hopefully you all can help.
a couple of months ago my trany started to act a little wierd.
when driving normal every thing is just fine,the trany smoothly upshifts and if I gently give more gas it down shifts nice and smooth, but when driven aggressivly and I floor the gas to pass some one my trany will hang in 4th for about 30 seconds then drop to 2nd. once it drops to 2nd I can smell burning.(the upshifts are still smooth)
I checked my fluid and it is a brown color and smells a little burnt, but there are no metal flakes or debris in it.
also so far there has been no slipping and all gears work.

so what Im wondering is should I change the fluid and filter, or is this the start of my trany going down hill and I should just wait for it to die and rebuild?

 

Its definitly time to change the fluid. The symptoms you describe sound more like a tranny going out but you should try to change the fluid. It may solve your problems alot cheaper than a new trans.

 

New fluid might kill the trans completely, though. Supposedly the old burnt fluid has enough pieces of clutch floating around in it to keep a dying trans working.

Fluid should be changed every year on a 700r4- the 700r4 runs hotter than normal transmissions "by design", and heat is what kills trans fluid.

I wouldn't wait for your trans to die, though. Pick up a junkyard trans and a rebuild kit and a rebuild book (get the ATSG, Auto Trans Service Group, manual from northernautoparts.com), and get to work early!!

 

well I went ahead and changed the fluid and filter this afternoon.
so far so good. I took it out and romped on it a bit and it is shifting alot better. when aggressivly downshifting it will go to 3rd, or depending on how fast Im going 2nd gear just for a second then as soon as the engine reaches 4000rpm it upshifts to 3rd(this was testing between 60-70 mph)
I also didnt notice any burning smell.
Im gona keep my fingers crossed that bad old fluid was the problem. I could tell the fluid and filter had been changed befor as most of the pan bolts were only hand tightened and it had the new style filter in it.

wile Id love to go ahead and get a trany to rebuild I just dont have the money right now.
I may have a 3000 mile trip to take with it next month so Im gona take it easy on her till then and hope for the best.
I figure if it is some thing bad since the fluid change it should show its self with in a months time.

 

Brown and burnt-Ok to change
Black-Dont even try it. 50/50 weather it will work when your done

 

yup by changing it you may have saved it .....you should really keep up on it ...its just as important as your engine oil ...it gets overlooked quite often thou . there is money to be made by someone like me when people put 150000 miles on a car then wonder whats wrong with thier transmission and they have never changed fluid or filter in it ...its usually time for a rebuild or replacement....glad thats not the case for you

 

I constantly get people in the shop that just give me dumb looks when I ask if they've ever had their tranny fluid flushed, and say "I didn't know you were supposed to change it....I thought it lasted forever."

Then again, these are often the same people who didn't know there was a filter for gas........

 

dont you love those people .....lol....another favorite of mine is the rearend when you ask them if thier 200,000 mile car or truck has ever had the gear lube/oil changed .......and they give you that look like what there is something back there that has to be changed too???

LOL

 

that brings me to another ?
I have owned this car for a year and a half it has almost 200,000 miles on it. I know nothing about its history. if I change the fluid in the rear is there any thing that could be damaged? and what type of fluid should I use? its a lame peg leg btw.

 

you can always switch over to synthetic but with that many miles on it id just get standard gear oil for it go to the parts store and pick some up

 

Agreed. Since it's a peg-leg you don't need the posi additive, and with that many miles on dino oil there's no sense in synthetics. I'd pull the cover and give it a good looking-at, and if there are no chunks missing from anything fill it up with good old 80-90 gear oil.



While we're talking about customers.....I had a guy come into the shop the other day to have his high idle/hesitation problem checked out. Had a serious vacuum leak (Contours are bad about that,) and when we got it straightened out I told him it was almost due for a timing belt (had 112k on the car.) He asked what a timing belt was. Come to find out, he had 112k on the ORIGINAL timing belt. And he didn't want it changed. Seemed to think it didn't need fixing if it wasn't broken.

I expect to see him and his 16 bent valves in a few weeks.

 

the dont fix it unless its broke terminoligy works on some things but when it comes to a car its called preventive maintenance ......lol...well he will be surprised when that thing goes bang then nothing ..lol...oh well some people just dont have a clue ...

 

Yeah and then he'll have it towed back and try to blame me for blowing his engine up when all I did was replace the rubber boot on the PCV valve. And then I'll be forced to say "I told you so."



Oh well, that's life I guess.

 

i changed a head on a friends car once i believe it was a 90 sundance with the 2.2 and he didnt want to have the head bolts replaced ....he said his dad said that he should be able to reuse the gaskets too because they werent bad just put formagasket on it and it would be okay .....after i got it apart i told him to go get his dad and bring him over to my house and show me where i could reuse those gaskets.....lmao....i had to sit down with this guys dad and explain that head gaskets cant be reused at all never ....he was reluctant to pay me to go get new ones i think he thought that i was going to take his money and not buy them or something so i took him up to napa with me and had him explain his termonology to the parts guys id been dealing with for the better part of 15 years now and they all got a good laugh at that dumb **** .....lol....i just wish car illiterate people would not act like they know every thing sometimes.....lol