<p>Update,We heard from the car dealer’s service center. H does not need a new transmission afterall. We are told that he needs a new drive shaft. Just curious, how much would that repair cost if you had to pay for it? I never heard of this type of repair.</p>
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<li><p>I don’t know how much it will cost. More than it should, for sure.</p></li>
<li><p>All the twirly bits in a drive train are joined together by flexibile bits. A lot of time these are some form of metal bushing or bearing captured in a block of fiber-reinforced rubber. If these rubber blocks or disks disintegrate, as they will eventually, the drive shaft can suffer significant wear on its metal ends. This is a frequent cause (in my personal experience) for a drive shaft failure. Slamming the drive shaft onto something hard, such as the heart of the vice principal at Jr’s high school, can damage it, too.</p></li>
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<p>I don’t think H slammed into anything, LOL. 30,000 miles and the part is worn…hmmm, oh well. I found out he has a 27 month lease rather than the 3 year one, so another year and this car is bye, bye.</p>
<p>I have a relative whose old Jeep reached 300,000 miles (!). Never had any major problem with it - til the day it spectacularly and without warning burst into flames on the expressway! Notwithstanding this, he went ahead and got a new Grand Cherokee. Unfortunately, he’s had one thing wrong with it after another.</p>
<p>We have owned quite a few Jeeps. This is the first one that I believe we had a ridiculous repair for a car with 30,000 miles. It was repaired, so I hope that we won’t have any more problems until the lease is up. My H does still break even, however, on the extended warranties b/c enough goes wrong (minor repairs that add up over time) when he puts on his milage. BTW, the mechanic did tell H that this was an unusual problem.</p>
<p>Roshke, how old was that Jeep? Was it 1987 or earlier, meaning AMC built?</p>
<p>AFPrep, I don’t recall exactly, but you’ll probably know - it was the year just before the Grand Cherokee came out.</p>
<p>The first Grand Cherokee came out in 1993. I’m assuming you have a 1992, maybe 1991 model.</p>
<p>AFPrep - Yes, the one that went the 300,000 miles (not ours, belonged to a close relative) was a 1992. The one having all the problems is only three years old.</p>
<p>I’m always amused when someone tells me their mid-80s Volvo lasted forever. Mine ('86 740) had the transmission rebuilt twice, the AC rebuilt once, the turbo rebuilt once, and the radiator hose break twice. Oh, and three flat tires. All in the 18,000 miles (yes, that’s eighteen thousand, not one hundred eighty thousand) and 18 months that I owned the car.</p>
<p>No turbos for us, we never bothered to fix the AC, but still these have been great cars. We also have manual transmissions, which someone said earlier last longer. Most of my kids’ friends did not know how to drive a stick.</p>
<p>We had a '97 Volvo 850 wagon that we bought in 2001. The second day we had it the check engine light came on (bad oxygen sensor). After that it was one problem after another including one (can’t even remember what it involved now) that kept it in the shop for 3 MONTHS. We traded it in 2005.</p>
<p>Neighbor has a 2001 Chrysler Town and Country that is on it’s third transmission.</p>