Thread: Transmission problems and questions

I have a 2003 Monte Carlo SS with the 4t65e

For the past few months now I've been having intermittent shifting issues which are getting more and more frequent. At first it was just mildy hard shifts from time to time. The past few days I've been experiencing some extremely hard shifts into first and second. Checked the tranny fluid and it's still a nice pinkish red, but there's quite a bit of dark gray dust stuck to my dip stick which I'm assuming is clutch dust. I've been doing a lot of research on GPF and the Bonneville club forums and have found a lot of good information for total rebuilds but still have a few questions. The other day when leaving a restaurant I had on odd problem, when trying to get onto the main road from a dead stop the car drove about 4 feet without any problems, then all power to the wheels was lost, the engine rev'd to about 3500-4000 then the gears caught HARD, the wheels spun for a moment and jerked the car enough to hurt my neck , this was all happening with less than 15% throttle. While I dont have much experience with trannys this doesnt sound like an issue typically caused by bad clutch plates. Does any one have other ideas as to what the problem is, or what combination of problems is destroying my trans? I'm preparing to buy a master rebuild kit from triple edge which includes the frictions, and steels plus a new bonded style valve body spacer plate. 4T65E Master Kit 2003+ I would like to get some other opinions before i purchase this and take the tranny out of my daily driver... A few things I forgot to add, when idling at a stop sign or light, when the car is in drive I get an odd stutter and a good bit of vibration as though the car is trying to force itself to go, when its put into neutral it behaves fine. Also the majority of the time i only experience these issues once the trans has warmed up.

scan it and see if it has a p1811 wont set the light but will set a code

Try a shift kit before you go tearing that transmission out. Mine had similar behavior and the shift kit fixed it.

The rough idle in drive could be other issues such as a dirty throttle body or IAC, etc.

get it scanned, if nothing comes up. could be as simple as a clogged filter, pan drop and filter change.

Originally Posted by nos4blood70

Try a shift kit before you go tearing that transmission out. Mine had similar behavior and the shift kit fixed it.

The rough idle in drive could be other issues such as a dirty throttle body or IAC, etc.

Can't shift kits increase the chance of a hard failure? As far as TB and IAC go I've been going through this since before I ported and polished my TB, while doing so I cleaned the whole thing out.


Oh and i forgot to mention I'm approaching 140k!

Originally Posted by overdose666

Can't shift kits increase the chance of a hard failure? As far as TB and IAC go I've been going through this since before I ported and polished my TB, while doing so I cleaned the whole thing out.


Oh and i forgot to mention I'm approaching 140k!

It depends on the shift kit u use. If u have the said 4t65e I would recommend the shift kit that TEP sales. The one that is a combo kit.

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If the PCS/EPC is the issue then the shift kit would bandaid/help with that and keep you from setting the P1811 code. When the PCS begins to give trouble, it'll often set only the P1811 and cause harsh shifts.

If you are rebuilding, I'd also suggest sending your valvebody/channel plate to Dave and have it gone through. When you get it back, it's bolt on and that saves a lot of questions/time/aggrevation.

Went by advance auto and had it scanned, nothing new came up

What can i expect to be charged? Only quote I've ever gotten for a scan was $85 from a local dealership.

Get the car to do the issue. Don't turn it off and have it scanned. Many trans codes will reset in the current status when the ignition is cycled. And the Advance scanners usually don't scan history codes.