Thread: I been had... New car, bad trans.

I just picked up a very nice/clean 98 GTP. The test drive went well, the guy seemed to be babying it, but i though he was just a dork and didnt really get into having a fast car. this thing was clean as a pin and I just didnt get the impression he would be the type to romp on it. Well, we drove it around for a little bit and all seemed fine, so i purchased it.

on the way home, after about 15 miles i felt some shuttering while slowly taking off from stop lights. it was almost undetectable, but when the CEL came on immediately afterwards, i was like "oh no". After getting it home, i put some nice premium fresh fuel in it and drove it around a loop around my neighborhood for about 50 mins straight. this way if it broke down, at least i'd be close to home, and it would also simulate my drive to work each day. during this test, i felt what i thought to be 3rd gear not have alot of grip. I could drive normally with 3/4th gear, but if i gave it any boost, the trans would just slip while the car really did not gain any speed. crap.

I drove it to work today, 80 miles round trip. On the way in, it did well. On the way home, i barely made it home! I was about 10 miles away from home and i was in stop/go rush hour traffic. the car lost 3rd/4th, then it even started to slip completely in 2nd. Finally i put it down into 1st and i could get it to go, but it would not upshift again. I was stuck in 1st for a while. it eventually gave me back 2nd and maybe 3rd. there was also some bucking and it did also cut off right in the middle of the street when the light turned green and i tried to take off... kaput. restart, put it in first and it takes off.

It set a code, i just scanned it, it was PO742 TCC. I think the mild bucking and stalling at stop lights is the cause of that. In fact, i dont really care about that so much.... i care about the slipping in all forward gears the hotter it gets.

I checked the fluid when i got home, it was overfull and brownish more than redish, and stinks. I think i may have done that on my trip above, becuase when i checked it during the test drive, i dont recall it being so brown, i remember thinking it looked good and pink. I also dont recall it smelling funky, but is was very pronouced today.

So, what do you think? I can do anything, have a large garage, and alot of tools. I have built supercharged and turbocharged engines, but i have managed to avoid automatic transmissions until now. I guess im open to the idea, so if you have any checks or tests, no matter how complicated, i can do it. I have DMM's, oscope and know how to use them. Not a newbie, just a newbie to this platform.

Thanks,
Shawn

I would drop the pan to start. That is the first thing I usually do when it comes to auto's and trouble. Any signs of clutch material and/or metal is obviously bad. If it's clean then you could try new fluid/filter/lucas trans additive. If all is lost with the trans, now would be a good time to upgrade if you plan on any future modding. Throw a good trans cooler in there while you are at it, these things run too hot from the factory. Good Luck.

Man that kinda sucks. To me it sounds like the trans is on its last leg.

How many miles on it?

Originally Posted by Sushamouf

Throw a good trans cooler in there while you are at it, these things run too hot from the factory. Good Luck.

Sorta true, seems that most 97-03 cars run right at coolant temp when fully warmed up which is about perfect for the fluid. The 04-08 cars seem to always run alot hotter in the range of 215-240 which is worse for the fluid and lowers its life span.

Originally Posted by Fivefingerdeathpunch

Sorta true, seems that most 97-03 cars run right at coolant temp when fully warmed up which is about perfect for the fluid. The 04-08 cars seem to always run alot hotter in the range of 215-240 which is worse for the fluid and lowers its life span.

2000 GTP here, it would like to get up to 215+ in the city. Threw a HD cooler in there and it stays 170-200. Also lets the radiator be solely dedicated to the engine if you bypass the factory cooler.

car has 250k on it. its alot.
I will never buy a car I did not personally drive agian. This guy was wierd, and he did not have plates on the car, he met me at a Target Parking lot close to his apartment. I kinda didnt want to drive it with no plates and I'm sure no insurance. He just wanted to drive it around the parking lot but at least i made him drive it up and down the road to get some speed and I asked him to punch it, but like i said he was being a ***** and he didnt really give it anything to speek of. after i expressed interest he invited me back to his place to exchange title and cash. I can understand, i dont particularly care to have strangers over to my house when im selling a car either, its f'n weird. I beleive from now on, I will ask the person to give me the car for 30 minutes and I'll leave my truck with them as collateral per se, and really put it thru its paces. I mistook wierdo for down right deceiving, like the post title says, I've been had. I am not crying about it, it is what it is, i screwed up. Now that that is over with, i just need to fix it.

Of course I'm hoping someone will tell me "aw, thats just the pressure control solinoid, becuase thats a common failure". Id be glad to do that if it was a common failure. But I dont want to do it on a whim, or waste alot of money and time. I can buy a used tranny for 500 bux and slap it in in a day, so if i can beat that with solinoids, or clogged filter I'll do it, but if it needs a trans, that I'll do that too. No big deal.

Sorry to say, but if it is slipping, it is slipping. The PCS would increase line pressure upon failure (fail safe).

I ask because, well, I own a dodge pickup truck. lol. I have been round and round with that thing. Once day I was hauling way too much firewood, and the trans just dropped out of drive. i would stop and wait a few minutes, then it would go back in drive again. I found the filter was completely blinded over, probably from overloading the truck. I put a new filter in it, and thought i was good. About 2 months later the Tq converter exploded and sent glitter all thru my entire trans. I dropped it and put a new tq converter in and agian hoped for the best. A couple months later it would not upshift to the next gear until I would let off the gas pedal. This would progressivly get worse, and also became a problem with heat. I found that if i dropped the pan, pulled the pressure control solinoid out, its basket filter was completely blinded over with metal flakes. I could clean the filter with brake kleen, and reinstall it and get another 10k miles before it would blind agian. I did this repeatedly for about 3 years until i finally became feed up with it and just installed a reman transmission.

I was hoping for something like this... something quick and cheap i could do to get it going while i work out a long term solution for later. if there is not, then there is not.

so, how does the lucas stuff work? any success stories? or just worth a shot, but probably wont do anything?

sounds like you know your way around cars, so that being said. its best to start looking for a used trans. if you shop around they can be found for around 400 or less sometimes.

theres a good "how to" on the site as well.

yeah that does suck, like a kick in the balls for sure. good luck.

Originally Posted by nukkinfuttz

so, how does the lucas stuff work? any success stories? or just worth a shot, but probably wont do anything?

I have had two transmissions that were starting to slip on customer vehicles. Did a fluid and filter on them with a bottle of Lucas trans additive and they both were fine after. (for now) Chances are that trans pan gasket is leaking already anyway. Also helps with hard shifting. Could be a band-aid, but if it holds out until you find/build a new trans, it's worth it.

quite a few people with mild slipping have used lucas with a pan drop and filter change. being that your fluid is dark brown and stinks it may just be a waste of money.

i got my car with 212,00 on it and by 218 my trans lost 3 rd gear. so it was swapped. i know the feeling.

best you can do is drop the pan and see how much clutch material is in the pan. and go from there. but you never know it may come back to life again. if it does it will be short lived. and beating on it is not recommended, call it a $60 band aid if it works.

Bickering etc posts deleted, please keep your arguing out of the OP's thread.

OP: Lucas and a fresh filter will likely help. Do you have access to any scanning tools that would give you an idea how hot the trans is getting? Sounds like ti got pretty toasty to drop out like that. The TCC is common to have happen, especially on higher mileage transmissions. And it's a toss up as to whether it's the valve body or the soleniod itself. Search on my name and "trans info" there's a thread I tossed together with a lot of info/links that should give you some background and better understanding of the usual issues.

well, today i stopped by NAPA to pick up some lucas. I figured, what the hell. I put it in. within 5 minutes i noticed a change for the better. by a couple miles later my trans feels 100% new. I am completely dumbfounded. I have never had a bottle of snake oil work for me before, but by god this time it sure did fix me right up! I can mash it and go 0-100 and does not slip and shifts as tight as brand new money. Wow! This is hands down the best 13 dollars i have ever spent in my life. I thought i was in for a transmission and now i think it will be okay for a while.

I will go ahead and try to pick up a used 4t645E-HD and try to rebuild it to be "ready" for when my time comes. But I still cant say enough about how impressed I am with the lucas product. just wow.

Great news! That stuff works wonders.

Originally Posted by nukkinfuttz

well, today i stopped by NAPA to pick up some lucas. I figured, what the hell. I put it in. within 5 minutes i noticed a change for the better. by a couple miles later my trans feels 100% new. I am completely dumbfounded. I have never had a bottle of snake oil work for me before, but by god this time it sure did fix me right up! I can mash it and go 0-100 and does not slip and shifts as tight as brand new money. Wow! This is hands down the best 13 dollars i have ever spent in my life. I thought i was in for a transmission and now i think it will be okay for a while.

I will go ahead and try to pick up a used 4t645E-HD and try to rebuild it to be "ready" for when my time comes. But I still cant say enough about how impressed I am with the lucas product. just wow.

you just added the lucas with out a filter and pan drop, and it worked that good? if so glad to hear it.

Yes, I lucas all by itself. I drive it the 80 mile round trip to work again today and it performed very well. no slipping at all. but that pesky TCC is still cycling on and off while crusing, acting retarded intermitantly. I can live with that, its a minor nuscience. Can i get away with just clipping the TCC wire so it never engages or will the computer freak out?

I plan to do the pan drop and filter with another bottle of lucus on Saturday. (tomorrow) I just did not have time for a suprize like this during the week.

I will also add an external cooler on Saturday. I might look at running a switch to assume control of the fan too. The car must already have a low Tstat becuase during cruising it only gets to the 1/4 temp mark. but in stop/go traffic it raises up to the half way mark. Fans did not cut on, but they likely will not until 210* or something, right? I would like a switch to cut them on at my discretion.

the way your temp gauge is acting is normal.

the fans dont come on till its up to 214 and then hotter for high speed to come on.

Today I changed the filter, added 7 new quarts of fluid, 1 new container of Lucas, and an external trans cooler. Took it for a few trips around the block, still works, no leaks. I plan to do a more "intence" test drive later on tonight. I dont know if I will have any improvement until I get it heat soaked. Really, Sunday on my way home from work I should really know if it is good or not.

The trans did not have the original pan gasket. I also was able to loosen every bolt on the pan just by twisting them with my extenstion and 10mm socket... no rachet needed. I thought that was a little loose. Pan was pretty clean as far as debri's go and I've seen worse magnets. I did not see anything to extreme in there. Maybe later tonight i will crack the filter open and see how loaded up it is.

lookin good so far.