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How long will my transmission last?


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Posted

Hey guys, I have the 4L60E. I'm starting to get a slight slip/hesitation between 1st and 2nd and think the band is worn in my transmission. I don't have the funds for a rebuild or new transmission right now so how long do you think this thing will last in this condition? It only slips between 1st and 2nd so far. I once had a car slip between 1st and 2nd for years and never get any worse.

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Posted

How long is a piece of string? No one knows.

 

Maybe if you posted your mileage someone might be able to guestimate, but even then it depends on how it's been driven.

Posted

It's an 02 and has 175000km. Not sure how it was driven before me, but I'd say it was probably beaten on a little based on the condition it was in when I got it.

Posted

175000 km sounds a bit premature. I bought my truck with the transmission just rebuilt at 185000 miles. Actually my transmission had reverse go out, the previous owner told me. The shop told them it cost the same to rebuild the entire transmission so it seemed like a no-brainer to go ahead and do that. I don't expect the rebuild to last 185000 miles though. If it goes 50000 miles at the rate I put miles on it, it will be completely rusted out by the time that happens. If its slipping now, don't expect it to go years like that. You might get it to last a little longer but expect it to completely fail at any time now. Its reliability is greatly compromised. A rebuild shouldn't be that expensive, around $1000-$1500 depending on where you go. A lot less than buying another truck.

Posted

Sometimes a flush can help stretch the life of a transmission. In this case, if the tranny hasn't been serviced, or you don't know when it was done, it couldn't hurt to flush out the old fluid with new.

If you're reasonably mechanically inclined, you can do it right in your driveway for the cost of the fluid, which will be under $100 I think.

Depending if it has a tranny cooler in front of the rad, it takes somewhere in the neighborhood of 13-15 liters IIRC.

I did mine with the 2 pail method which can be found on YouTube.

 

Those trannys should go over 300,000 km without issue if serviced properly and not abused.

Posted

My plan is to flush it asap. I am fairly mechanically inclined but I would have to do the flush in a gravel parking lot and I'm worried about dirt getting in the tranny since it isn't a clean working environment. I might just pay a shop to do it and make sure they use the right fluid/filter. My only concern with that is if the transmission fails completely because I'm not really in the position to afford a new one right now.

 

Like you guys say, 175000km seems premature for a transmission to fail but I'm not sure how abused this truck got before me. And seeing as the fluid is overfull I'm worried that has already done some damage or was overfull to cover up some sort of problem when it was sold to me.

Posted

My 07 has 208,000 MIles, changed my fluid this weekend ( and filter and gasket ) shifts like new.

Posted

Did you have any slipping previously or no?

 

The way I look at it is this - if I change the fluid and the transmission fails there was already something wrong with it, and since I plan on keeping this truck a while, ultimately I would have to fix it anyway. So either way I'm not doing myself any favors by procrastinating on the fluid change. I would bet that it's the original transmission fluid in there, so maybe it has broken down and lost it's ability to work properly causing my transmission to slip.

Posted

If it is slipping I HIGHLY recommend you do not flush the fluid, chances are good if it is indeed slipping new fluid will make it even worse. The older fluid is contaminated with material and causes it to be thicker increasing fluid pressure slightly.

 

I have had customers come in and request fluid service, and then the vehicle would not pull itself back out of the shop. That is when they tell me it had been slipping

Posted

If it is slipping I HIGHLY recommend you do not flush the fluid, chances are good if it is indeed slipping new fluid will make it even worse. The older fluid is contaminated with material and causes it to be thicker increasing fluid pressure slightly.

 

I have had customers come in and request fluid service, and then the vehicle would not pull itself back out of the shop. That is when they tell me it had been slipping

 

Ya, this is what I'm afraid of. It barely slips once in a while between only 1st and 2nd gear. Posts like yours make me have second thoughts on doing the flush though.

Posted

I agree not to flush it. My experience has been when a transmission has issues like yours and I flushed it, the next month or so it just completely went out. Not to say that will happen to you but just my experience.

 

These transmissions can go the distance. I'm changing oil on a friends 04 Suburban and he has the original engine and transmission in it, no problems and it has 330k miles on it.

Posted

Ok, but what about a pan drop and filter/gasket change? It would get the fluid back to the correct level as well.

I do not recommend it, make sure the fluid is full and run it.

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