Was checking my tranny fluid today and noticed it was darkish brown. From my understanding (which is not much) it should be red or pinkish color. I couldnt really tell if it smelled burnt or not. To me it just smelled as tranny fluid has always smelled to me. So my question is, with my recent issues could this be a the problem? My recent isssues being that the car vibrates from under the car at highway speeds. Usually in the 60 to 80mph area under steady acceleration. Sometimes car feels like it shifts pretty hard too. Chenged the tranny mount a few months back. Now I have always driven the car in overdrive. So lately I started to toy with just driving it in "normal" drive. Car is an automatic with stock tranny that came with the 350's. Car is completely stock. What I do is drive it in "drive" until it gets to about the 65mph area where the engines sounds a tiny bit stressed like it wants to shift and then move it up to "overdrive". This alleviates the shaking or vibrating when accelerating up to that point that I normally get. Could it be that I need a tranny flush (is it good in the first place to get tranny flushes? I see its a topic thats often debated.) So is tranny flushing a good idea regardless if thats whats causing those symptoms considering it looks dirty? I doubt its ever been serviced, Car has about 180k and is my daily driver.

As far as those vibrating sympotoms go I have been told it may be my universal joints and the the trany at all...
I have also been told it could be the torque converter.


Also just out of curiosity. How often do you other automatic guys use the other gears? I have rarely used them. Is there a great time to use them or do they serve a specific purpose.? Might sound like a dumb question, but I have always just driven any thirdgen I owned in "overdrive".

 

your fluid definitely needs a drain and replace with a new filter. as for the vibration my car did that too until i changed the oil again and got it broken in as my car sat for awhile