[BlueLights]

Did you get your Transmission Control Module (a.k.a. TCU, a.k.a. transmission computer) rebuilt instead of replacing it?

• Who did you use?
• What did you pay?
• What was your experience with that company?
• How long has the fix lasted?
• Any advice?

My TCM may finally be dead after a brief resurrection after getting wet when my passenger side flooded. That gave me four short circuit error codes, check engine light, and emergency transmission mode. At first I dried it out, cleaned the connections, and reset my codes. That lasted about six weeks. But now there's a new and different short circuit code that won't stay cleared and I'm stuck in emergency transmission mode.

Since new TCMs cost a minimum of $1,200 if I do it myself (easy) or $1,400 plus labor and BS if I take it to the dealer (in case electrical problems affect more than just the unit or something other than the unit itself like wiring, which I can't be sure of), since insurance might not cover it, and since used ones are scarce except for a worryingly scratched-up and expensive one on ebay, I'm considering having the unit rebuilt.

I'm currently talking to autoecu.net, who offer a $389 rebuild of my particular TCM as of Dec 2008 with a lifetime warranty. That sounds pretty good assuming mine is fixable, but I read some bad reviews here about them in posts from a couple of years ago. (FYI, they'll test it for $55 to make sure it needs to be fixed, but waive that fee if it does need it and they do fix it. Then there's cost of shipping.)

I'm interested in your TCM rebuild experience and the lasting results. If you had a different module rebuilt than TCM, like your ABS for example, but the company you used also rebuilds TCMs, I'd like to hear about your impressions of that company. I used Module Master for my ABS and that went flawlessly. But I'm most interested in TCM stories.

Other rebuilders I'm aware of, whether they do TCMs or not, I'm not sure:

www.siaelec.com
www.modulemaster.com
www.cardone.com

Thanks.

 

[sirwired]

A TCM sounds like a part begging to be yanked from a u-pull-it junk yard. I would be leery of bothering with a rebuild for a water-logged part.

The ABS Controller rebuilds are to repair a very specific problem that is not usually caused by wholesale nastiness; it's just some broken too-fine wires that need re-attaching.

SirWired

 

[BlueLights]

You're definitely right that it wants to be easily plucked from a junk lot. I've called every junkyard within about 80 miles of here, though, and nobody's got one. In terms of a rebuild, my thought is that if I got four shortout codes to go away by drying and cleaning, and now I only have one, a different one, maybe there is just one connection they could resolder or whatever to fix it. If it saves me $1,000 I think it's worth it, especially if it has a lifetime warranty.