Hey guys,

So recently on a road trip from Nashville, TN to Richmond, VA (~600 miles or so), my tranny crapped out at my first break or about 400 miles in to the drive. I walked in to Subway, ate, came back out and lost reverse. You can tell it's in gear and the max RPM I can take it up to even while flooring it is about 2k. In drive, it'll move, but the fastest I can get it to is about 20-25mph with A LOT of slipping. I think the tranny is toast so I'm looking at used trannies on car-parts.com.

Anybody have any ideas what the issue could be? Prior to this, I had no issues except for when it sat overnight in sub 30 degree temps. When I put it in gear, the engine would stall right away unless I let it warm up for a minute or two.

The tranny has been maintained well with regular fluid changes and Castrol dino ATF.

 

Codes?

Tested the MAF?

So when in reverse, it has a limiter at 2k, and the car does not move at all?

Fluid level/condition?

 

Codes?
No lights on the dash, so didn't bother to check for any codes


Tested the MAF?
Sure didn't. Would this affect the tranny? I can rev up fine in park or neutral.

So when in reverse, it has a limiter at 2k, and the car does not move at all?
Right, I think it's just hitting the stall speed and not letting it get up any higher. If I let it roll-back in neutral and put it in to reverse it's like I put it in park instead with an abrupt stop.

Fluid level/condition?
Full and bright red. Drain and fill performed ~10k miles ago. Before that 15k-20k interval drain and fills with 2 flushes at 60k and 120k-ish.

 

There many probable causes for the car to not move, If have fluid, put the transmission in low or first gear and try to accelerate to see if the car moves normally.

 

Sounds like it might be in 'limp mode'. You say it's slipping though .... usually when this happens, the revs will continue to climb, but the speed will not. If you're only hitting 2k in a gear, sounds like limp mode. Could be a solinoid pack as well ... hard to tell untill you can hook up to the OBDii and check for any codes. If it's a solinoid pack, it will give you a code (might not light the CEL though). Could also be the TCM - for what ever reason.

Typically, you don't want to 'flush' a trans with too many miles on it, casue it can \ will blow the seals inside the trans. Any other abnormal problems ????

 

Sounds like what happened to my 3rd gen tranny. Toast. Some friction materials probably worn out at that mileage; I checked everything that came out of my Gen 3, (it also had 165 K miles on it) and the bands were down to the metal in places, and the discs were also fu-barred. Look for a good used tranny or rebuild it.

 

I've heard of people destroying their trannys by doing flushes when they have high milage. i'm not sure how true this is though

 

Quite true ... blows the seals inside. You have to bare in mind that the seals are rubber, rubber degrades (breaks down) with time, things get nice and settled with daily use, then you blast it with pressure and unsettle them, destroys the continuity of the seals and their placement. In short. lol

 

Now that I think about it, this did occur at around 150k miles or so after some spirited driving on the highway. I lost movement until the tranny cooled off. It's strange since I have a B&M tranny cooler on it that it'd overheat at night in 80 degree weather (didn't think I was pushing it THAT hard). Anyhow, I found a used tranny with 75k and have taken almost everything apart at this point.

FWIW, the tranny flushes I performed was done with letting it pump out of the return line, shutting off, fill, repeat method.

Anybody think it's worth it to spend $125 for 6 months of total warranty from the recycler? I'd really like to keep this car as a daily driver, especially since I've already replaced the radiator, lower control arms, starter, alternator, both rear calipers, etc.

 

The 'insurance' from the scrap yard is totaly your call .... IIWM, no - cause they'd find a way out of it no matter what anyhow .... but, I'm sinicall I guess.

Yea, that kind of 'flush' wouldn't hurt anything really, it's the pressure systems I was talking about.

Swap it out and keep drivin!