2003 DeVille – How Many Hours Does it Take to Replace a Transmission?

Most transmission shops will probably charge you about 8 hours labor to pull the tranny from your deVille, quite a difference from your experience. That said, remember they are specialists in transmission work and what one of those techs can do in a day is amazing, especially to a non-specialist.

You’re right about the shortcuts. When you have been in the transmission repair business for a bit, like any other business, you develop workarounds to facilitate getting the transmission in and out of its housing. Factory manuals are written to guide first-time or inexperienced technicians through each step of a routine and they are expected to follow it number by number. The same is true of advanced do-it-yourselfers — provided you have the specialized tools and support equipment that you have. As you have learned, each step builds in extra steps to ensure that each portion of the removal or install process is down correctly. Over time, if you did this every day, you would find that you’d develop your own set of workarounds.

For instance, let’s say you wanted to remove the exhaust system clamps or brackets, what would you do? Most people would likely try to put a socket on a nut and then move it without trying anything beforehand. However, you would speed things up by simply starting up your car or truck and letting the exhaust system warm so the fasteners were also warmed. The warmed fasteners will spin off rather quickly. Cold fasteners tend to stay firmly bound to their mounting surfaces, while heated fasteners expand a bit and loosen. Even before warming, if you wanted to speed things further, you could hit them with WD-40 or another penetrating oil and then warm things up. You will find things work quickly this way.

If you hadn’t been involved in transmission work and hadn’t done steps like this before, your frustration levels would be quite high as you would likely not only strip fasteners, but you might also shear them off, leaving you with further problems if you break a clamp or bolt off without loosening it so that you have drill out and then tap and die the mounting point. That’s the problem with cold nuts, bolts and other fasteners.

And, this is only one quick example. And, yes, it’s a lot of words to say you are right.

By the way, you are right! Now that you’ve pulled and replaced the tranny twice, your job will likely go much more quickly. It’s just a matter of doing the work and finding the quick steps.