Well, I guess it would be best if I started my story from the top:
I drive a 1997 Monte Carlo LS, with the Hydramatic 4T60-E transmission, mated to the GM 3100 V6 engine. In the past I've found it to be a powerful and reliable combination. However, until it came under my ownership 2 years ago at 114K miles, it didn't recieve what I would call the best of care. (As a note, the car now has 138K miles).
I bought the car from my father when he decided that he wanted to join the SUV scene with a new Jeep Grand Cherokee V8. I knew he treated it well, but he isn't too rigorous with overall maintenance. His idea of maintenance was just to change the oil every 3,000 miles with a Fram (ugh) filter and the cheapest oil on sale. I've since change to Delco Ultraguard Gold filters and Castrol GTX (no sense in Synthetic in an engine running on dino its whole life, at least in my opinion). Anyway, some moron at GM decided to put in the owners manual "Transmission fluid never needs to be changed under normal service". Naturally, my father never deemed it necessary to change the transmission fluid for that 114K miles. The car was working well, so I just kept driving it and it was running fine, shifting smooth, no slipping or any other problems, at least until late last year.
On a casual drive one cool winter day, I was making an aggressive (but not insane) pass on the highway, so I gave it some gas to do the 4->2 downshift and pass a car. It shifted out of 4th fine, but it never managed to engage 2nd, it just revved up as if it were in neutral. I took my foot off the gas and slowly applied it, and it went back into gear (back in 4th). I shrugged it off as a glitch and went on with my life.
Well, this started to happen more and more often, until one day on a trip back up to school (a 100 mile drive to Northern NY) the transmission made a few random grinding noises and the Service Engine Soon light came on. I was only 20 miles into my trip, so I turned around to see if I could get the car home without a tow truck. I managed to drive it home, with it making weird noises and shifting erratically the whole way, but it made it none the less. I parked the car in the lawn and proceeded to get a ride back up to school with a friend.
The car sat at home for about a month, and wasn't touched at all in this period. I am at this point home for winter break, and decide its time to deal with the problem. I take the car out for a drive to get the SES light read at the local mechanic, and it is driving and shifting fine. The code read simply as "transmission slippage". Since the car was shifting fine (with the exception of slipping in 2nd) I didn't want to get the transmission completely rebuilt at great expense. Rather I opted to change the fluid and add a transmission cooler.
What I found when I changed the fluid was not pretty, and since a picture is worth a thousand words:
The fluid was completely burned up and smelled absolutely awful. There was a ton of clutch pack material in the pan (obviously) and the magnet was completely full. I cleaned the pan out completely, cleaned the magnet, changed the transmission filter with an AC part and refilled the 11 quart total capacity unit with approximately 8 quarts of fluid. I used Valvoline MaxLife Dexron III ATF. I reset the PCM, the SES was out for a few days and it seemed to be shifting marginally better, but then a week later SES returned so I decided the cooler was in order.
I installed an Imperial Automotive (rebranded Hayden) 11x11 stacked plate cooler, rated I believe at 30,000 GWVR, way more than what is necessary for my 3,200lb Monte Carlo. You can see that here:
The SES light has not since returned, but it seems like the problem is slowly getting worse. If I try and shift out of 2nd too aggressively (e.g. more than 3,500~4,000 RPM) it will just pop out of gear. Also, I was climbing a hill in 2nd at about 3,300 and during the hill climb it just popped out of gear and I had to put my foot down on the gas to get it into first and back on its way. I've also noticed that when I check my transmission fluid, there is a glaze of what seems to be clutch pack material on the dip-stick, which can't be good.
So I ask this: What can I do to get this thing to stop eating the 2nd gear clutches? All of the other gears work fine, and I can WOT all day long revving it up to 6K in 3rd shfting into 4th and it works just fine, feels like brand new. I've since stopped driving agressively (I don't abuse the car, but I do drive agressively. e.g. It's not uncommon for me to rev it up on the highway for passing, or take it up to around 4.5K~5K every now and then during acceleration from I stop. I definately DO NOT do anything stupid, like burn outs, race the motor in a low gear, continuously WOT out of every red light, etc.
I was thinking perhaps an application of Auto-RX, but obviously Auto-RX can't replace worn hard parts. I guess the real question I have is what caused the 2nd clutch to wear out. I "abuse" 3rd->4th much more than I do 1->2 or 2->3, yet those shifts are fine. Part of my thinking with the transmission cooler was that the clutch wore out because maybe the transmission was overheating.
When it comes down to it, the transmission needs a full rebuild and a fresh start with some Synthetic ATF and maybe 20,000~25,000 mile change interval. No more of this factory fluid lasting for 135K business. For now though, what can I do to help this thing last until a rebuild is more feisable. (No time or money during the year being a college student)
I drive a 1997 Monte Carlo LS, with the Hydramatic 4T60-E transmission, mated to the GM 3100 V6 engine. In the past I've found it to be a powerful and reliable combination. However, until it came under my ownership 2 years ago at 114K miles, it didn't recieve what I would call the best of care. (As a note, the car now has 138K miles).
I bought the car from my father when he decided that he wanted to join the SUV scene with a new Jeep Grand Cherokee V8. I knew he treated it well, but he isn't too rigorous with overall maintenance. His idea of maintenance was just to change the oil every 3,000 miles with a Fram (ugh) filter and the cheapest oil on sale. I've since change to Delco Ultraguard Gold filters and Castrol GTX (no sense in Synthetic in an engine running on dino its whole life, at least in my opinion). Anyway, some moron at GM decided to put in the owners manual "Transmission fluid never needs to be changed under normal service". Naturally, my father never deemed it necessary to change the transmission fluid for that 114K miles. The car was working well, so I just kept driving it and it was running fine, shifting smooth, no slipping or any other problems, at least until late last year.
On a casual drive one cool winter day, I was making an aggressive (but not insane) pass on the highway, so I gave it some gas to do the 4->2 downshift and pass a car. It shifted out of 4th fine, but it never managed to engage 2nd, it just revved up as if it were in neutral. I took my foot off the gas and slowly applied it, and it went back into gear (back in 4th). I shrugged it off as a glitch and went on with my life.
Well, this started to happen more and more often, until one day on a trip back up to school (a 100 mile drive to Northern NY) the transmission made a few random grinding noises and the Service Engine Soon light came on. I was only 20 miles into my trip, so I turned around to see if I could get the car home without a tow truck. I managed to drive it home, with it making weird noises and shifting erratically the whole way, but it made it none the less. I parked the car in the lawn and proceeded to get a ride back up to school with a friend.
The car sat at home for about a month, and wasn't touched at all in this period. I am at this point home for winter break, and decide its time to deal with the problem. I take the car out for a drive to get the SES light read at the local mechanic, and it is driving and shifting fine. The code read simply as "transmission slippage". Since the car was shifting fine (with the exception of slipping in 2nd) I didn't want to get the transmission completely rebuilt at great expense. Rather I opted to change the fluid and add a transmission cooler.
What I found when I changed the fluid was not pretty, and since a picture is worth a thousand words:
The fluid was completely burned up and smelled absolutely awful. There was a ton of clutch pack material in the pan (obviously) and the magnet was completely full. I cleaned the pan out completely, cleaned the magnet, changed the transmission filter with an AC part and refilled the 11 quart total capacity unit with approximately 8 quarts of fluid. I used Valvoline MaxLife Dexron III ATF. I reset the PCM, the SES was out for a few days and it seemed to be shifting marginally better, but then a week later SES returned so I decided the cooler was in order.
I installed an Imperial Automotive (rebranded Hayden) 11x11 stacked plate cooler, rated I believe at 30,000 GWVR, way more than what is necessary for my 3,200lb Monte Carlo. You can see that here:
The SES light has not since returned, but it seems like the problem is slowly getting worse. If I try and shift out of 2nd too aggressively (e.g. more than 3,500~4,000 RPM) it will just pop out of gear. Also, I was climbing a hill in 2nd at about 3,300 and during the hill climb it just popped out of gear and I had to put my foot down on the gas to get it into first and back on its way. I've also noticed that when I check my transmission fluid, there is a glaze of what seems to be clutch pack material on the dip-stick, which can't be good.
So I ask this: What can I do to get this thing to stop eating the 2nd gear clutches? All of the other gears work fine, and I can WOT all day long revving it up to 6K in 3rd shfting into 4th and it works just fine, feels like brand new. I've since stopped driving agressively (I don't abuse the car, but I do drive agressively. e.g. It's not uncommon for me to rev it up on the highway for passing, or take it up to around 4.5K~5K every now and then during acceleration from I stop. I definately DO NOT do anything stupid, like burn outs, race the motor in a low gear, continuously WOT out of every red light, etc.
I was thinking perhaps an application of Auto-RX, but obviously Auto-RX can't replace worn hard parts. I guess the real question I have is what caused the 2nd clutch to wear out. I "abuse" 3rd->4th much more than I do 1->2 or 2->3, yet those shifts are fine. Part of my thinking with the transmission cooler was that the clutch wore out because maybe the transmission was overheating.
When it comes down to it, the transmission needs a full rebuild and a fresh start with some Synthetic ATF and maybe 20,000~25,000 mile change interval. No more of this factory fluid lasting for 135K business. For now though, what can I do to help this thing last until a rebuild is more feisable. (No time or money during the year being a college student)