Ever had a transmission fail? On what vehicle?

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Yes --- 1984 Nissan Stanza with the auto trans. Sold it to a friend for 200 bucks. He went directly to a junk yard and pulled a tranny from another 84 Stanza for 50 bucks. He worked on it over the weekend and had it on the road by Monday.
 
Around 5 years ago I was driving towards Sequoia NP for some Christmas backpacking, but the slushbox in my 97 Accord with 275k quit going up the Grapevine. I got a "nice" tow truck ride back home.
 
Only tranny failures (two) were with a 700R4 in an '87 Burb but then again, I pulled a trailer with it with a ton of firewood about three times a year at 70+ mph.
 
Here's a list! 1976 Olds Starfire with the 231 V6 and Turbo 350 (my fault, did one neutral drop too many, put a used one in it)
1965 Impala SS 283 Powerglide (lost forward, not sure why, a buddy's recently remanned Turbo 350 went in with NO mods)
1980 LeBaron slant six A-904 (died of old age, tranny guy did a bench rebuild)
1994 E-250 5.8 E4OD (filled itself with aluminum shavings, bad Ford design-had it rebuilt/updated, then it was put in the-)
1993 E-350 5.8 E4OD 14 foot box truck (my '94 van transmission was the only one that only lasted after THREE previous REBUILDS!)
2000 GMC Savana 5.7 Vortec 4L80E (overdrive unit disintegrated, took AAMCO three tries to get it right)
2004 Ford E-350 6.0 PSD TorqShift (lost reverse after 250K of running overloaded, never got rebuilt)!
Fortunately my work has decided that buying Ford vans was an expensive undertaking, and leasing is better-good thing, because when my 2015 Transit 250 lost it's torque converter to the tune of $4500+, it was on those Enterprise Fleet/RAC thieves dime!
lol.gif
 
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Family had a 1999 Honda Odyssey that had the transmission slowly die, which was not uncommon on those early Odysseys, or with many of Honda's early V6 autos.
 
3x, all GM

1988 Chevy Beretta 5 speed manual failed during the 12mo/12k mile warranty and was replaced.

1991 Pontiac Sunbird, input shaft failed. Replaced with used shaft and car traded off at under 75k

1987 Buick LeSabre, total rebuild needed at about 100k miles.
 
I've had 2:

1. 1973 Bavaria at @120,000 miles; the four speed manual gearbox developed noisy bearings- almost certainly the result of a previous owner running a GL-5 oil instead of the specified GL-4 oil.
2. 1987 Scorpio at @80,000 miles; the four speed automatic lost reverse- one of several issues with that car
 
Originally Posted by ZZman
I have owned lots of vehicles and while I have had engine failures I haven't had a transmission go out.
How about you?



I lost count long ago but in over 45 years of vehicle ownership I have seen a few trans failures, here are samples.
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1965 TR-4: Blew out third gear and drove it for months till I could afford the repairs.

1978 Firebird: Popped 2 different Turbo 350 units before I finally got a short shaft 400, never any more problems.

Early 2000 GMC 3500 Savana with a 4L80E, just had nothing one morning. Nothing at all.

There's been others, but I can't remember the details...
 
Cars that either I own, have owned, or was in charge of maintaining. No transmission issues

2008 toyota highlander hybrid - 120k on it. No transmission trouble. Did fluid at 100k
2005 Chebby Tahoe - 138k on it - Drain/fill the pan every 10k, filter every 30k
2003 Subaru Forester - sold w/ 124k. Had 900lbs of weight in vehicle(don't ask), drained/filled pan every 6k, changed filter every 20k. New owners have 160k on it, no issues
2002 Jeep Wrangler - 85k on it. Manual trans, did fluid on purchase at 18k, again at 50k. Replaced clutch around 70k
1999 VW Passat - sold w/ 185k on it. Manual trans. Purchased w/ 150k, did all fluids. Kept it topped off. Couldn't be bothered to fix that one. Clutch held up fine in the time I owned it
2010 Jeep Wrangler - Did fluid at 25k, 50k. Has larger tires on it.
 
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I've had a clutch slip on a new car after adding about 50 extra horsepower to it, but I probably could've limped that along for 100k without having an actual failure.
 
88 Chrysler New Yorker, sub 130k mi I believe,
92 Lumina sedan at > 420k mi, operator error, a not so sharp kid drove it with both pedals down (no idle control due to a computer being from a [I think] a SC Bonneville),
94 DeVille at >290k, guess it didn't like being driven like a Corvette for the last 100k,
and my XJ in the sig, at about 185k or so, best guess output shaft bearing, (synchros are sure to be gone d/t bad slave, evidence by "striking gold" when draining fluid), haven't had the time or need to crack it open to rebuild.
 
Chrysler mini van stranded me on I-95. This was after Iacocca went on TV ads and promised us that the transmission problems had been solved. Sat at a dealer for awhile waiting for a rebuilt one. The guys laughed when I complained that Iacocca said the problem was fixed. It never shifted right again. No Chryslers for me ever again.
 
It didn't fail completely yet, but I had a 2004 VW Beetle TDI with the DSG automatic.

It drove like a mechanical bull and crunched when cold when you let off the gas.
 
Two Chrysler products:

1.1990 Dodge Dynasty. Purchased new, trans went out with just a few thousand miles (2-3K?). I even asked the salesperson about the rumors of this issue at the time, and was told: "Oh, that was just a few cars out in the mid-west, nothing to worry about here"! LOL. Trans was replaced through warranty.

2. 2004 Chrysler PT Cruiser. Trans went out at 68K miles (with just 2k more miles to go on warranty). The replacement trans was a remanufactured unit.
 
These were mostly company vehicles I owned.

'86 Toyota LE van - OE transmission started banging shifts around 80K, MisterTransmission rebuilt it, it lasted about 5K, traded it in shortly after.
'87 Aerostar 3.0, first tranny was replaced under warranty, 2nd failure was around 65K. Got an AAMCO lifetime rebuild and the van was in there quite a lot before it blew an engine around 160K
'89 Grand Voyager 3.0V6 A604 Ultradrive - a sun gear broke at 189K, was repaired (the rebuilder didn't want to do a rebuild because he was afraid of the electronic components) it soldiered on until the engine let go towing a small boat on the highway at almost 300K
'91 Aerostar 4.0 AWD - made it to 105K before the original transmission let go, replacement lasted until the vehicle was given away at ~ 200K
'93(ish) Chevy 1500 Conversion van w/ 350. First two transmissions each lasted about 30K, after warranty we had a transmission guy put in a stronger transmission (TH350?) which lasted the rest of the life of the vehicle. I don't remember for sure if the replacement had overdrive, but it probably did.

Noteworthy: 84 Dodge Caravan w/ carb'd 4cyl & 3 speed auto had no mechanical failures (other than A/C) until it threw a rod on the highway at over 200K miles. All the trim pieces fell off long before, but mechanically it was solid.

I don't think I have had a transmission or engine failure since then, and I regularly keep my vehicles until around 200K

The one thing going for all of these vehicles is that they were driven 40K to 50K a year, lots of highway miles from and to western NC from S. Florida.

Edit: Forgot the '87 Nissan SE V6 4x4 Pickup w/ 5MT. The input shaft bearings went out at around 140K. I suspect it was a defect. That truck also only held about 3 quarts of oil!
 
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i only buy manual trannied cars so NO failures, but put clutches in 2 of them which are cheap comparatively!!
 
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