I have a 2001 Bonneville with 240k miles, and just recently my transmission may require a rebuild (taking it to the shop this week to diagnose the $$).
I may have a few options – Fix it (upwards of $2-3000), send it to the junk yard, or to tow it home to try and sell it.

There are a few things wrong with it (nothing major in my opinion), and the cost of replacing the transmission is higher than what I would expect to get from it if it was up and running.

Any suggestions? And are there any easily removable parts that anybody would like if I decide to junk it?

Chris the first step really should be obtaining the transmission codes and post them back in here.
What are the transmission driving problems description if possible please.
That cost seems quite high. Is your trans a 4t65e ? or is your car supercharged?

search around you may have to drive some but there are places that do it cheap. had mine done for less than a grand. and even if you have to pay 3k you have to look at it in the respect of what kind of problems are you going to have with a car thats only 2-3k to buy.

Thanks guys.

It is a normal 3.8L - non supercharged. I couldn't say for certain what trans is in there though - been lots of long days at work lately.

The overall symptoms-
Reverse works without issue
In drive, the motor surges and sputters and left in drive with the brake on it will die. Same issue when in 3rd.

I can manually down shift to 1st and start off - but it does require 4-6k RPM of the motor to get rolling. It lacks power in 1st - if it was a manual trans, I'd say the clutch was slipping.

It will shift into 2nd and I seem to have more power and drives ok.
At 45-55 MPH, it will shift into 3rd, but again, no real power, but it will shift into it automatically.

When this happened, I don't think I've ever heard it get into 4th.

It seemed to happen all of a sudden - drove to work and then leaving for lunch it happened. Part of it may be self induced, as the fluid was quite low (like a qt and a half low). At lunch, I filled it back up to about full and let it run a bit to pump any air out of the lines, and was able to nurse it back to work, but since that day happened, I've parked it into the garage.

I've had other people have transmission work done and it seems to be hit an miss. One place is not a great place (the old 1 month out of warranty and it doesn't work anymore) - so I'm kind of locked into a place in town (I'll rent a tow dolly and pull it down there) as they do have a good reputation

I did run down to the local auto store and borrowed a scanner, but either there was no code thrown, or it doesn't read the trans codes from the computer. Just the normal ones dealing with emissions and O2 sensors were flagged (been having that for a while now).

Thanks for your ideas.

once they slip regardless of why normmally dont come back with something you can do externally

Mine (4T60-E-HD) does the same slippage when cold. It will however go in 1st if manually put there. After diagnostic using logic and a service manual, I think the forward band is slipping, but when the "D-2" band is on, it will grip enough to go.

So, I may think your forward band slips or lacks engagement pressure.

I just got it back from the shop.
They said a completely broken band, and an assisting band is also burning. I was told that it is difficult to find one in a junk yard in decent shape so it would require a rebuild and quite a bit of labor.

Here is a Video of a guy replacing the forward band in the car.

The only thing they left out of the video was getting a 4t65 down to work on the side panel like that. Its something like 6-8 hours, if you are set up to go and know what you are doing. Do you have any interest in doing the work yourself? Should be doable (i would try it, given the car is not worth a lot).

Let me put a little bit of faggotness in this thread : Even though I always advise for doing mechanics yourself, I wouldn't advise doing this if you have a bad back. These transmissions are godawfully heavy. If you're healthy, go for it.

Edit : can't check the videos, but it looks like he'* doing it with the tranny still on the car. Nevermind my raging faggotness!