Tranny blew at 84K miles on 2003 ION

My wife's ION just blew its tranny at 84K miles. The dealer said its a
belt in the transmission and will cost $4700 to replace.

We still owe about $7K on it and are looking into options.
Just don't know what the optins are for this kind of vehicle
considering it front wheel drive and all.

Any advise would be appreciated.

Also, does any one know of a class action lawsuit for this tranny
problem?

Thanks in advance.

 

I would get a tranny from a rebuteable boneyard before I would spend
4700 bucks at dealer geting it replace. (you might get quotes at a few
other shops and find out if this is a common problem to) I would also
be calling up Saturns hotline about this one as to way you car has a
belt tin tranny that breaks at 84K miles and cost so much to fix and
tell them why in the world would you ever want to buy another Saturn
after this if they do not make it right.

 

Thanks for the advise SnoMan. I figured these CVT trannys are rare and
hard to find. I'll check out some local tranny shops.

My wife wants to protest in front of the dealership. We'll see how it
goes.

 

If you check out the link below it seems that you have a early one and
they had problems with it before it was even offered in cars.
GM/Saturn should make this right and likely will if you fuss enougn
about it.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go1459/is_200203/ai_n6829835

 

Also check www.car-part.com as they list CVT (M75) trannies for a 03
and around 600 bucks and the regulars automatics (M43) average about
100 bucks more (around here anyway)

 

They're rare and hard to find because they have horrid reliability
problems. My advice would be to scour the boneyards for a used one, get
your car back in operating condition and dump it. The CVT is a known
problem child which is why it's no longer even offered as an option.

Cheers,

 

VT25E FTW.

I knew it was a problem when the idea was still a concept. I never rely
on belts to turn a cam shaft, why would I want to rely on one moving a
3000 lbs car? Sigh...

4700 to replace the belt seems way way high but then again a NSX timing
belt is a 1500 dollar job. I think they will just swap in an updated
2004 cvt design and reprogram the car... I went through the TSB's and
didnt really find anything relevant.

It would be nice if it were easy to swap in the AF23-5.

 

Good thing someone posted that it was a CVT, next time please state
specifics ex: engine, AT, MT, etc... it helps us to help you.

You have a Quad Coupe with CVT then? Go directly back to your dealership and
inquire about the warranty extension on CVT trannys. Saturn Corp designated
this not that local shop as CVTs are problematic, so they should do good on
it. If not (and I hope they do good on it), call Saturn Customer service
(dunno the 800#) and explain the situation to them. Especially if you bought
the car brand new they should extend the tranny warranty.
Hope that helps.

marx404

 

Good tip. Also it seems you drive a lot as well and I would think that
the CVT tranny is not the best choice for this either because in mhigh
mileage you will wear one out long before the engine and rest of car
does.

 

<snip>

I believe it's 800-553-6000. http://www.saturn.com/ should list it.

 

We contacted Saturn and now they have offered to do the tranny work for
$1800 only because we did purchase the extended warranty.

I would have wished they would have done it for free, but that's the
best they said they could do.

I am seriously considering just getting it done, but I want to get some
other points of view on this.

The car is a 2003 ION 3 Coupe
Engine: L61 2.2LL4
4 Speed Automatic

 

A 4 year old car under extended warranty and they're trying to charge
you 1800 for a transmission repair? Something doesn't add up here.
Does the extended warranty go to 100k miles or have you passed the
mileage limit?

 

I agree, something is strange here because on extended warranty work I
have had done on my GM truck it has been zero deductable (you can get
that or 100 deductable when you buy it) not a 1800 dollar deductable.
Something is a bit fishy here. Also that tranny is only good for maybe
100K miles anyway (if that) and GM knows this too.

 

100k? You're being VERY generous.

 

Maybe I am at that. The point is that GM knew that it would not last
long but used anyway to boost fleet MPG averages at the expense of
reliablity for the end user. The sad part is is that for the first
several years they were out Saturns were tuff little cars that would
go a lot of miles as you see a lot of old hi mileage ones on the road
but GM has cut cormers on the newer ones and the expense of the
durabilty the earlier model established for the brand. Subaru played
with CVT trannies in the 80's but stopped when durabity issues could
not be licked effectively and the bigger the engine, the shorter the
life of the CVT because of how it transfers power. It is a nice theory
that looks good on paper but it is not practicle to apply in hi
mileage usage because of design limitations.

 

The Saturn service guy says its the endcover for the tranny and Saturn
is offering to pay 50% of the service, so that leaves me with $1800 to
pay. The issue is the extended warranty went to 75K miles and we went
over that at 84K miles.

I am trying to check with Aamco to see if they have worked on those
transmissions and how hard it is to find and replace an endcover.

The price that Satrun is giving me sounds ubsurd.

 

Only the CVT tranny, not the manual. On the end cover, it should not
be hard to find in a bone yard. The original poster must of had a
catistrofic failure of chain to took out case too. I think I would be
talking to a lawyer maybe because this is getting better all the time.
GM would not want pictures of that tranny explosion in the media or in
a court room as it woud not speak well for saturn (one picture is
worth a thousand words). What ever you do and how every you fix it, do
not lets those bad parts get away from you as they may come in handy
if GM does not fully foot the bill on this one.

 

So, this appliies to automatic transmissions?,my 03 ion is a 5
manual,i certaintly hope so!.

 

I blew my tranny on my 94 SW2 at 159K (probably from getting out of
snow ruts) and went to http://www.6thplanetusedparts.com/ and while
getting a tranny picked up the motor as well because I had a nasty
valve tap. I paid $1200 for both. They guarantee for 12K miles and are
very nice people. It comes from Florida and they shipped directly to my
mechanic. You may want to have Cottman transmissions
http://www.cottman.com/home.cfm get you an estimate and or see if it
can be delivered to them for a test & install. I'm having Cottman
test my tranny for a long trip I'm planning, my mechanic uses them.
The engine I got from 6th Planet is better than the day I rolled her
off the showroom floor. These options can help in comparing prices.
Linda