Thread: Burnt fluid in a trans with only 3k tops on it???

I got the car with a blown motor and 31 miles a rebuilt transmission, I dropped a l32 in and have put only about 3k tops on it. The trans shop disconnected the stock cooler and ran only an aftermarket hayden cooler which I went and asked them about and they said they do it on all the transmissions they rebuild. Anyways I put a much bigger cooler on yesterday and the little bit of fluid I lost smelled and looked burnt? ? This shop is supposed to be the best in town, and the rebuild cost 3200 for the previous owners. I've never had an issue with the trans and its always shifted perfectly... I've only got a small handful of street races on it and other than that I don't really abuse the car too bad. I got a shift kit and filter I'm gonna install soon and was gonna switch to dex6, but if its on the outs I'll save my time and money for a TEP... Any ideas?

i run a hayden cooler by itself and i have had no issues with burning fluid... could it be a pressure control solenoid issue? get it scanned for codes.

Sure it's burnt and not some smelly trans goo they used to hold the parts together during assembly? Andrew Grazela mentioned to me after his rebuild that he had a lot of waxy like build up on the filter with his first service. I haven't noticed the same myself...just a thought.

I ran my scanner for quite a while and temp never went above 200 on a fairly hot day a while back before I tore it down for the suspension, exhaust, and rockers and no codes to speak of whatsoever... I checked the fluid when I bought it and a few more times when I replaced the driver side axle and it was a nice pink on my white towel and not smelly. Probably 2k miles have passed since then and now its got that distinctive burnt smell and a dark brownish red color to it... Kinda at a loss here as to what it could be, automatic transmissions are my achilles heel. Think I should go ahead with the shift kit and fluid filter change? And use the dex6?

trans go shift kit and dex 6

edit: fixed

Originally Posted by Fivefingerdeathpunch

trans go shift kit and dex 6

fixed.

Yeah I don't think I wanna use this damned wbody store shift kit... All it is, is like plastic spacers I coulda picked up at the hardware for a 6th of the cost. I bought a thrasher for my gt bout 4-5 years back and it came with more spacers, new springs and a tshirt...lol Any vendor sell the transgo for less than these on ebay?

4T65E Transgo Shift Kit: eBay Motors (item 180419368268 end time Oct-08-10 10:58:03 PDT)

TRANSGO SK


Also isn't a shift kit pretty well standard with any rebuild? I keep thinking there is a shift kit already in there but its apples and oranges from my gt to gtp... I know the performance shift button makes a big difference. I'm gonna buy some walmart dex6 and then run it a bit and put a better brand dex6 in if that stuff doesn't get burnt... Also should I adjust anything with the trans in my hptuner? Thats one section I been afraid to touch...

Triple Edge Performance - Home Page sells them

Well I finally got the car put back together yesterday, haven't done anything with the trans yet... I drove it just a few miles cause I need an alignment but the trans felt kinda week. This morning I went to go warm it up to run my brother to school a mile away and its whining fairly loudly. Thought it mught just be the cold fluid so I let it warm for 10 minutes and came back out and its still whining. So I pop the hood and it sounds like its coming from the TQ converter. I revved and the whine followed the rpm's. I decided to take it around the block when I got back from taking my bro(with my wifes car) and it seemed fine at low speed so almost back to the house I romped on it and it pretty well just free revved the trans didn't catch at all(from about 15mph). So now my question is, Is it worth replacing the converter or should I just run it til it dies and buy a whole new trans? I don't know what converters do when they fail as far as adding debris into the system and cause irreversible consequences so I really don't wanna spend the time replacing it if the trans is ****ed anyway...

Also I can get a deal on a new 3000 stall converter that came from intense but I'm reading that they don't have lock-up... That basicly will loose me a few mpgs on the highway right?

Is the shop that did the rebuild not going to stand behind their work?

Well the story is they did all that then the motor blew 31 miles later. They had it sitting in thier driveway for I think 2-3 years before I picked it up for 750 and dropped a l32 in it. So I'm pretty sure they don't have a warranty that long and especially with me not being the purchaser of the rebuild. But I will call and see what they say... I just tried to take it to the alignment shop, got about 3 miles and it was slipping so bad I lost speed, had to coast into a parking lot. Shut it down to let it cool off a bit then try to limp home... Thing was slipping in all gears including reverse so its gotta be the tq converter.

Oh and a p0742 tcc stuck on ending immature history current

Have to read up on that code a bit...

This almost sounds like the filter is cracked, missing or isn't sealed into the collar in the transmission. The whining would probably be the pump screaming for fluid.

Double check fluid level (when running). Being that your only change to why it shouldn't work is the shift kit. We know you had the pan off and the filter should have been replaced at that time, right?

I took one look at the wbodystore shift kit and never installed it, I lost some tranny fluid putting the new cooler on and then some more jacking it up once with the dipstick out when I did the headers. I made sure most of the fluid was replaced before I even started it the first time since and then as soon as it warmed up the first time I topped it off to the correct level. What gets me is I've drove it maybe 10 miles since, and after I ran it and checked it all out I drove it a tad harder and from a 10mph roll romped it and it broke the tires loose and spun them for a fair distance and that was just last evening. Then let it run in the driveway another almost hour with no issues or whines before parking it for the night til this morning. I think I have felt a few weak spots/slips here and there right before I added everything but they were so slight I can't really be sure(kinda why I was asking about the burnt smelling fluid). And this morning when I tried to drive it I couldn't even maintain 40 on a city street it was slipping so badly... I'm about to pull the trans and take it to the shooting range for practice! I just spent a boatload of time/money with all the motor work, and have heads, cam, and intercooler sitting on the shelf that I just bought so I'm broke and can't buy a TEP or probably even a stock replacement for a while...sooo pissed!

Ohhhh so you didn't do anything to it then? I thought from your post that you had. Crap, that sucks even more. I was hoping you pulled a move that a friend had and left the filter out.

The pan should hold the filter in place once it's on. So that rules out the possibility that it fell etc. Hmmmm it's almost like you blew out a gasket or something.

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but have you ever tried changing to a cooler thermostat to keep the engine/tranny/etc cooler? I put a 180 t-stat in mine.

I live in South Florida. I had a tranny cooler installed when I started towing a motorcycle trailer. AAMCO installed it inline with the OEM tranny cooler so that they both work together.

The fluid still looks bright pink and fresh since the last tranny fluid change at 60k miles. (Got 100k now).

Bill: only reason I would doubt that is because of the previous slips I think I noticed, and the burnt smelling fluid that came out when I did the bigger cooler(which was the first thing I touched). And I flushed the cooler out with trans fluid a few times each way before I installed since it was used(huge factory cooler on an lt1 roadmaster I think) I guess I should just park it and save for a bulletproof tranny and keep driving my truck for now. I really can't throw money and time at this thing on guesses...

Paul: I have ran a 180 since I installed the motor, tranny has never been hooked to the radiator always an aftermarket cooler only and on my scans never saw above 200* which is pretty decent considering it was 100*+ out during scans.

So after messing with it a tad, it started up fine with no whine, as soon as I gave it a bit of gas still in park the wine started. I decided to take it down the street to see what happened and it made it to the end of the street(10-12 houses) strong. On the way back it started slipping and I coasted into the driveway... Almost made it up the drive and it was completely gone, revved to 3500rpm and the thing rolled backwards when I let off the brake. And my drive is mabye a 10* slope at best...

So I called the shop the other day that did the rebuild and from what I described he thought it may have been the filter had dropped like Bill said up there. Even though I hadn't dropped the pan... I decided since I had a filter and a couple gallons of fluid on the shelf I would drop the pan just to see. And sure enough the damned filter was cracked on the neck. I did have what I would consider to be a highly abnormal amount of metal on the magnet and on the bottom of the pan. Some tiny aluminum flakes if looked like as well. But since I had the stuff I cleaned the pan and installed the new filter and fluid and started it up... No whine, let it run for half hour checked fluid level and filled to full. Drove it a bit and no problems, came back parked it and let run for another hour maybe and fluid still looked good and not burnt so I took it for a longer spin. Bout 12 miles and it did fine the whole time cept for a tiny shudder or two with gradual acceleration at about 40mph. Gonna run it a thousand or so miles and see how she does. If its all good I'm getting the transgo shift kit and switching to dex6 with another new filter. Also gonna tweak the trans settings with my HPT like reptile suggested and see how it does. Only thing I can figure may have cracked the filter was me having to bend and test fit the dipstick so many times cause of the headers. But from looking at it underneath I really don't see how it could have hit it at any angle but its fine for now. So thanks for all the input guys!!