I know some of you guys know montreal a bit and I was wondering if any of you had a reliable garage to suggest me,where I could do maintenance on my elantra.I thought I found one a while ago,but they made for 700$ of repair on the buick century I had when in fact it was a lost cause because the car had many more problems.So anyway,I need now to find a place to have my transmission flushed and I am worried I may end up somewhere i am going to get screwed.thanks!!

Hyundai with a automatic? You don't need a garage, you need a priest.

DJ's garage in chateauguay. very honest, if the car is a beater will do a beater repair.

Posted by nostra-YOUPPI! DJ's garage in chateauguay. very honest, if the car is a beater will do a beater repair.

Speaking of beater repairs... You should see under the hood of my friend's beater GMC pickup.

The thing is so rusted that he once lost his battery while driving. The battery is now holding in a plastic milk crate that he attached to the vehicule's body with self-tapping metal screws

There's a problem with the 4x4 actuator, so he have to engage it manually (i.e: by crawling under the thing and manually moving the actuator and hold it in place with a wheel nut)

The passenger seat is no longer attached to the cab so when he breaks the headrest bangs on the dashboard

He can get rid of his garbage by dropping it on the floor, since there's quite a large hole in it... (i.e: when you drive, if you look down at the floor you can see the road underneat it. He fixed it with by adding a checkered plate on the floor because he kept trapping his foot in the hole.

There's no more windshield fluid tank. He just taped the windshield fluid plastic bottle under the hood, made a hole in the cap and ran the windshield fluid line in it. That's very ghetto.

Ofcourse, the checkengine light has been on for at least the previous year. I'm pretty sure that this is all emission-related.

The gas tank is rusted out, so whenever you are parked near his pickup, you get that sweet smell of gasoline all over the place.

But my friend is a lucky guy, because since there's no mandatory vehicule inspection in Quebec (for non-commercial vehicules), he can actually drive this dangerous piece of shit around without having to worry about it.

I almost forgot: the tailgate is kept closed via tie-wraps and yellow rope.

Posted by Mickael I almost forgot: the tailgate is kept closed via tie-wraps and yellow rope.

the check engine light is 99% of the time emissions. i always said if the check engine light isnt on it dont run

Posted by vince I know some of you guys know montreal a bit and I was wondering if any of you had a reliable garage to suggest me,where I could do maintenance on my elantra.I thought I found one a while ago,but they made for 700$ of repair on the buick century I had when in fact it was a lost cause because the car had many more problems.So anyway,I need now to find a place to have my transmission flushed and I am worried I may end up somewhere i am going to get screwed.thanks!!

why are you having it flushed? Sometimes that's the worst thing you can do if your automatic transmission has some miles on it. In my experience (but this is with Hydramatics) it's best just to drain them, change the filter and pan gasket and refill them with fluid. With a flush, you're stirring up a whole mess of garbage in that transmission, especially if the car has a ton of miles (worse if it is city mileage).
On top of that, an old transmission guy once told me that sometimes the only the makes the bands grab is garbage in the fluid.

i didn't mean to threadjack, Vince, I was just adding that. thought it could be useful.

Posted by Samurai why are you having it flushed? Sometimes that's the worst thing you can do if your automatic transmission has some miles on it. In my experience (but this is with Hydramatics) it's best just to drain them, change the filter and pan gasket and refill them with fluid. With a flush, you're stirring up a whole mess of garbage in that transmission, especially if the car has a ton of miles (worse if it is city mileage). On top of that, an old transmission guy once told me that sometimes the only the makes the bands grab is garbage in the fluid. i didn't mean to threadjack, Vince, I was just adding that. thought it could be useful.

I went to canadian tire to have my winter tire put on and my oil change.When I paid they told me I should do something about that transmission,the liquid is black.The car has 40k miles now.what do you think I should I do with that ?

Posted by vince I went to canadian tire to have my winter tire put on and my oil change.When I paid they told me I should do something about that transmission,the liquid is black.The car has 40k miles now.what do you think I should I do with that ?

change it. i think a flush is just snake oil anyway.
Question to you, Vince... did you pull out the dipstick and verify that the fluid was black? Automatic transmission fluid should be a red-reddish color. When it has some miles on it, the fluid will get a reddish brown. To be honest, I have never seen transmission fluid go black. Also, if transmission fluid has expired, it usually has a 'burnt' smell to it. It's a very unique smell.

Here's what you do, Vince: Run the car for 20 minutes at highway speed to get the transmission warmed up (you can do this in the city as well just takes longer). Once the transmission/car has warmed up, pull to a level parking lot that's reasonably safe. Now with the GM's I deal with, you generally leave the car running, in park, and check the fluid. If all is well with Mr. Transmission, the fluid be in the operating zone of the dipstick and be happy reddish color. With a GM, there is an ADD line. I think this may be an auto industry standard. If you do have to ADD fluid, do NOT go whole hog. Sometimes there is an ADD line or an ADD 1 Pint line (You guys are metric, so this probably means dickus to you).

Personally, in my experience, unless you're hauling a trailer full of penguins, a tank or using the car like a taxi/delivery car, i've never seen transmission fluid go south at 40,000 miles (or 40,000 kilometers...whichever you subscribe to). Do you have a family member that knows anything about cars? Any friends that are auto-inclined? I mean, fuck, Nismo and Nostra-youppi live in the same city and they're mechanically inclined... Seek them out before you let anyone fuck around under the hood of the car.

Is the transmission slipping? is it clunking into different drive ranges? is it downshifting and upshifting hard. Does it slip and whine and hesitate on a hill? Is your fuel economy falling off? Does the car take forever to downshift when passing another car? If you answered no to any or all of these, there's nothing wrong with your transmission in my opinion.


Also, I would PM Bandi, Big Dave, Jeepdave, CR400... the usually guys that post on here for help as well.

I agree with Samarai, a flush is probably a waste of time on most automatics. But there some oddball Borg-Warner transmissions that require you flush to fill...

Posted by Samurai why are you having it flushed? Sometimes that's the worst thing you can do if your automatic transmission has some miles on it. In my experience (but this is with Hydramatics) it's best just to drain them, change the filter and pan gasket and refill them with fluid. With a flush, you're stirring up a whole mess of garbage in that transmission, especially if the car has a ton of miles (worse if it is city mileage). On top of that, an old transmission guy once told me that sometimes the only the makes the bands grab is garbage in the fluid. i didn't mean to threadjack, Vince, I was just adding that. thought it could be useful.

vince, if you need any transmission work Eastern on henri bourassa is the only way to go. get someone, NOT CANADIAN TIRE, to scan for codes, my grand prix had the dreaded 1811 code, first to second felt like i was driving a mack truck. Canadian tire wanted to change the oil (i new i was due for a rebuild)

Not doubting his abilities, but am I the only one wondering if he accidently pulled the wrong stick..................


Or if a garage sponge showed him the oil and called it the tranny fluid to secure more work?

Posted by Mickael Speaking of beater repairs... You should see under the hood of my friend's beater GMC pickup. The thing is so rusted that he once lost his battery while driving. The battery is now holding in a plastic milk crate that he attached to the vehicule's body with self-tapping metal screws

And then I get sent to inpsection once or twice a year because I have wheels a drop and exhaust on my car, and being lowered means that my car is dangerous....

Posted by nostra-YOUPPI! vince, if you need any transmission work Eastern on henri bourassa is the only way to go. get someone, NOT CANADIAN TIRE, to scan for codes, my grand prix had the dreaded 1811 code, first to second felt like i was driving a mack truck. Canadian tire wanted to change the oil (i new i was due for a rebuild)

Eastern is the bomb I send all my transmission work to them

First mistake was taking your car to Canadian Tire.

Honestly, verify the fluid is dark, and if it ain't broke- don't fix it.

A friend of mine was told she needed new rear brakes right away by CTC- when she brought it to me, I had trouble getting the drums off because they hadn't been taken off in years, hell, I had to work to get the wheels off of the damn thing because they hadn't been removed in ages.

In short, her back brakes were fine... But they missed the fact that the left tie rod was basically ready to fall off and the tires were screwed.

Never trust Canadian Tire. All they care about is making as much money as possible even if it means ripping people off. Their hard earned reputation for being awful is well deserved.

I work for their spinoff (which I'm told was created because CT wasn't being taken seriously in the auto industry, but it's run exactly the same) and we are constantly told to upsell crap to people.

for peice of mind take it to eastern, they are good, wont rip you off, if nismo and i agree on somthing it must be ok. anyone who goes to canadian tire for anything other than tires or easy stuff is asking for trouble. I had wheel bearings done by them cus they were cheaper than doing it myself, and guaranteed. but i would NEVER let them touch my engine

Posted by bandi First mistake was taking your car to Canadian Tire. Honestly, verify the fluid is dark, and if it ain't broke- don't fix it. A friend of mine was told she needed new rear brakes right away by CTC- when she brought it to me, I had trouble getting the drums off because they hadn't been taken off in years, hell, I had to work to get the wheels off of the damn thing because they hadn't been removed in ages. In short, her back brakes were fine... But they missed the fact that the left tie rod was basically ready to fall off and the tires were screwed.

bandi, my friends mother takes her car to crappy tire all the time, imagine she made enought "money on the card" last year to buy a pressure washer... i drive beaters and all i got on my card were wiper blades, tells somthing about the service dept

Haha I know canadian tire is not the best choice but I had my oil change and my winter tires put on for 52 $.The winter tires are obligatory for december 15 and as the date get closer more and more people rush in to get the job done so...and that place you recommend is called eastern transmission or something like that ?

I called them and they say a flush could worsen the problem.will get the liquid replace only if possible.anyway im pretty sure its the best place to have this problem taken care of,looks they know what they are talking about..thanks guys.