Transmission will Rev and not shift

tamimi · August 8, 2012

I have a 2003 1500 Avalanche. at the last 10 miles of my 250 Miles trip, the gear will shift to 1st and 2nd seamlessly. However, when going to the 3rd it will rev really bad without any forward movement. shifting between P, R,N, and D is normal.

I tried to rev it and see if it would shift and it did shift. it shifted to 3rd and 4th AFTER reaching 6000 RPM for 2-3 seconds.

but again when I slowed down and accelerated again, the same issue occured again.

Note: I checked the Trans Fluid level and it was ok, the color was also acceptable.

Any idea?

tyhuck · August 8, 2012

Hate to tell you this, but your trans is toast. mine did exaclty that a couple of months ago and it cost me $1800 to have it rebuilt. Truck showed absolutely no symptoms, just gave it up. Its a common problem with the 4L60E appearantly. The guy that rebuilt mine said he sees it all the time.

Just go ahead and bit the bullet and have it rebuilt, but I would suggest a shift kit. They put one in mine and a bunch of upgraded goodies, and Im very happy with it now.

Good luck.

gmtech4 · August 9, 2012

if you are keeping the truck ,GM has a rebuilt tranny that comes with a 3yr warranty,,,it is an easy sell,the cooler gets flushed with a machine and flow rate checked thru the cooler ,that HAS to be put on the work order for warranty purposes ,,,,

1 yr warranty if it gets rebuilt ,cooler is still flushed and flow checked and recorded,,,,,,your 3-4 clutch has taken leave of absence from your tranny

i used to say ."1st gear good......2nd gear good,,,,,,,3rd gear not so good "lol

tamimi · August 12, 2012

I took it to a transmission specialty center... they confirmed it needs to be rebuilt. It will be ready by tomorrow hopefully

gmtech4 · August 12, 2012

did they flush the cooler ??????

Doug_Scott · August 12, 2012

did they flush the cooler ??????

Don't ask the shop if they flushed the cooler directly, ask what did they do. Ask them to tell you everything they did. You may also want to ask about the flushing, but in a tone that you don't think it was necessary.

In other words, don't tell the shop what you want to hear.

gmtech4 · August 13, 2012

did they flush the cooler ??????

Don't ask the shop if they flushed the cooler directly, ask what did they do. Ask them to tell you everything they did. You may also want to ask about the flushing, but in a tone that you don't think it was necessary.

In other words, don't tell the shop what you want to hear.

good point Doug