Transmissions Only

First of all, I want to thank Transmissions Only for the excellent service they provided for my Mother-​In-​Law. Last Thursday my Mother-​In-​Law called me about a problem with her 1999 Ford Contour. That it felt like somebody was pushing her while she was on the freeway. So my friend and I take out the car that night for a test drive and noticed what we thought was the transmission slipping in fourth gear in overdrive mode. It drove fine with overdrive off. It got worse the next though, so I told my Mother-​In-​Law to stop driving it. Keep in mind, this car has less than 70,000 miles.
I check Unilocal on Monday for transmission repair shops. I call about 5 shops and get an average of $ 2500. By now I’m stressed because not only is this a lot of money for my 81 year old Mother-​In-​Law, the car is probably not even worth this much. So, I happen to see Transmissions Only and read some of their reviews and history which prompted me to call them. When I call, Tom answers and I explain what the car is doing. He states there could be several issues and the only way to determine whether the car needed a new transmission is for him to take a look at it. He gives me the diagnostic fees which seem reasonable, so I tell him I’ll have the car towed to the shop in the afternoon. When I get the car there, he does a basic check and finds the fluid level is low by 2 quarts. So I’m thinking this is what’s causing the transmission slippage and hoping there’s no more further damage. So Tom and I take it for a test drive. Everything is fine on the street and freeway. Just as we’re about to pull into the shop parking lot, the transmission makes a subtle jerk. Tom says he doesn’t like that, so we take it again on the freeway. This time the transmission starts acting like it did on Thursday night. It was shifting all over the place. So Tom says he wants to keep it for another day so he can hook it up to the computer while his mechanic drives it so he can see the shift points. He calls me on Tuesday and tells me the MLPS sensor is bad, which I guess controls the shifting. You can understand how relieved I am by now because my Mother-​In –Law was going to save $ 2300. They had it fixed and ready on Wednesday despite being so busy.
Transmissions Only took the time to properly diagnose the problem and repaired it at a fair price. Tom and Stacey are pleasant, respectful, honest, and fair. Tom wasn’t even going to charge me for the 2 quarts of fluid, but I paid for it anyways because it was only fair. I will refer them to my friends and family and will take my cars there if the need arises. Thanks again Tom and Stacey for taking care of my Mother-​In-​Law.

Wow! What great service! Could not get my ’99 Miata into gear and I feared the worst. Tom had me back on the road after a $ 54 part and 90 min labor! Then, Stacey came and picked me up to boot!!!

Best by a mile. Honest and will only do what you need. If Andy or Barney needed their patrol car tranny worked on this is where they would go.

great guys. They fixed a problem that owner made for nothing. Real honest and great shop to work with. If you have transmission issues, I would recommend you go to them for service.

They are the best
Great customer service
The last that works the front desk is a true doll
They don’t fix what doesn’t need or when t didn’t need fixing
I come every year to get my transmission service
Good people and great work

What a beautiful honest family! As a woman, I was terrified of having to take my car to a shop. Transmission Only relieved my panic. They did not try to sell me a new transmission, and instead they simply corrected the problems that were causing my vehicle to slip out of gear. This business is a shining light in a darker part of town. I encourage everyone to not be afraid and visit Transmission Only first. Out of all the places nearby, I know this is the best choice! Thank you for getting me back on the road. My lively hood depended on it!

These folks are honest as the day is long. Friendly and welcoming too. My ’05 Ford Five Hundred needed a drain and fill and my usual transmission shop wouldn’t touch it (it’s an early 6-​speed and a little intimidating). I was in and out in less than half and hour for less than $ 50 (I provided the expensive and exotic trans fluid.) Will go back for certain and recommend when I can.

I love this place. I recently had a new transmission put in my car and I had transmissions only check out my mechanics work and they found minor fixes my mechanic missed. Little fixes that made a huge difference in the way my truck runs. Now my truck runs smoothly and without any slips. I’ll be returning to this shop anytime I need transmission work. Good job transmissions only!

These guys are awesome! I thought the transmission on my Volvo s60 was done for, apparently the axle had come free from the transmission, and just needed to be set back in with some lock tight! I am new to Sacramento, so I didn’t have a go to mechanic locally. After calling multiple shops (most wouldn’t even touch a Volvo transmission) I found them and they offered to pick it up, and diagnose it. They EASILY could have told me I needed to replace the transmission and I wouldn’t have questioned it. They even told me that I could bring it back in a couple months, free of charge, to make sure the axle isn’t starting to slip out again.
There are a lot of shady mechanics out there, these guys are the opposite of that. HIGHLY recommend them!

I am so happy I found Transmission Only! I have recently moved to Sacramento and have no idea where to go for car repair, who is honest, or who is good. My transmission began to have some serious issues, so I had to find someone fast as I commute to Lodi daily for work. I found Transmission Only and took a chance… and thank God I did! These people are just plain AMAZING! They are completely professional and knowledgable about what they do. Customer service went above and beyond expected and they were honest and affordable. This shop was fair and I felt completely comfortable as they showed me exactly what they were doing to my car. I would absolutely send my family and friends to this shop in full confidence that they would be pleased with their service! Thank you Transmission Only, I will be back! (Well, hopefully not too soon! :))

I called to get a price quote on a tranny oil change. As soon and Stacey said the price I was about to hang up… since it was more than the dealer amount.
She quickly asked me to hold on and she explained to me the differences how some shops do flushes, which is bad for your car. She was very nice and took the time to educate me on it.
The price that Transmissions only charged for their Tranny oil change was more than what my dealership charges, so I will be going to the dealership, but I still wanted to write a review since she was so nice and took her time with me

I went to this place for a second opinion on getting my transmission replaced or rebuilt. They evaluated the transmission and called me every step of the way to let me know what was going on. I felt like the guys working on my car found that it was necessary to let me know how expensive each piece of his equipment is that he would need to hook my car up to to find out what was wrong. Weird. They did not need to replace my transmission. Instead they fixed the gear skipping problem. When I went to pick up my car the owner said everything was fixed although there is a rattling now that sounds like its in the engine. When I asked him what that might be he responded saying «oh I don’t know, you gotta take it to and engine place for that problem.» I left and continued driving my car for a week and a half. I drive 50 miles and day and every day the rattling got worse and turned into a thumping. I decided to take it to the dealership this time since obviously transmissions only was not going to help me. I drove the length of 2 football fields with a technician from the dealership and he had no hesitation in diagnosing that this car was clearly not safe to drive. It took 15 minutes for him to look at it and tell me that my left front tire was probably just a few miles from completely falling off. Transmissions Only failed to tighten my tire into my car! I am 5 and a half months pregnant with my baby girl and both of our lives were put in serious danger due to a lack of thorough inspection after repairing my car. How could someone be so careless??? This situation could have been a lot worse had I driven to work one more time without taking it in to get checked out. I DO NOT recommend anyone trusting this place to put your car back together correctly or completely. I had to pay $ 250 to replace the damaged parts from the tire driving so loosely. I really hope this review is read by everyone and that it helps people. I don’t want anyone’s life to be in danger because of someone’s careless, stupid mistake.

I have a vehicle that’d gradually stopped staying put when parked about six months ago now. Thankfully Sacramento is for the most part as flat as a pool table, but on the odd occasion there’s a slight incline where I’m trying to go, finding a creative way to leave the vehicle often posed a challenge. Add to this mess my ridiculous travel schedule to confound repair logistics, and I just drove it as-​is.
Finally sometime in June I started looking on Unilocal for transmission shops, and got the vehicle booked in to a competitor. I dropped it off for assessment, and after pulling the pan they told me that to get to the parking pawl mechanism fixed would require complete removal and disassembly of the transmission at a minimum cost of ~$ 900. The vehicle is barely worth that, so I thought I’d best go for a second opinion before biting the bullet and installing a used transmission.
I brought the vehicle in to Tom for a second opinion and asked him to have a poke around. Once he got the pan off, it was a simple worn fork shaped part that wasn’t engaging the rod that pushes the pawl mechanism. No complete having to take the transmission out of the vehicle, no disassembly. I don’t know what the other guy was thinking, but Tom charged me for shop time only and threw in a replacement part he happened to have on hand. Now my vehicle stays where I leave it, and I don’t have to do the rolling-​car-​wheel-​chock dance every time I go somewhere. Hooray!

I was amazed at the quality and expertise by the owner Tom and his mechanic. I took my Volvo into Transmission Only for repair after a blind search on the internet. Being from Chicago, I was very afraid that a shop in California would take short cuts and do a «make shift/​band-​aid» repair but this was not the case. I was very surprised to find a very clean repair facility with repair projects kept in an organized fashion across a clean work bench. Tom has excellent habits in paying attention to detail. He has exceptional knowledge and uses work space well to keep track of each minor piece. He went out of his way to take care of many minor aspects. The work on my car was quite involved but the cost was not bad in my case. I highly recommend you take your vehicle in for a checkup if you have any concerns. I live downtown, my vehicles are complex, I was surprised to find honesty and quality in the middle of Sacramento. Don’t waste your time in the suburbs of the Sacramento area. Invest a few minutes to see what they have to say. It may be quite worth the effort for you as well. Happy travels!

What a great shop. Didn’t try to sell me any snake oil. Told me the tranny was fine, and to chase after some other potential causes. Very friendly and honest. Go here!

Great people, great service, great prices. I wish more businesses followed their business model. I will for sure recommend this business to others for their transmissions needs.

I took my Ford Explorer to 3 of the highly rated mechanics from Unilocal.If it weren’t for Transmissions Only, I would have been out almost $ 4000.00. I didn’t tell them the history, I chose to just take a chance not based on reviews, but knowledge during our discussion. Although apprehensive due to inconsistent stories from the other two shops, I knew I had to do something. I dropped my car off and they took my car earlier than scheduled as I didn’t want to miss work. Tom immediately diagnosed my problem and gave me an estimate for less than half of the other two places (which have HIGH ratings) I’d been to. It took more time than Tom had hoped, but I wasn’t concerned as he knew his stuff so well even my father was impressed and he’s not impressed easily.
Overall, I am really pleased with Transmissions Only’s work, customer service and knowledge. They are great people as well. The only downside is there is only one shop and they service transmissions only, otherwise, I’d take my car to them and no one else.
I’m skeptical of some of the ratings on here given my experiences, but I would be willing to speak with anyone about the level of service I received. If you must have work done on your tranny, this is the only place I’d recommend.

My 2004 Dodge Ram, was slipping in and out of 1^st gear. It was a Friday and I was due in Bodega that night for Crab Fishing. I took my truck to AAMCO, and they diagnosed the problem as needing a new transmission. They said there was metal in the pan and the fluid was varnished. Then they did everything they could to get started on the $ 2600 job.
A week later I took it to Trans Only for a second opinion. Tom ran the computer codes that were stored and found there to be codes from a previous Throttle Sensor replacement, that weren’t properly dumped. The code that AAMCO said they didn’t find. Also, Tom said there was no metal in my pan and the fluid appeared to be fine, just a little low. $ 37.00 dollars later my transmission is fine, and Trans Only got a customer for life. I came back a week later so Tom could service my transmission, and his Wife Stacy is a doll. They have great coffee too. If you want to know the AAMCO that tried to screw me, you can message me. do yourself a favor and go to Trans Only.

Tom and Stacy the owners of Transmissions only are the best! First, my 2003 Chevy Silverado was really messed up, every gear but 2^nd was shot. I had no idea what I was in for at the shop. When I called it was Sunday and the shop was closed but the call was routed to the owners cell phone and she agreed to allow meet my tow truck driver there and open it up to accept my vehicle. What service! Next within the first day they had it Tom the other owner called me with my estimate. It was quite reasonable, and despite the great price I was up front and said I just couldnt afford the work. Then they surprised me again, Tom said he’d give me a call back and after some groundwork by his wife Stacy they helped put me in touch with some companies that aided me in coming up with the remaining funds to do the job! Score! Tom took the time to really explain in detail why each part needed replacement. He was very patient with my questions considering I had a lot because im not a” car guy”. The truck was finished in no time and I was really pleased the the work that was performed. This company is also the only one that offers extended warranties without charging an extra arm and a leg. All in all this is the place is where you want to go for quality, professional, and honest repair work. I would reccomend Transmissions Only to anyone in need of transmission work.
Thanks again Tom and Stacy!

These guys are great. The shop isn’t in the best part of town, but it was near lightrail so I could get home easy after leaving my car off, and figured I’d give them a shot after a negative experience at AAMCO. They know what they are talking about at Transmissions Only, and they did a quality job, educated me well on what was needed and why, and charged a fair price.