batchman
SHO Member
Greetings. Been a while since I've lurked, having retired the Gen2 MTX a while back.
Since then my dailies have been Continentals, same AX4 (in N flavor), but no temptation to make it into an autocross car. This saves me perfecting setup just as rust takes over LOL. These are cars I can live with, and dispose of.
Except I fell in love with the rockers and brake lines on a Florida car - so I decided it was worth putting in a reman trans. Here is where my story starts.
Checked out RockAuto's reman transmissions. Good outfit (ETE) and the 3yr warranty even includes labor so long as you're working with a shop, which I was. Gave it a shot.
All went as planned, except when I started hearing a 'thrum' after 19mo and ~17k miles.
Changed fluid, no help - got worse. ETE stepped up and sent a new trans, only wrinkle was labor warranty is limited to $500 or so. I'm in an area where out/in is closer to twice that. OK by me.
Failure was in the differential. Still shifted fine, but that's not quite enough if you can't put drive down.
New trans seemed fine, again for about 19 months and 16k miles. You can now guess where this is going, and why I'm posting.
Sure enough, differential howling (still after fresh fluid) and I am just past the 36mo warranty. Just for good measure I got a chain slip once, too.
Talked with ETE, who seemed inclined to blame the quality of incoming cores. I think it's more likely cheap crap bearings, as for all the AX4* failures I've known, none have involved the differential. I now have 2.
Short version - pretty sure any AX4S or AX4N from this company will eat it's final drive, even without much of a beating. I'm pretty kind to my dailies, now that I have fully separated transit from autocross
.
Anyway I figured it was enough of an experience to post with hopes of saving another member this particular adventure.
Cheers,
- Jeff
Since then my dailies have been Continentals, same AX4 (in N flavor), but no temptation to make it into an autocross car. This saves me perfecting setup just as rust takes over LOL. These are cars I can live with, and dispose of.
Except I fell in love with the rockers and brake lines on a Florida car - so I decided it was worth putting in a reman trans. Here is where my story starts.
Checked out RockAuto's reman transmissions. Good outfit (ETE) and the 3yr warranty even includes labor so long as you're working with a shop, which I was. Gave it a shot.
All went as planned, except when I started hearing a 'thrum' after 19mo and ~17k miles.
Changed fluid, no help - got worse. ETE stepped up and sent a new trans, only wrinkle was labor warranty is limited to $500 or so. I'm in an area where out/in is closer to twice that. OK by me.
Failure was in the differential. Still shifted fine, but that's not quite enough if you can't put drive down.
New trans seemed fine, again for about 19 months and 16k miles. You can now guess where this is going, and why I'm posting.
Sure enough, differential howling (still after fresh fluid) and I am just past the 36mo warranty. Just for good measure I got a chain slip once, too.
Talked with ETE, who seemed inclined to blame the quality of incoming cores. I think it's more likely cheap crap bearings, as for all the AX4* failures I've known, none have involved the differential. I now have 2.
Short version - pretty sure any AX4S or AX4N from this company will eat it's final drive, even without much of a beating. I'm pretty kind to my dailies, now that I have fully separated transit from autocross
.Anyway I figured it was enough of an experience to post with hopes of saving another member this particular adventure.
Cheers,
- Jeff
