So as you know I recently bought a 97 SC300 with alittle of 170K on the engine and the tranny. While I'm not to worried about the engine so much as I am the tranny, I'm thinking about purchasing a tranny either on here when one becomes available or else where before mine goes out. I'm curious as to how much the average cost is of putting in an Auto tranny and if I buy it with some miles on it what should I look for in terms of wear etc....?

 

Not sure about hourly rate of the shops around you, but a transmission install on your car shouldnt be more than 4-5 hours of labor.

 

I would change the fluid and filter before installing.
I have one off a 97, but I'm on the opposite coast.

 

um, you know the trans in your car works, why worry with it til it starts slipping or becomes an issue... as RTIS said, it's not more than I think 5.5 hours labor, actually, but again, why buy another used trans that you don't know the history of, while yours works just fine, for now.... I imagine you'll still get thousands of miles of usage before any problems...

 

Yea, i gotta agree with Mitsu here... Is your car having trans issues yet? If not, dont worry about it. My old 98 GS400 had over 170k on it and the trans was still silky smooooth...

 

There has not been any real issues as of yet, but when I start the car I hear a grinding when it is in reverse, and it may just be me but it seems to shift gears at higher than normal RPM.....but i could be mistaken. It wont shift out of second until around 3.5 to 4 RPM and sometime it is a rough shift.