audilvr

OK-- I might be a fussy customer, but for whatever reason, it took this long to get things right (hopefully). Would you believe it took three valve bodies to get a good one? If you do decide to have your transmission rebuilt, and you replace the valve body, please consider spending an additional few hundred dollars to buy it from a ZF distributor. Be sure to specify-- because there are a lot of lousy remfg. units to choose from, and you do not want to do this two or three times.

Fortunately, I worked with an honorable shop who painstakingly went through this process with me to achieve satisfaction. I am sure there are shops with test equipment to validate the condition of the valve body, but there are probably not too many and unfortunately my shop is a plug and play rebuilder. It will take me a few weeks to stop thinking about the 2006 Avalon Touring edition for $27,800 that sits on the local lot with 6 miles on it and probably the lowest cost of ownership on the planet. (Withthe exception of all the TRD parts needed to make it handle halfway decently). With a fresh rebuilt transmission, the TB done, fresh brakes and nothing currently wrong with the car-- it is a decent time to get off the train.

Maybe I just need to get reacquainted and the feeling will go away. At least the transmission acts like new. Kudos to the folks at King for sticking with it until it was perfect.

PaulW

YGM

tonypai

Congrats! Time to enjoy the car.

tehA8PIMP

Ebay has Phoenix for 2,000 and a ZF one will cost you 4500 retail, the markup is a few hundred from wholesale.

ZF has new TC, not sure about the phoenix

tk1780

What did it cost you? Is that King in Chicago?

audilvr

It cost me $2500 which included a upper water hose that broke when they took the trans out (proper engine support might have saved the hose-- but it crumbled so maybe it was bad).

The $2250 price for the trans included a new valve body and torque converter as well as all the clutches and the like associated with a rebuild. Yes-- it was King Transmission-- and they learned a few things about the A8 I am sure.

audilvr

I was speaking of valve bodies-- not trannys. THey rebuilt mine. $2000 plus R/R of about 8 hours total time would come to maybe $2600? I git the jeebies about buying a trans from Phoenix and having it installed here with no recourse if it did not work right (other than VISA/MASTERCARD).

tehA8PIMP

here is some ebay feedback

http://feedback.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=phoenix-remanufactured-transmissions&items=25&page=11&frompag e=-1&iid=8033415175&de=off

scary<ul><li><a href="http://feedback.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&amp;userid=phoenix-remanufactured-transmissions&amp;items=25&amp;page=11&amp;frompag e=-1&amp;iid=8033415175&amp;de=off">http://feedback.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP