I will be buying a 1992 SE next week but have been warned by others to be weary of the transmission, an automatic, as they usually wear out before anything else in this car. This vehicle only has 50,000 miles on it and I will be driving it normally, not racing or anything. Should I anticipate problems later on? At what mileage? Cost to replace transmission? Any insight greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

I have read a lot about auto trans failure on these boards too but I think a lot of it has to do with how you maintain it and also how you drive it.

They made some changes on the 92 trans to make it a little better I beleive.

I have a 90 GXE with 120k or so miles on it...no trans problems.
I have a 92 GXE with 115K or so miles on it...no trans problems.
I have a 93 SE with 122K miles on it...no trans problems.

Just hope I didnt curse myself by typing this lol.

I dont drive it hard and the previous owners of each didnt drive hard either. I think the majority of people having problems hot rod the cars and/or drive hard.

I say have a cooler installed when you get it and drive it normally and you should be fine for a while.

the bigest thing you have to worry about is the VTC assembly. If you start hearing a ticking sound under the hood do not freak out but read craigs site on how to ground the vtcs adn make them stop ticking.



here is Craigs site

good luck you are getting a nice car.

 

Everything you said is good and all, you missed the most important piece of advice! to change the tranny fluid!!! and to do it on a regular basis. Tranny failure is maninly due to overheating, as the fluid gets old and burned it looses it ability to transfer heat and lubricate. When I got my max with 50k on it I went ahead and changed the fluid twice (a couple weeks apart), and it needed it both times. Remember that only half of the fluid comes out when doing a drain then fill.

 

When I first bought my car at 96K miles, I did a full tranny flush just to get a starting point on my tranny maintenance. It made the tranny shift much smoother.

So, my advice is, drive normal, change your tranny fluid and keep it looking and smelling BRAND new at ALL times, and get a tranny cooler. That setup should easily last you over 200K miles.

Personally, I race my car. Everytime I get in my car, I do atleast a few WOT runs just for fun. It's not the best thing for it, but my fluid is ALWAYS flawless, I have a tranny cooler, and a valve body recalibration (shift kit). For more info on a VB mod, www.maximumtuning.net

As you already know, some cars are lemons, some are cherries. If you take care of your car, it will take care of you.

 

I have 150 thou on mine. Shifts a little hard, just needs to be serviced I think.

 

Yeah I thought I implied that here--Definetly the most important thing to do and forget to mention it sometimes because I just think of it as regular maint. that should be done.

 

like everyone here said give the tranny an oil change and don't drive it too hard either. i learned the hard way. my car has at least 209,480 miles on it. my tranny blew about 2 months ago and i had given it a tranny flush about 2 weeks before it blew on me. now the pricin' to have a tranny repaired from what i know since i worked at a shop costs around $1200. i only paid $400 for my rebuilt and it still has its little bugs but it shifts fine. while fixin' it and tryin' it out i had to bring out about 8 times and it went through 2 valve bodies. right now im just lookin' for a motor w/ a 5-speed tranny to do the swap so that i don't have to worry about the auto tranny ever again. but all in all u should give it a tranny flush once the car is in ur hands. good luck and enjoy the ride.

 

As a whole though 92-94 auto trannies are supposed to be beefed up as opposed to 89-91's.

I never had a single problem with my VE auto and it's at 130k. I dont think I've heard of many (if any?) VE auto guys with tranny problems. MOST of the weak transmissions everyone refers to about the 3rd gens are 89-91's...