? $ 3k. Made my stomach turn to think I was charged that for a supposed rebuild 3 – 4 years ago, when i could have had a reman for the same price, or less considering inflation, etc.
Bottom line? I don’t think these guys replaced any parts, because I did not have a specific complaint when I first brought the car in. I think based on the issues starting right away that they did a flush (they had to do something to feel good about charging me $ 3k, right?) and that likely damaged that seal. My poor car has been valiantly driving and driving ever since, with the troubles always when it’s cold out or whenever I would drive over a speed bump or climbing, but I could just tell she wanted to keep going. So this sounds weird, but I felt like the car was just a real trouper, and just wasn’t ready to give up. I finally listened and gave her a brand new reman transmission, and she’s good — car runs great, loves being spiffed and polished, and without even holding a grudge, she’s assured me she’s going to give me at least another 3 years or 45k, but probably 3x that. She asked one favor — alert others to save them from this shop. So this is my public service announcement. Cheers.

I was hoping to build a relationship with a transmission shop since I have 6 company trucks that are always pulling trailers. I found these guys online but wish I had Unilocaled them first. I sent my crew foreman in and had him request the heavy duty tranny so we would not have to go back. They call and you go over their recommendations over the phone after they take everything apart and I agreed to the heavy duty rebuild. After about 6 months the transmission went bad and it started to slip. We went in but they said they found nothing wrong… so of course we drove it for another week before it completely blew after which case they said they saw the most damage they have ever seen and cant warranty unless I make other improvements onto my truck (lets not forget that a week early they said nothing was wrong). So I agree to the additional repairs (both receipts are pictured on Unilocal). The repairs included replacing the cluster that tells you what gear you are in. They said the cluster was not clear which gear you are in and that is why my transmission went out… they seem to think we drove everywhere in first or second gear and never noticed. After the repair now we cant get the transmission into overdrive. Needless to say I wont bother going back. The customer service is poor and they are very pushy and bossy when dealing with issues. I don’t mind paying for repairs but if we want a real warranty I would go elsewhere.

My Mother had brought her van in for transmission service about a year ago. She spent almost $ 2,000 for what she thought was a new transmission with a 1 year warranty. She had brought her car in over the course of the year for routine service with the most recent being 8÷1÷13 with her car still being under warranty.
Today, we brought her car in because she could sense something was wrong with the transmission. We were told that her 4^th gear was on the verge of being gone and that a costly repair was necessary. I had spoken with several people at the shop and was told they were going to make a «deal» with me, my mom would have to pay for the parts which range from $ 500 – 800 and they would waive the labor. My question was, if this was a «new» transmission why would it be going out right after the warranty and why wasn’t anything detected during the routine service that just occurred less than two months ago while the car was under warranty?
Well, first contrary to what my mom was told, and what she had expressed to the transmission dealer, she was NOT given a new transmission. Her old transmission was «rebuilt» according to the owner; $ 1,800 for a rebuilt transmission? Second, when I called to ask why a «new» or «rebuilt» transmission would begin to deteriorate after a year, I was told simply «it happens». The owner began to tell me that the dealership is as strong as the people in the back, basically implying (my interpretation) that the person who worked on my Moms car a year ago was no longer with him. I don’t know under what circumstances he may have left, however I got the impression he may have done a poor job on my moms car. Basically, because someone on his staff didn’t do their job right it now became my mother’s problem.
I was basically asking question trying to understand how a «new» or «rebuilt» transmission could become faulty after a short period of time, I got a condescending answer in return. I will say that my mother’s van is old and needs to be replaced in the near future; HOWEVER, after spending as much money as we did on a new transmission, we expected to deal with other issues until the time came to get her a new car. NOT THE TRANSMISSION.
The most shocking and a clear reflection of the integrity of this establishment was when the owner hung up on me. I never once raised my voice, was rude, used a curse word or said anything else that would justify a cold hang up. I mentioned that if this issue wasn’t resolved fairly I would be forced to file a report with the better business bureau.
I am one to always support small business and will continue to do so, however its people who lack professionalism and have no accountability because they are the owners, make people want to go to corporate run shops.
If my mom had done her research;