Tranny was just rebuilt about maybe 10k miles ago and now a gear done broke so says Pontiac. Luckily there was a 3 year warranty on this tranny and the company (Jasper) wants us to take it in to a shop and see what caused it. I just want to know if its normal for a rebuilt tranny to fail like this and what could possibly cause this. This just happened after I took my car to Pep Boys to get a new water pump installed so is it possible that they may have sabotoged it in some wicked way? It was my water pump that I brought them and they said that if they install it they wont be liable for any leaks and such and I said ok because the car wasnt running and had just been dropped off there and I didnt want to have it towed again. Im thinking its possible they may have taken advantage of that liability thing and may have done something to the car but what would one have to do to make a transmission break instantly. The car ran fine all that day with not even one sign of anything wrong and then it doesnt work the next day. There is no fluid leaking at all so it couldnt be that. WIll Jasper most likely just throw in another rebuilt transmission or will I get a new one maybe?

If you are considering that Pep boys sabotaged your car, you're absolutely nuts. I wouldn't trust Pep boys to ever work on anything I own, they are bottom of the barrel as far as repair shops go. Regardless, no, it'* not normal for a rebuilt transmission to fail. Was the torque converter replaced with the transmission? I hope so. Also, was the trans cooler in the radiator fully flushed when the rebuilt transmission was installed? If not, it may have had burned fluid / clutch material still in it, which could have made its way into the new transmission. If you actually "lost a gear" it has to be a clutch/band that went in the transmission, which is most likely due to the rebuild shop'* faulty install.

Dont know about the torque converter thing but Pontiac said it was a gear that went out. As for the radiator, well its brand new and has around 3k miles on it. So I guess it could only be the rebuilt tranny that failed or when it fell off the towing truck and backed into another car but everyone says its impossible for the tranny to have been damaged during that since it wasnt that hard of a hit.

I'm sure they told you a "gear" went out. If you lose a "gear" with an automatic transmission, it'* due to a failed clutch or band. Go to howthingswork.com and check out the diagrams and writeup on the basic operation of an automatic transmission. Like your friends said, it'* nearly impossible for a low speed collision to damage the internals of your transmission.

If everythings clean, and 10K old.....Solenoid maybe?

any solenoid failure means two dead gears, not just one.

what was the problem with your tranny? did you have any forward gears? reverse?
were there any gears that didn't engage? slipping?

i have never heard of that

Well when I went to go check it out after my dad had gotten home I tried to drive it through each gear and all of them acted the same but the first gear didnt seem as bad as the others. Reverse did work because my dad reversed the car when the truck came to tow it. Not sure what is exactly wrong because Pontiac said they dont work on Jasper transmissions so we'll have to get it towed to another place nearby who will perform the warranty work.

?

heard of dead trannies? or the solenoid thing?

I'm curious to see the answer on this issue. Last Summer I put a Jasper rebuilt engine in my father'* 93 Blazer and was very impressed with the quality of the rebuild. They even went so far as to pack the oil pump and give free dropoff and pickup of the old engine. The engine has run perfectly and I'm curious to know what the quality of their rebuilt transmissions are....

Rob