Locate an Auto Repair Shop in Sprague, Nebraska

Sprague, NE Car Consumer Discussions

Re: Transmission [victor53]

by imidazol97 on Mon Feb 18 07:30:34 PST 2008

>wheels chatter or maybe a better description would be the feeling of ratcheting. this ratcheting can be scribed as on the verge of violent Does it seem like the firewall under the windshield is jumping up and down? That may mean that a certain part, I believe a Sprague (spelling?) is slipping. Try using 1st gear and see if the same thing happens. I'd recommend against accelerating hard enough to cause that to happen. It may be reduced pressures in the transmission due to wear on the pump. It may be pressure control valve; some of those have had problems. Your transmission has 140K miles and that's good.

And in the local yacht building business.........

by euphonium on Tue Sep 18 10:06:16 PDT 2007

A year ago, Kalama-based NorthStar Yachts owner Jerry Clark sat on the dock at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show in Florida and realized his business needed to change to survive. Potential customers were touring a nearly identical 80-foot yacht in a neighboring slip, but they were ignoring NorthStar's boat because the Chinese-built competitor was selling for $2 million less, said Clark, chief operating officer of NorthStar. "The consumer has become more price-driven," said Clark, 46. "They are willing to accept it being built offshore." So Clark, a Longview resident, started thinking about moving his operations to Zhuhai, China's boat-manufacturing region. He said he made 10 trips to Zhuhai in the past year and "was really surprised at the growth there. It was the opposite of what I imagined." Clark, who worked through translators in China, settled on a pre-built spec factory and laid off the firm's 60 employees in January after NorthStar's plant at the Port of Kalama finished its last U.S.-made yacht. "I've been working with some of these guys for 20 years. We have a family-type relationship," Clark said. "This was a tough decision, but it was either this or close the doors." This is the first major Cowlitz County firm to pull anchor and move oversees, said Ted Sprague, president of the Cowlitz Economic Development Council. However, he said, it is unlikely more will follow suit and outsource production to China, the world's most populous country. "Often times it depends on the capital investments here," he said. "There's a lot of risk moving oversees. Typically, either the capital investment for a company here is so large or the investment is so large that companies won't move." From its Kalama plant, NorthStar made 80-foot to 125-foot long yachts costing between $6 million and $13 million. In China, the luxury boats can be manufactured for about $2 million less with the same number of workers and allow NorthStar to offer more boat options, said Clark, who has been in the boat-building business 28 years. Clark said he had no alternative for keeping the company afloat. Clark followed his father and grandfather into the boat building profession. All three worked for Tollycraft Yachts in Kelso. In 1997, Tollycraft shut down after more than 60 years making boats. Clark bought the company and moved it to Kalama in 1998. The Daily News, 18 Sep 07

Re: TDI Problems, one after another [aaronr121]

by bpeebles on Thu Jul 05 19:08:36 PDT 2007

(aaronr121)I agree with what you say except you are mistaken about the alternator pully. The alternator pully on TDI engines contains a "sprague clutch" which allows the alternatror to freewheel in one direction. This type of pully is used on the TDI engine to help reduce belt wear due to the power-pulses that the TDI engine applies to the serp. belt. There have been MANY folks that had this pully malfunction. Before failure, the pully will most often make a squeek or screeching sound for several hundred miles. (If ignored, it will eventuially fall off.) It sounds to me as if the alternator pully was perhaps the ORIGIANL problem all along... and the bonehead dealership started throwing parts at it (at alisonf6 expense.) (alisonf6) I apologize to you for assuming you had ignored your TDI. Now that I have read thru the scenereo you describe, I am convinced that it was the DEALERSHIP which took you for a ride. They should KNOW that the alternator pully is a common failure item and replaced JUST THAT in the beginning. Personally, I am suspecting they did not properly torque the special screw that holds the alternator pully onto the shaft.... thus it fell off a couple days later. Another possibility is that the dealership reused some of the MUST REPLACE bolts. There are a number of bolts used on VW engines which are designed to stretch when they are installed and must NEVER EVER be reused because they will not properly torque down ever again.

Transmission -- Alcan are you here?

by imidazol97 on Thu May 06 04:24:53 PDT 2004

I asked about the torque converter clutch lockup control valve and was told about the Sonnax replacement recently. The 4T65E trans in 98 LeSabre has had uneven lockup for 2.5 years and 35K miles. Now has 105K. Car has had an easy life and trans has had 3 fluid changes since 65K. Now it will slip and grab on initial takeoff. I rarely do a quick takeoff, but my wife had commented about tires slipping last summer. After engine speed is up slightly you can floor it and there is no slip. Only from dead stop and idle and tipping in quickly does it let go and grab. I had a trans shop drive it last eve. They indicate the slip could be a sprague (spelling) or the clutches. Fluid is red and normal. Is the trans shop making it more serious than the TCC apply control and a pressure controller there that can give trouble and would be replaced when working on the valve body? OR is it time for a full rebuild.

Stutter / hiccup / Tranny dropping

by seiford on Fri Sep 05 20:29:38 PDT 2003

Just an update for those who also have this problem.. Background: When at a stop sign (tranny in drive, foot on brake) our '03 Envoy "stutters". Feels like the person behind us tapped our bumper. Noticeable little shake, no change in rpm. Done so far: Have had it into dealer 8 times, escalated to GM Customer Service. GM divulged that it's a known problem and sent us a letter upping the transmission warranty to 100,000 miles and considered the problem closed. No fix available (yet). No estimate on when, how I'd be notified, etc. BBB: GM Customer Service considered the issue closed since they increased our warranty. Not acceptable to us - GM said only escalation path was to go through BBB. That was a total waste of time. Their only resolution options for the manufacturer are for them to buy it back. We just want it fixed! The Arbitrator agreed that we had a problem (I had a written log of the events covering over 2 weeks) and that it should be covered under warranty. But that it wasn't sufficient of a safety or value issue to warrant buy-back. Since they only do resolutions of "buy-back" or "no buy-back" it ended there. How about a "Hey manufacturer, stand behind your product and fix this thing!". An acquantance of ours owns a Transmission shop and when we told him about the problem he said "Oh yeah, we see that all the time." He said the transmission is dropping in/out of drive - problem with the 'sprague' (?) gear. Requires a complete tranny rebuild. He speculates that GM knows that's the problem and doesn't want to rebuild all these trannies. He also bets that the transmission will eventually fail and GM is hoping some of them fail after the 100,000 warranty extention so they are off the hook. So I have no other option other than taking it back to the dealer week after week until it's fixed. Anyone been able to get this problem fixed?

In addition to amhjms

by warde on Fri Feb 21 14:30:10 PST 2003

After Adam emailed me with their information, I did some checking on them myself. There is no complaints with the Better Business Bureau and nothing negative listed with the state. If they were going to be shifty, I would think in the 10 years they have been listed on Better Business Bureau there would be something in the complaints. I have called and talked to them a few times in the last week and they have been nothing but professional. Oh and Adam, my sister-n-law knew the two girls at Sprague that you knew. Yes small world and thanks for the information.