IS MY TRANS FAILING?

[SFCP]

1995 Chev Lumina… Driving daughter to school, stop on side of road to let her out, went to step on gas and car acted as if it were in neutral. Put it in park, then back in D again, nothing. Put it in 1'st and 2'nd..worked fine. Stopped car, put it back in D, finally it's working again and drove it just fine all the way to work.
Will transmissions act like this as they are failing, or was I possible putting it in neutral and not realizing it?
Also, there is nothing leaking on the ground.

 

[SFCP]

Forgot to add that I did call a trans shop and they seemed to think I may have not had it all the way in D and was in N. They said that a trans will not do that when it fails. It will either work or not work, but not periodically work and fail.

 

[UNC038]

If the fluid is low or possibly the line pressure is too low this can happen.

 

[Gilitar]

Before doing anything else get it flushed.

 

[Russell]

IMO, a full flush is not good as it can dislodge junk and cause transmission issues. Others can add more about the dangers of full flushing.

I would drain, clean pan, refill with new filter if appropiate. No one stated when it was last serviced or mileage on transmission.

 

[XPR]

Quote:

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IMO, a full flush is not good as it can dislodge junk and cause transmission issues. Others can add more about the dangers of full flushing.

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I disagree, a flush is the way to go.

For the OP, have someone check the linkage, could be out off adjustment.

 

[mikeg5]

i agree with Russel.. start doing drain and fills if possible every 10-15k miles and yes SFCP it seems like you just didnt put it in drive all the way and it slipped into nuetral.. so just keep an eye on it.. imo flushes arent as good as what people make it out to be esp if it hasnt been done in a long time bc there are particles and pieces of metal floating around and can be dislodged and cause further problems. a lot of toyota places arent doing flushes anymore bc of this. all of the ones in my area do not flush, they just drop the pan, clean the screens and magnets and drain and fill

 

[Donald]

I think the flush is being blamed for more than it should be. A flush merely pushes new fluid into the pan (under low pressure) through one of the hoses going to the cooler and allows old fluid to leave the system through the other cooler hose. The AT pump pushes the new fluid around the transmission, not the flush. Now if places are doing a flush on a AT in unknown condition without dropping the pan and cleaning the pan and changing the filter, then they do not know what they are doing and are trying to get away with a quick AT service. Its the new fluid that might dislodge things in the AT. But you will have new fluid if you drop the pan and do a drain and refill or a flush. And if you do a couple of back to back drain & refills you will have nearly all new fluid just like a flush.

So I believe there is no problem with a flush as long as one either knows the service history and/or drops the pan first.

If the old fluid was really in bad shape, you may need to consider replacing the filter in a week or two after either service.

Once the new ATF stays clean for awhile, then I would flush it out and replace it with Amsoil ATF or similar.

 

[Max_Wander]

Quote:

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IMO, a full flush is not good as it can dislodge junk and cause transmission issues. Others can add more about the dangers of full flushing.

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I dont subscribe to this advice. If the transmission is going to die, it's going to die. It must be pretty fargone to be in that state. Otherwise, do you really think keeping filthy, oxidized, thickened ATF is a GOOD thing? 17yr old grease monkeys at mr transmission arent really the smartest in terms of LOGIC.

 

[Camu Mahubah]

Reccomend transmission filter service and top off with a high quality ATF such as Maxlife or Amsoil. Once a year for piece of mind. When I bought my Prizm the ATF looked burnt...so I took it to a Chevy dealer and they used a BG machine(yes the same people who make the additive) to flush my transmission. Then the following week I replaced the transmission filter and topped off. No problems so far. I would baby her from now on...You know no Jackrabbit starts....Good Luck!

 

[Cutehumor]

what trans oci have you been doing?

 

[WishIhadatruck]

My experience is that you get more than 1/2 of the fluid out with those transmissions when you do a pan drop and filter change so I would start with that and then do a flush if you want later.

Have you been doing flushes or pan drops in the past?