Vent: wasted $120 on a cheap oil pump for my transmission flush

I tried saving some cash last month by buying a no-name hand pump off Amazon to do a transmission fluid exchange on my 2012 Accord. Figured it was just a simple pump, how bad could it be? First use it barely pulled fluid, then seized up halfway through the job. Ended up draining everything and having to tow it to a shop anyway since I had air locked the system. The shop guy told me these cheap pumps are notorious for failing and said I should have just rented the real tool from an auto parts store. So I spent $120 on the pump plus $85 for the tow and the shop still charged me $200 to finish the flush. Has anyone else gotten burned by one of these cheap fluid transfer pumps?

2 comments

2 Comments

julia_hayes20d ago

oh man that sucks, i feel your pain. i did the exact same thing trying to flush the power steering on my old civic. bought a cheap plastic pump from some random seller on ebay and the handle snapped off on the third pump. ended up with fluid all over the garage and had to call a buddy to help me push it to a shop. lesson learned for sure, those cheap ones just aren't worth the headache.

karen_shah5622d ago

Used to think a pump is just a pump and the fancy ones are a waste of money. That exact same thing happened to me with a cheap hand pump for differential fluid on my truck. The plunger seal blew out on the second pull and it just dumped gear oil all over my driveway. Learned the hard way that the quality difference in the seals and the internal parts makes a huge difference.