My apologies for the double post. I just realized I put it in the wrong forum but couldn't move it myself.

I dented my transmission pan two weeks ago on a rock and am wondering if any of you have experience with the same type of damage. Pinnacle Nissan in Scottsdale quoted $150 for a new pan and $900 in labor. The rep said it was 10 hours of labor because the whole transmission needed to be dropped to do the pan swap. Have any of you done this yourselves and would you recommend it if the garage crew consisted of one not-so-repair-experienced guy and another very experienced worker? My choices are to recruit some help to do it myself, have the dealer do it today, or take it to an independent mechanic.

Thanks for your input,

Mario

The service manual says you only have to remove the oil pan in order to remove the A/T pan. Ask your dealer to show you the service manual, and then explain why they need 10 hours to do a 2 hour job.

I called a recommended mechanic and he also wondered why they quoted so much more time than he expected it should take. I'm going to have the local mechanic take a look at it. Since this is my first major repair on my truck, I'm curious to know whether shops/dealers may inflate repair time estimates so as not to shock the customer when the final bill comes in. On the other hand, hearing them say this would take 10 hours was the defining factor for going elsewhere.

RedX asked if it is leaking...

Yes, it is leaking, sort of. There's fluid on the outside of the pan, but it's not dripping to the ground. Some might say it'd be classified as a "weep". Not knowing much about auto repair, I don't know if it just the transmission pan seal or if other factors due to my rock encounter are involved. I've checked my oil level periodically (last one was three days ago) over the last two weeks or so and it's been fine. I checked the transmission fluid once and will do it again today. The dealer said "there's fluid everywhere" and we need to drop the transmission to get that transmission pan out because it's 4WD. He said it'd be a relatively small job if I had 2WD. Something didn't sound quite right, so I'll find out tomorrow what the mechanic down the street says.

When it says "oil pan" they must mean the transmission oil pan. I can't imagine they're referring to the engine oil pan, it's on the other side of the bell housing. Removing the engine oil pan would require removing the front diff.

Brent

Yeah, that did sound funny.
It looks like all you do is drain it and unbolt the pan, then bolt the new one on.