Southern Gear Co.

[Browning151]

I bought an '08 Frontier (4cyl, 5 spd) back in April, noticed a couple of days later that the trans had a high pitched whine in 5th gear. 30 day warranty from dealer paid to have the transmission rebuilt, no big deal. Get the truck back from Southern Gear and still has the same noise, come to find out they just put a trans "from stock" (read: used) in the truck instead of rebuilding mine. Take it back to them, they build another trans and put it back in the truck. Picked it up today and still has the same issue. Now they are trying to convince me that this is "acceptable level of noise" and that they don't know what else to do, arguing that there is no problem and that they're not sure the noise "could be gotten rid of." The GM also tells me to my face, well you know some customers you just can't please but he will get with the owner and they will figure something out. It was all I could do to not lose my shit, anyone else dealt with these guys? I feel like this whole thing is about to get real ugly. Any opinions on how I should proceed from here?


(If this needs to be moved somewhere else go for it.)

[bu villain]

I've had my issues with them recently as well. Not gonna go into specifics but I feel you.

[RandomGuy]

Many years ago, I had them completely rebuild/upgrade my starion transmission (which barely ground 2nd gear every once in a while as it was)

In retrospect, that was a dumb choice just considering what I paid for "peace of mind" and their little warranty which I didn't get to utilize as the rest of my car stopped running.

As far as their worksmanship goes, the tranny was returned in like-new condition with a lot of new parts (that I paid for of course)
Shifted like butter.

http://g54b.com/dev/DSC00156.JPG

I believe Ball Engine recommended them to me, but I'm not sure.

[Browning151]

They were recommended to me by one of the parts guys at a Nissan dealership that I do work for. It seems like from the people I've talked to about them, the ones who have had work done recently had a less than great experience but the ones who have used them a few years ago seem to have had good experiences. Not sure if it comes down to different mgmt/techs, or cheaper parts suppliers or what but I get the sense that quality has declined just from people I've spoken to personally.



Edit: I don't know if this will work or not, but this is a video taken while I was driving home this afternoon. Maybe I'm just too picky, but that doesn't sound like an acceptable level of noise to me.


http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s200/Browning151/1080B164-7730-4365-919E-B958AC85B91D-4518-0000017C76E95EFE_zps3747788c.mp4

[Browning151]

Update: Finally spoke to the owner Tuesday afternoon and he basically told me to go pound sand. His only solution was for me to either pay $500 and he would put a new trans from Nissan in the truck or he would refund the money to the dealer and I'd have to take it up with them again. I offered to take it to a dealer and have it diagnosed and he said that even if it was a problem with his transmission that he didn't care, he was not going to do anything further other than hand me off to the dealer if I wasn't willing to pay the $500 for a new trans. He also talked to me like I was a 5 year old child the entire time and did not even know how many transmissions had been put in the truck, how many he paid for, and could not give me any history on the transmissions that he put in the truck as far as mileage or what had been done to them when they came into their shop. For all I know I could have a trans in the truck at this point that has double the mileage my original had, and the problem still has not been fixed.

Bottom line: I would NEVER recommend these guys to anyone.


ETA: Anyone have any recommendations for a reputable shop?