Question : Which transmission to use?

[ProX]

Hi all, I've been slowly screwing together a 3.1 that came out of a junk car I bought, to go into the wife's 95 Grand Am. The junk car itself had 142K miles on it. The transmission in it was a junkyard unit (I saw "94 Corsica" and a yard stock number on it) that worked last I knew, but has an unknown amount of miles.

The project car has 242K miles on it and the tranny "seems" to work okay. I know for a fact it's lived a decent life with semi regular fluid and filter changes.

Right now, I'm torn between which one to use... A cared for high mileage unit or the unknown... The only thing I worry about on the wife's transmission is the mileage...

Can any of you experts impart some wisdom and direction here?

Thank you in advance for the help!

[gpse3400]

Since you dont know all that much about the Corsica unit, you would be at square one if you were to use it. For all you know it could have the same amount of miles on it. If you feel adventureous use it, otherwise keep what you have till it fails.

[ProX]

That's kinda the way I've been leaning, but it's nice to get a second opinion. Can you offer an estimate of their average life span?

[gpse3400]

I've seen some units go past 300K. Most of them fail just around 150K. Depends on overall usage and maintenenance.

[ProX]

Well, with the wife driving, it should be able to soldier on. Thank you again for your input.