I had a SRTA tranny installed today by a GM dealer. Before going there I asked for a price. They took my vin.. called me back.. $2,679.38 which included tax. Dropped it off at 7:30am. A couple hours later I called to find out if it comes with synthetic fluids. Their response, "we can put in anything you like". I asked what it would cost for synthetic. Their response, "about double the cost of regular fluid so if regular is $2+ a quart then synthetic is about $4+." So how many quarts do I need.? They say about 14.. So I say, for about $30 more put in the synthetic. Dealership says, ok I'll put it on your work sheet. I get a call at the end of the day saying my truck is done. $2,975.. or something like that.. WHAT? Where did you get the extra $300? Something about the main seal being bad $65 and a seal where the tranny meets the transfer case.... OK, they got me. If it needed it it had to be done... But then $44 to drain out the dyno fluid plus a new gasket plus $144 for 17qts of sythetic fluid. That's about $8.50 a quart! I went nuts.. You said it would be about $30 more.. He said he was just talking in general synthetic was double the cost of dyno. Since the units come prefilled they had to do all this work to change it. I asked to speak to the manager and they said I had to wait till morning. I gave them back my key and kept the loaner..
My old tranny also had a drain plug. New one is miss it. At least I think it's missing it becaused they charged me for a new gasket when they changed the fluid. When I questioned it he said some SRTA's come with a drain plug and some come in without. Any recourse here?

I'm just pissed.. Thanks for letting me rant...

To me, it sounds like you called the parts department and asked how much for the transmission, is that right? Or did you call the service department and ask them what they would charge you for the transmission and the labor to put it in? :confused:
If you asked the service department about this, they should have quoted you a transmission adapter gasket (there is no seal there) with their service quote. As far as the rear main seal goes, I'm pretty sure you would have told them to go ahead with the replacement of it had they called you and mentioned it was leaking, but a call would have been a good idea on their part in my opinion. My guess is they assumed you would okay it, so they did it without asking you first.
Now, on to the fluid. I don't recall SRTA transmissions coming full of fluid, but my memory isn't that great some days. 7 to 8 dollars a quart for synthetic doesn't surprise me though, especially if they don't have it in bulk at that particular dealer. Actually, I wouldn't have been that surprised if they charged you 10-12 dollars per quart.
The pan gasket should have been reuseable, not quite sure why they would put a new one on...

Thanks.. I spoke to the service desk and asked them how much it would be. Was still deciding between having them fix it or to go with a SRTA unit. He asked for my vin number and said he would call back. The service manager called me back with the price for a SRTA.. down to the penny.. I laughed when I heard it because I was expecting an estimate.. usually rounded off to the nearest dollar..
Like I said, I'm ok with the rear main seal. Your right, IF they would have called I would have said to do it anyway. Would have been nice to have been asked but again, I'm ok with it.
When I asked about the synthetic IF he would have said, You know the unit comes prefilled with dyno fluid so it's going to cost you about $200 to change it to synthetic I would have said no thanks.. For an extra $30 it was a good deal..

Question.. So what do I do now? Do I have any recourse or do I just have to eat the extra cost?

Is there any way to find out if the SRTA comes prefilled?

If you asked the service department about this, they should have quoted you a transmission adapter gasket (there is no seal there) with their service quote. As far as the rear main seal goes,

There is a seal on the transfer case to keep the oil in the trasfer case & the oil out of the trans.
Tom

If you asked the service department about this, they should have quoted you a transmission adapter gasket (there is no seal there) with their service quote. As far as the rear main seal goes,

There is a seal on the transfer case to keep the oil in the trasfer case & the oil out of the trans.
Tom

Your right about that, Tom..(transfer case input seal) However, that SHOULD have been part of the quote from the service department if they were quoting the job.

Thanks.. I spoke to the service desk and asked them how much it would be. Was still deciding between having them fix it or to go with a SRTA unit. He asked for my vin number and said he would call back. The service manager called me back with the price for a SRTA.. down to the penny.. I laughed when I heard it because I was expecting an estimate.. usually rounded off to the nearest dollar..
Like I said, I'm ok with the rear main seal. Your right, IF they would have called I would have said to do it anyway. Would have been nice to have been asked but again, I'm ok with it.
When I asked about the synthetic IF he would have said, You know the unit comes prefilled with dyno fluid so it's going to cost you about $200 to change it to synthetic I would have said no thanks.. For an extra $30 it was a good deal..

Question.. So what do I do now? Do I have any recourse or do I just have to eat the extra cost?

Is there any way to find out if the SRTA comes prefilled?

I guess if I were you, would talk to the service manager..It sounds to me like you got quoted one thing, then the tech/parts department went ahead with the job and they found out just how far off they were on the quote.

SRTAs do not come prefilled. I selll a lot of these for high mileage 6.5s. Ususally only the bolts are reausable on theses units and not worth hunting down expensive parts.

What is a SRTA???

What is a SRTA???
I thought it was just me.

What is a SRTA???

I thought it was just me.
Me to???? I think it's GM's brand of rebuilds though. Some info would be nice as my 4L80 is starting to slip in OD.

I got together with the service manager and we worked it out. I probably still got porked a bit but it's done with. He said he gave me really good price on the job.. which he did by $700 less then two other quotes.. and didn't have much room to give. We agreed to split the $180 difference. I can live with that..

SRTA.. I thought it was CERTA as in certified.. but it's called SRTA. It's GM's rebuilt transmission. 36months or 100K miles warrantee.. So far I made it to work with no problems.. :)

Thanks again for letting me vent.. http://www.ctfisherman.com/ubb/graemlins/beerchug.gif

When did GM go to 100K on the warranty? Used to be 50K.
mike

I thought it was 50K too....Ah well, it's been a while....

SRTA stands for Service Rebuilt Transmission Assembly, as I recall...

One of the service writers used to come up to me and ask me for a quote on on a SRTA engine....):h I never could get him to stop doing that...

Glad you got the situation worked out, Steve...:)

Thanks.. I'm really glad I found this site.
After picking up the truck today I noticed that it wouldn't shift in OD like it normally did. I only had a short section of road so I had to slow down. On the other side of town she shifted fine. After work today it did the same thing. I got up to 2500rpms and no shift. Stopped at the light and when I took off she shifted fine. I tried calling the service manager to tell him I'm dropping my truck back off but he left for the day. Plan on calling him in the morning.
I just did a search on this site and found out that it's normal for the truck not to shift when it's cold.. That must have been something they updated since '99 when I purchased my truck because my old tranny never did that. Guess it's a good thing...?