It's my turn... (Transmission failure)

papageoff · February 28, 2025

Climbing a bridge at about 20 mph in traffic and it suddenly felt like I drove over an oil patch or marbles. RPM was all over the place and truck was grabbing and letting go... Well, I got off the bridge and there was clutch material on the dipstick. I limped it home and now I have the forbidden glitter. I guess I took too long to do the thermostat bypass and amsoil, I guess. At 139k miles, her time had come.

Anyway, I'm trying to figure out my next move. I'm not really in a position to buy a new truck right now. I do have a camper that I pull and work the truck pretty hard then, but otherwise it's just my daily. I figure I've got 4 options (see poll above).

The truck is pretty healthy otherwise, I think. It's had one lifter failure repaired under the powertrain warranty at about 98k, but it's been pretty good since. I'd ditch it for a heavy duty if I could, but that's just not in the cards right now. What do you think?

Edited February 28, 2025 by papageoff

mikeyk101 · February 28, 2025

Man, that sucks. A dealer will run you about $4-5000 for a remanufactured installed. But on plus side, it would come with a full 3 year 100k mile warranty.

Edited February 28, 2025 by mikeyk101

papageoff · March 1, 2025

20 hours ago, mikeyk101 said:

Man, that sucks. A dealer will run you about $4-5000 for a remanufactured installed. But on plus side, it would come with a full 3 year 100k mile warranty.

I called this morning and the closest dealer quoted me $200 for the diagnostic and between $5000-7000 for the reman. They said they wouldn't comp the diagnostic if I moved forward. I found that surprising, but it's a sign of the times, I guess. That comes with 3y/100k parts & labor warranty like you said... Which seems like a very generous warranty, but I guess it should for that kind of money. He also said it would be there at least 2 weeks --emphasis on the "at least". This is the same dealer that took over a month to do my AFM replacement under warranty. I'll be shocked if it's less than 3 weeks.

I got him to transfer me to the service dept to find out what the transmission itself would cost. The service guy said the transmission is in stock and would be about 4500+tax+2k core. It would have the same warranty for parts only which makes sense since they wouldn't be doing the work.

I've never done anything this big, but I'm capable and willing. I'd rather pay the dealer, but I also want to put a better cooler and maybe an upgraded torque converter. This dealer won't even put tires on the truck that aren't what it was sold with.

I looked at Monster Transmission, but the reviews of them in recent years are terrible. It looks like the owner sold to private equity and they're running the standard playbook of running it into the ground.

I'm gonna call some local shops on Monday and see if I can find one that'll do the reman with better parts for similar money.

mikeyk101 · March 1, 2025

2 weeks seems a bit much. When mine was done mid March of 2024, I was out of town down in eastern Alabama. Not sure if that helped but I got towed into Dealer, King Chevrolet in Valley Alabama early afternoon on a Thursday. By Mon early afternoon, I was back in truck headed back to Wisconsin. I went and looked and the cost would have been $5348 but luckily it got covered by the GM Protection Plan which was still active for me.

If you still want to go the dealership route, I would call some other dealerships and see what they say. But I wouldn't fault you for reaching out to local shops.

papageoff · March 5, 2025

The dealer's price was high and a little vague so, I called around on yesterday and got some quotes from local shops (not chains). It basically worked out that Shop-A was going to source a transmission from "whoknowswhere" as the $4500 option with a 1y/30k warranty and a vague "upgraded" unit for $5500 with a 3y/100k warranty. He said it had a billet converter, but that was all he knew. I didn't like that he couldn't really tell me anything about it. I didn't have warm and fuzzies from that call.

Shop-B and Shop-C were going to source the transmission remaned from GM and install it for the standard option and also offered "heavy duty" options. Shop-C's a local shop run by a guy related to my dad's old boss and has been around for 20+ years. He offered a Jasper transmission with a billet converter at "7200-ish" and was also a little vague on the pricing. That's a little higher than I was hoping.

Shop-C does nothing but domestic transmission rebuilds in-house and offered me a billet converter and shift kit as his heavy duty option for $5500 3y/100k. My neighbor is a heavy-duty diesel mech and vouched for the guy's shop. Warranty was on par with the rest.

I'm pretty much leaning towards Shop-C at this point. I like that he's going to use a billet converter and a shift kit as part of the heavy-duty rebuild. I've thought this thing shifted too slow and mushy since I bought it. He said to bring it by next Tuesday, so I guess I'll sport'n the MIL's Sienna for a couple weeks.

I already have the thermostat delete kit and I'm planning to add a mishimoto cooler kit or maybe get a cheaper one and fab up mounts and just bypass the nearly useless factory cooler altogether.

Sunday I was out looking at things and noticed that I'm way down on coolant too. The coolant in the tank, the underside of the oil cap, the oil itself, and the exhaust pipe all look normal. I'm assuming I have a leak at the radiator or somewhere else that I can't readily see. I've caught faint whiffs of it for a while, but never seen evidence and figured I was imagining it.

...Good times

Tucker · March 6, 2025

As far as the coolant leak. Check the bottom of the coolant reservoir tank. Mine had a hair line crack in the bottom of the tank. Where the hose connects. Liked to never found it. Very slow leak.

papageoff · March 7, 2025

21 hours ago, Tucker said:

As far as the coolant leak. Check the bottom of the coolant reservoir tank. Mine had a hair line crack in the bottom of the tank. Where the hose connects. Liked to never found it. Very slow leak.

Will do. Thanks.

Rad_Rado17 · March 7, 2025

I'm in the same boat. Dealer quoted me $250 to diagnose it and it would take week to do. 5K-7K for new same shitty transmission and would take 3 weeks.

I found a local transmission shop, they said they replace these weekly on our trucks. He quotes me 5K, that is with a billet torque converter and some other billet internals. He can get it done in 4-6 days. He has all the parts in stocks.

I would love to just sell it and go with something different. I would hate to spend 5k on the trans and 6 months from now something else goes out like a lifter. Truck is paid off and i still really like my truck. I just don't want anymore issue

What are your guys thoughts?

SO far I have replaced the following:

A/C condenser

vacuum pump- under warranty

starter

door harnesses

rear pinon gasket

transfer case gasket- under warranty

CamGTP · March 7, 2025

No matter what it's a risk you take. A new truck is going to cost you way more than the $5,000 it's going to take to fix the transmission. Plus your truck is worth way less with a bad transmission, so you can't sell it for good money right now anyway.

I'd fix the transmission and roll the dice that you don't have any major issues for the next year or two.

papageoff · March 19, 2025

Just to close the loop here...

I got the truck back from the transmission shop yesterday. They did their "Heavy Duty" rebuild with a billet converter and shift kit. So far it drives about like it did before, which is what he said to expect. It does feel better when you come around a corner and lay into the throttle than it used to. It just goes like it's already in gear, but that might just have been the behavior during relearn. I've only driven it about 20 miles.

It got up to about 156F on the drive home with some traffic and the temp was right at 70 the whole time. I'm planning to add the mishimoto cooler this weekend. I have it waiting in the garage. He said I can tow with it immediately and change the fluid at 50k. I'm working on planning a camping trip somewhere within 30-40 miles or so in the near future just to test everything out.

Anyway, I'm happy so far though I'm not thrilled it cost just under 6k. Ouch... But if it'll keep going and not throw another lifter onto the fire in the next few years, maybe I'll move on to something bigger.

Rad_Rado17 · March 20, 2025

On 3/18/2025 at 5:07 PM, papageoff said:

Just to close the loop here...

I got the truck back from the transmission shop yesterday. They did their "Heavy Duty" rebuild with a billet converter and shift kit. So far it drives about like it did before, which is what he said to expect. It does feel better when you come around a corner and lay into the throttle than it used to. It just goes like it's already in gear, but that might just have been the behavior during relearn. I've only driven it about 20 miles.

It got up to about 156F on the drive home with some traffic and the temp was right at 70 the whole time. I'm planning to add the mishimoto cooler this weekend. I have it waiting in the garage. He said I can tow with it immediately and change the fluid at 50k. I'm working on planning a camping trip somewhere within 30-40 miles or so in the near future just to test everything out.

Anyway, I'm happy so far though I'm not thrilled it cost just under 6k. Ouch... But if it'll keep going and not throw another lifter onto the fire in the next few years, maybe I'll move on to something bigger.

Just got mine back on Monday too. Sounds like we went the same route, billet torque converter and shift kit with my rebuild too. My guy was telling me to have the transmission tuned. He said the way these transmissions are built locks up the torque converter in second when it should lock up in overdrive 6th gear. I'm still looking into this, the tuner he uses wanted $850 to tune the motor (AMF delete) and tune the transmission. I already had the update cooler bypass valve on the transmission before the rebuild. My temps would stay around 150-160 degrees.

CamGTP · March 20, 2025

Holy cow that is a rip off for tuning.

I understand that it's $200 just to unlock the computer (2017-2018's cost more than previous years) with HP Tuners but that simple of the tune isn't worth $650. Guy must wipe his ass with gold toilet paper too. I could probably guess that that person would be done with your truck in less than 2 hours, so that's a hefty price for such simple work. I charge like $150-200 for a tune that simple.

Rad_Rado17 · March 21, 2025

17 hours ago, CamGTP said:

Holy cow that is a rip off for tuning.

I understand that it's $200 just to unlock the computer (2017-2018's cost more than previous years) with HP Tuners but that simple of the tune isn't worth $650. Guy must wipe his ass with gold toilet paper too. I could probably guess that that person would be done with your truck in less than 2 hours, so that's a hefty price for such simple work. I charge like $150-200 for a tune that simple.

Yeah I feel like $850 is really high too. I think I will hold off and see if I can find someone else with a better price.

CamGTP · March 21, 2025

Put it this way, you could buy HP Tuners, the credits and tune it yourself for less than $850.

papageoff · March 23, 2025

I installed the mishimoto cooler kit today. It went in without issue. The hoses were about an inch too long so I had to trim them to keep them from pinching off.

I let it idle in the driveway until it got to about 153F. I took a 12.5 mile test drive in 72F weather with light traffic (2 lights) and it came down to 124F by the time I got home. The low point was 122F about a mile from home. Overall the kit is good, but as expected it won't do much without movement. It seems the fans are too far back to create a meaningful flow. Either way, I'm happy. I'm scheduling a trip with the camper in the next month or so and we'll really see what it can do then.