In a message dated 1/12/00 3:01:57 PM, loukaz@HOTMAIL.COM writes:

<< How can you really tell if your
transmission is about to go (what kind of diagnostics apply)? >>

Lucas:
Years ago I wanted to buy a beautiful, used Jag E-type 2+2 with an automatic
x-mission.  The car was represented as a pristine example of the marque which
had always been maintained by Reginald, the imported English mechanic at the
Jag dealership in Annapolis, MD.  Unsure of how to approach this deal without
getting reamed so badly that it would take a month before I could sit, I had
the seller agree (reluctantly) to a prepurchase inspection.

  The mechanic who did the inspection was highly recommended although very
unconventional.  He was a long-haired freak; not the pot-smoking,
peace-and-love type but, the pot-smoking, bourbon-drinking, ass-kicking type.
 I thought he would lift the car and methodically go over it from stem to
stern.  Instead, he said," You can tell more about a car in 5 minutes behind
the wheel than in 5 hours under it. Hop in".  I have seldom be in a car
driven so hard.  It culminated with his topping it out on an abandoned 4 lane
then locking up the brakes.  When we stopped, with smoke billowing out of the
hood louvers, he hopped out and pulled the x-mission dipstick.  He sniffed it
then offered it up to me.  " Here.  Smell that," he said.  It had the
distinct smell of burned oil.  On the merits of that simple test, he
condemned the x-mission.  I asked him about just changing the fluid and
adjusting the bands but he said it was too late for that.  His last words to
me were,"Do yourself a favor; buy a Corvette or a BMW 2002."

Richard