99 Blazer question

MarkD · July 29, 2002

Sister-in-law has a 1999 Blazer 4x4 with 70k miles on it. Sunday, the tranny started acting funny on the way home.

From a standstill, it would go through 1st gear and not want to change to 2nd. If you got off the gas, it would change to 2nd. It would change to 3rd and 4th as normal.

They pulled up in the yard and asked me to look at it and drive it down the road. I walked outside and the radiator overflow was "talkin". Autotap put temp at 235. We let it cool while we ate lunch. Went to back it out of the driveway and it wouldn't go into reverse. It was like the tranny wasn't there. It would work fine in d,3,2,1, but no reverse.

We pushed it to turn around and drove it down the road. With the engine/tranny MUCH cooler, it performed as above.

Fluid level is OK, no burnt smell. It definately need some TLC though. Coolant looked muddy as well.

Any ideas?

I am thinking torque converter, maybe linkage. Any experience?

MarkD · July 29, 2002

Anyone have any ideas?

SilveradoWV · July 29, 2002

Dont Know!!! The only tranny problems I had were fixed by a complete rebuild, this problem sounds a little unusual though!! Next tranny I have a problem with, I am going to try that Lucas transmission fix, not sre that is for your problem though!!!!

bowtie_pasta · July 30, 2002

Something seems to be overheating. Get the overheating problem fixed and go from there.

That's a bummer though. I have a 97 4x4 Blazer, and news like this scares me.

MarkD · July 30, 2002

I am thinking the overheating is due to a combination of no cooling system upkeep (never changed/flushed), and torque converter slippage (which will overwork the motor).

They took it to a local tranny shop I trust yesterday afternoon. If we get it back by this weekend, it will get a cooling system flush/fill Sat. or Sun.

I thought her husband would take care of stuff like this.

bowtie_pasta · July 31, 2002

Cooling system shouldn't be ready for a flush yet. These trucks run Dexcool coolant (orange stuff) which is supposed to be good for 5 years or 150,000 miles.

Stepside Z · July 31, 2002

I know what they say about that Dexcool stuff but, I had to change it in my Buick at 55K because the stuff looked like mud.

MarkD · July 31, 2002

Well, I got a quote from my tranny shop!

$950 labor and $500-$550 parts.

Torque converter is shot

He hasn't been inside the tranny yet, but believes it would be best to do a full overhaul instead of a patch job. He said most of the labor (12 hours) would involve removal, teardown and reinstall/testing of the tranny itself.

bowtie_pasta · August 1, 2002

Can you say 'ouch'?

MarkD · August 5, 2002

$1480 out the door! Picked it up late Friday. Runs like a champ. Torque converter got REAL hot. Full overhaul of the tranny (since he was in there). He claimed 12 hours labor for the job. He said that being a 4x4 (with transfer case) added about 2 hours to the job ($60/hour).