In my humble opinion, if the trans is obviously not slipping when you drive it, maybe it doesn't need replacing. If you can't get any help from either dealership, and your stuck with it, drive on, and see what happens.
2013 LTZ new owner, need advice
Hello all, new member here. I had hoped to introduce myself in the welcome forum but in the last couple of days my situation has gotten a little out of hand.
About 12 days ago I purchased a 2013 LTZ with 107,000 miles from a very reputable Honda dealership around here, who had taken it in as a trade. Black with leather interior and all the bells and whistles. My '03 Camry had died, I needed another car and my girlfriend and I were 3 weeks away from closing on a house so I didn't have a whole lot of time to shop around. My usual mechanic was tied up and not available to do a pre-purchase inspection. The car ran and drove flawlessly and it felt great to be back in a full size sedan again. Carfax said it spent 11 months and 18k miles as a rental vehicle and was then sold as a certified pre-owned to the lady who owned it before me. She drove it for 10 years and then traded it in for a Honda.
I finally get around to scheduling an inspection (now post-purchase of course). I call up the Chevy dealership up the street where the Carfax says this Impala was serviced its whole life, hoping I can get a slightly more detailed service history for my mechanic. I speak to the service manager who was friendly and willing to help. He informs me that the last service record they have was from early February of this year, when the previous owner came in complaining of "slipping" in the transmission. After examination they informed her that the transmission was bad and they recommend full rebuild or replacement. She opted not to rebuild or replace and 14 days later drove it up to the Honda dealership and traded it in.
I was shocked. On my end the only symptom the transmission showed was delayed engagement going from park to reverse, reverse to drive, etc. I genuinely was unaware that auto trannies aren't supposed to do that. When in drive I have never felt a shudder, slippage, no hard shifts, no bangs, nothing at any speed. Girlfriend and I took it on a long drive last weekend and aside from having two more gears and shifting a little more than I'm used to, no unusual behavior from the transmission. Car drove like a dream.
Yesterday I went back to the Honda dealership where I purchased the car and informed them that the car was likely traded in due to a faulty transmission. At first they tried to get me to buy the extended powertrain warranty (I believe through Endurance) which I originally declined. I said no way are they going to honor a warranty claim for full transmission rebuild or replace so early in the warranty period. They will send inspectors out, pull the Carfax, whatever they have to do to establish this as a pre-existing condition. Finance guy keeps saying nah, we'd push it through. We'd get it covered. I said there's a record on the Carfax of the transmission being checked 14 days before the trade-in date. We go back and forth, he finally tells me I'm SOL since I bought the vehicle as is, I ask to speak to the general manager and he gets me an appointment for Friday for their service department to look at it.
Naturally both dealerships are pointing the finger at each other. The Honda dealership thinks the Chevy dealership service dept lied to an old lady to scare her into trading in her Impala for nothing. The Chevy dealership thinks the Honda dealership knowingly took in a trade with a bad transmission. On Thursday (tomorrow) I am still having my scheduled 3rd party inspection and my mechanic will pull any codes from the transmission computer. If the tranny is truly bad the dealership is almost certainly not going to rebuild or replace on their dime since the car was sold as-is. I am not covered by any consumer protection laws in my state because the car is more than 7 years old. Even if somehow I can get it replaced without paying full price, it has destroyed my faith in the reliability of the car that a new transmission might be needed at just over 100k. Right now I'm just waiting on more information and trying to think of the best way forward. I will say that if this car's transmission is about to give out, you'd never know it by driving it.
About 12 days ago I purchased a 2013 LTZ with 107,000 miles from a very reputable Honda dealership around here, who had taken it in as a trade. Black with leather interior and all the bells and whistles. My '03 Camry had died, I needed another car and my girlfriend and I were 3 weeks away from closing on a house so I didn't have a whole lot of time to shop around. My usual mechanic was tied up and not available to do a pre-purchase inspection. The car ran and drove flawlessly and it felt great to be back in a full size sedan again. Carfax said it spent 11 months and 18k miles as a rental vehicle and was then sold as a certified pre-owned to the lady who owned it before me. She drove it for 10 years and then traded it in for a Honda.
I finally get around to scheduling an inspection (now post-purchase of course). I call up the Chevy dealership up the street where the Carfax says this Impala was serviced its whole life, hoping I can get a slightly more detailed service history for my mechanic. I speak to the service manager who was friendly and willing to help. He informs me that the last service record they have was from early February of this year, when the previous owner came in complaining of "slipping" in the transmission. After examination they informed her that the transmission was bad and they recommend full rebuild or replacement. She opted not to rebuild or replace and 14 days later drove it up to the Honda dealership and traded it in.
I was shocked. On my end the only symptom the transmission showed was delayed engagement going from park to reverse, reverse to drive, etc. I genuinely was unaware that auto trannies aren't supposed to do that. When in drive I have never felt a shudder, slippage, no hard shifts, no bangs, nothing at any speed. Girlfriend and I took it on a long drive last weekend and aside from having two more gears and shifting a little more than I'm used to, no unusual behavior from the transmission. Car drove like a dream.
Yesterday I went back to the Honda dealership where I purchased the car and informed them that the car was likely traded in due to a faulty transmission. At first they tried to get me to buy the extended powertrain warranty (I believe through Endurance) which I originally declined. I said no way are they going to honor a warranty claim for full transmission rebuild or replace so early in the warranty period. They will send inspectors out, pull the Carfax, whatever they have to do to establish this as a pre-existing condition. Finance guy keeps saying nah, we'd push it through. We'd get it covered. I said there's a record on the Carfax of the transmission being checked 14 days before the trade-in date. We go back and forth, he finally tells me I'm SOL since I bought the vehicle as is, I ask to speak to the general manager and he gets me an appointment for Friday for their service department to look at it.
Naturally both dealerships are pointing the finger at each other. The Honda dealership thinks the Chevy dealership service dept lied to an old lady to scare her into trading in her Impala for nothing. The Chevy dealership thinks the Honda dealership knowingly took in a trade with a bad transmission. On Thursday (tomorrow) I am still having my scheduled 3rd party inspection and my mechanic will pull any codes from the transmission computer. If the tranny is truly bad the dealership is almost certainly not going to rebuild or replace on their dime since the car was sold as-is. I am not covered by any consumer protection laws in my state because the car is more than 7 years old. Even if somehow I can get it replaced without paying full price, it has destroyed my faith in the reliability of the car that a new transmission might be needed at just over 100k. Right now I'm just waiting on more information and trying to think of the best way forward. I will say that if this car's transmission is about to give out, you'd never know it by driving it.
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Thanks for the reply. I had my independent inspection done this morning and the only codes of any kind were the ones stored in the transmission control module. The codes were P0877 and P0989. I am working on decoding the RPO codes to determine whether this car has a Gen 1 or Gen 2 6T70 transmission, but if it's Gen 1 those codes would be consistent with failing pressure switches on the TEHCM. This could be fixed by replacing the pressure switches or at most the entire TEHCM, but hardly something severe enough to warrant rebuild / replace of the entire tranny. It is also consistent with the only symptom so far shown, which is delayed engagement. So I'm increasingly skeptical of the claim made by the original Chevy dealership and will be asking them to pass along the service invoice with the previous owner's name redacted.In my humble opinion, if the trans is obviously not slipping when you drive it, maybe it doesn't need replacing. If you can't get any help from either dealership, and your stuck with it, drive on, and see what happens.
The inspection also showed that the rear bumper support is completely rusted out on the passenger side. That is a safety concern in the event of a rear collision and rather surprising since dealerships are required by law to perform safety inspections on used cars in my state. One of the wiper blades was split, which is a non-issue as far as replacement cost, but it shows that the safety inspection at the dealership was beyond negligent. Other than that we found a few "buyer beware" typical wear items on the front end - my front sway bars are splitting open and the bushings are worn, and the steering rack is leaking will probably go in the next year. That's on me and I will be saving up for those repairs throughout this year.
In the meantime I am going to keep the information from today in my back pocket and see what they say at the Honda dealership tomorrow when they look at it. If they repair the bumper support and meet me halfway on the TEHCM pressure switch repair I think I'd call the issue resolved. I really love the car; the engine, brakes, and suspension are all spectacular for a car this size and the interior and Bose stereo are great. I hope the dealership will make it right.
Those 2 codes are consistent symptoms of the pressure discs in the valve body needing replacement. Member reubenswinks has an excellent tutorial here on the forum. May use the search feature at the top of this page. Search: '12+ 6-speed: P0989 Code. Cheap parts and a definite diy project.Thanks for the reply. I had my independent inspection done this morning and the only codes of any kind were the ones stored in the transmission control module. The codes were P0877 and P0989. I am working on decoding the RPO codes to determine whether this car has a Gen 1 or Gen 2 6T70 transmission, but if it's Gen 1 those codes would be consistent with failing pressure switches on the TEHCM. This could be fixed by replacing the pressure switches or at most the entire TEHCM, but hardly something severe enough to warrant rebuild / replace of the entire tranny. It is also consistent with the only symptom so far shown, which is delayed engagement. So I'm increasingly skeptical of the claim made by the original Chevy dealership and will be asking them to pass along the service invoice with the previous owner's name redacted.
The inspection also showed that the rear bumper support is completely rusted out on the passenger side. That is a safety concern in the event of a rear collision and rather surprising since dealerships are required by law to perform safety inspections on used cars in my state. One of the wiper blades was split, which is a non-issue as far as replacement cost, but it shows that the safety inspection at the dealership was beyond negligent. Other than that we found a few "buyer beware" typical wear items on the front end - my front sway bars are splitting open and the bushings are worn, and the steering rack is leaking will probably go in the next year. That's on me and I will be saving up for those repairs throughout this year.
In the meantime I am going to keep the information from today in my back pocket and see what they say at the Honda dealership tomorrow when they look at it. If they repair the bumper support and meet me halfway on the TEHCM pressure switch repair I think I'd call the issue resolved. I really love the car; the engine, brakes, and suspension are all spectacular for a car this size and the interior and Bose stereo are great. I hope the dealership will make it right.
Sorry man but you bought a USED car (10 years old, 107k miles). It's up to YOU to do the research. It's always Buyer Beware. Always has been. Always well be.
First of all..I found out that carfax isn't always true...I bought a 09 with 143k on it, carfax said Brakes and rotors were changed at 135k. I road tested it and it had a pulsation in brake pedal among other issues. Dealer ca.e down a grand so I bought it...I do my own repairs and when I pulled brakes apart I found the rotors still had factory "hold on" bolts rusted in place...pads were ok but rotors were in bad shape and were original ones that came with car...the trans fluid was a dark red so I was going to change it but a repair facility I sometimes use for repairs said don't change it could screw up tranny...well I called a couple of tranny shops and was told changing fluid wouldn't screw up tranny...so I changed fluid and filter(I never flush. That fill cause problems) had no problems since
I agree with what Sheila said. If you don't feel it slipping, it is likely just the pressure switch discs. I had it on my 2013 at around 100k also. The only big symptom was delayed engagement of drive and reverse.
The rear bumper support rusting out also seems to be a somewhat common issue if the car is from the rust belt. I got rear-ended lightly, and when I was inspecting to see the damage I also noticed mine was completely rusted out (and bent after the accident). You can get the bumper support for 85$. Just need to remove the rear bumper cover and a couple of bolts and you can swap it out. Not a hard job.
Sucks to have to work on cars you just bought, but that's the nature of buying used I suppose. The benefit is not having a $500+ car payment each month.
The rear bumper support rusting out also seems to be a somewhat common issue if the car is from the rust belt. I got rear-ended lightly, and when I was inspecting to see the damage I also noticed mine was completely rusted out (and bent after the accident). You can get the bumper support for 85$. Just need to remove the rear bumper cover and a couple of bolts and you can swap it out. Not a hard job.
Sucks to have to work on cars you just bought, but that's the nature of buying used I suppose. The benefit is not having a $500+ car payment each month.
Ya..I put about a grand I to my 09 after I got it...dealer took a gra.d off their price, so it worked out....that was a year and a half ago....just now have to replace front brakes....they have 40k on them....car runs great....
So while we're on the subject of tranny slippage, my 2014 does a weird thing. If I'm accelerating slowly I hear a humming noise and when I look at the tach the RPMs hold steady for a second but then the trans shifts up to next gear and the RPMs drop. If I'm accelerating quickly it just upshifts normally with no noise or hesitation. A couple of months ago when the weather was nice I checked all fluids and found out the trans was down a quart. I thought that was odd because there was no sign of any leakage so I put a quart in of the correct type. Not really sure when the hesitation to upshift started. Sorry if I shouldn't have posted this here or just started a new thread. Let me know.
Marty,
I posted a while back about the 'hum' during the 3-4 shift. I did some diagnostics and found that the torque converter clutch was smoothing out the shift by staying unlocked during fast acceleration. I will be going after the pressure switch replacement this year to see if that fixes it, but it hasn't gotten any worse over several thousand miles.
I posted a while back about the 'hum' during the 3-4 shift. I did some diagnostics and found that the torque converter clutch was smoothing out the shift by staying unlocked during fast acceleration. I will be going after the pressure switch replacement this year to see if that fixes it, but it hasn't gotten any worse over several thousand miles.
when I bought my 2013 Chevrolet Impala LTZ from a car dealer in Sacramento I went and took it to jiffy lube had a full oil change drove it back home to Nevada and made one more trip to Sacramento with no promblem. On my way back to Sacramento on my third trip I wanted to check the trasmission fluid to make sure it was good. I had no problems driving back and forth those two times ran like a champ. So when I went to check the tranny oil it was fine. I noticed a screw driver that was in the engine so I pulled it out. That was the end of having a good running car. I went to start the car and as I was putting it in reverse the car made a loud shiffitng sound and I noticed that where the cars shows you the R,N,D,1 didnt mark when I put it in reverse. It had no power. Had a friend come over to look at it. I guess the screwdriver was pressed up against the trasmission control module plug the one that runs from the computer to the trasmission to give it a better connection. Because the plug has a lock on it that was broken. I was so mad I called the dealer who sold it to me and he told me to have it towed back to Sacramento that I could not afford I was so mad. He had just put another engine in the car like one day before I bought it so he had to connect the engine to the trasmission right so he put the screwdriver in there and sold me the car like that. So I came out the pocket $1000 just to have it fixed. It was giving me the same code so whey dont you check the plug and maybe it just that and not the trasmission going out. Good Luck.Thanks for the reply. I had my independent inspection done this morning and the only codes of any kind were the ones stored in the transmission control module. The codes were P0877 and P0989. I am working on decoding the RPO codes to determine whether this car has a Gen 1 or Gen 2 6T70 transmission, but if it's Gen 1 those codes would be consistent with failing pressure switches on the TEHCM. This could be fixed by replacing the pressure switches or at most the entire TEHCM, but hardly something severe enough to warrant rebuild / replace of the entire tranny. It is also consistent with the only symptom so far shown, which is delayed engagement. So I'm increasingly skeptical of the claim made by the original Chevy dealership and will be asking them to pass along the service invoice with the previous owner's name redacted.
The inspection also showed that the rear bumper support is completely rusted out on the passenger side. That is a safety concern in the event of a rear collision and rather surprising since dealerships are required by law to perform safety inspections on used cars in my state. One of the wiper blades was split, which is a non-issue as far as replacement cost, but it shows that the safety inspection at the dealership was beyond negligent. Other than that we found a few "buyer beware" typical wear items on the front end - my front sway bars are splitting open and the bushings are worn, and the steering rack is leaking will probably go in the next year. That's on me and I will be saving up for those repairs throughout this year.
In the meantime I am going to keep the information from today in my back pocket and see what they say at the Honda dealership tomorrow when they look at it. If they repair the bumper support and meet me halfway on the TEHCM pressure switch repair I think I'd call the issue resolved. I really love the car; the engine, brakes, and suspension are all spectacular for a car this size and the interior and Bose stereo are great. I hope the dealership will make it right.
1 - 11 of 11 Posts
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