4x4 concerns

[Travism55]

Was out Ice fishin on the weekend, little hard gettin out there now, I had to give 'er in 4 high across the lake to break trail, quite a bit of spinning at times, didn't get stuck tho! Got up to about 20-25mph. Get goin good speed, hard snow would slow me down, tranny would downshift and I would spin and chew through it. Did it a few times. "DIC" said tranny temp reached 185, was this bad for the transmission, or the 4x4 system? Also should you turn the traction control off in these situations? I had it turned off.

[kstruckcountry]

220 is the temp that sticks in my head as being bad.

[Travism55]

It's a 2009 Silverado 1500

[RyanbabZ71]

185 for the trans temp is fine.

 

And yes if you read the owners manual you should turn off traction control if you are stuck in the snow.

[Travism55]

Thanks! Didn't get stuck tho, wasn't sure to leave t/c on just in case I needed the spinning to pull me through instead of it engaging traction control. Was this hard on the 4x4? Or transmission?

[scooby5121]

NO, not on the lake where your tires can spin.

Yes, if it were dry pavement..

Have Fun and Enjoy your 4x4 !!!!

 

Scooby

[Travism55]

Thanks

[Travism55]

What hurts transmissions the most while in 4x4? Does reversing for a distance in 4x4 hurt them?

[tyhuck]

It really doesnt matter if you are in 4wd or 2wd. The transmission acts the same. Heat is pretty much the only thing thats gonna hurt the transmission.

[gmtech4]

up in northern BC when i was being the tranny guy ,i had a new truck (durammax /Allison) on my hoist towed from Fort Nelson and it had 13K KM on it

 

they got stuck apparently because the C1 clutch pack was "Thermally coupled " to its mating piece lol

 

i couldnt pull it aprt ,,,,we replaced the whole thing and did it under warranty because he may buy another GM product in the future !!!

[kstruckcountry]

What hurts transmissions the most while in 4x4? Does reversing for a distance in 4x4 hurt them?

Nothing in 4x4 will really hurt the tranny that wouldn't hurt it in 2wd. Your Transfer Case could be harmed by being left in 4x4 at high speeds on pavement, but I have known people who have done it on accident and the truck was fine.

[Travism55]

When should a guy get his transmission fluid changed? Only about 60000 miles on my truck, done some towing and 4x4ing, but take really good care of it! Heard good and bad things about transmission oil changes.

[tyhuck]

Well, I changed mine at 100K and within 2500 miles, i lost 3 and 4. Transmission guy said that this is a common problem that occurs in the 4l60E especially when people change the fluid after the transmission has racked up a lot of miles without a change. He said that if you stay on top of the changes and do it regularly, it wont hurt it, but when yo udo what I did, it usually cleans the old clutches and causes things to go wrong. Appearantly, glazing and buildup were the only thing causing friction between my clutch disks, and the new fluid washed all that off and caused the clutches to slip.

 

However, i also had an S10 ZR2 with the same trnasmission, and I changed it with 124K on it. Drove it one 32" tires for another 20K before i sold it and it shifted great when I let it go.

 

I guess the 35" tires, the V8, and the overall heavier truck is what did it in, where as the S10 only had a V6, 32" tires, and was conciderably lighter.

 

I was advised to change mine every year or 15k, whichever comes first. I would advise that you leave it alone unless it looks or smells burnt. Im by no means a transmission guy, but I have had a bad experience. I can also tell you that the wife's Tahoe has 52K on it and its never had any trans service. We've had it since it since it only had 7k on it, and I plan on running it on the same fluid till it starts to burn. Still debating on changing my fluid this summer or not, since its only been 1 yr and about 12k since mine was rebuilt.

[aflesch]

When the trans temp reaches 270° it will lock the converter in all gears to try and prevent overheating. That tells me that GM doesn't think it will cause damage up to that temp. I know I've had mine up to 220° climbing a mountain in Colorado @ 70mph in the middle of summer and I haven't had any problems with it. I changed the fluid about 3k miles later and it was still normal.

[music]

Limp mode kicks in around 265F, iirc (maybe 270, as mentioned above?). The Dex-VI fluid still looked/smelled new after running up to a max of 230F during a long uphill tow in MT a couple of years ago, pulling ~7000 lbs over 10,000 ft. I'm coming up on 50k miles now, and will change the fluid before summer. That's the recommended interval for trucks that get worked, and mine has towed for a good chunk of those miles.