Tranny shows 100% ?

[Billw2]

I am the proud new owner of a '99 Aurora with 65K miles. I have driven about 1300 miles and the DIC shows Tranny fluid at 100%. I wonder has it recently been changed or did some reset it just before I got the car?

[JimW]

We have noticed that tranny fluid life ALWAYS reads 100%

Your best bet is to watch the colour of the fluid...should be nice and pink. There is lots of content on the forums regarding tranny fluid etc.

Welcome to ACNA

[oldsauroraman1]

Jim W is right. Color and smell on the tranny fluid. According to the GM manual the readout for the tranny fluid life will read 100% all the time - UNLESS - the tranny has overheated, then it will deduct % from the total. GM states that the tranny fluid is for the lifetime of the car! No thanks. Mine was flushed at 75,000. Trannys are too expensive to leave fluid in that long.

However, had an Aunt that drove an Olds 4 door ciera with the 6 cyl. Never changed the tranny fluid in that poor thing and she DROVE that car on dirt roads, secondary roads and a few highways. She sold it with almost 200 grand - still going! Not worth the risk to me.

[stevensolds]

Aurora man was that the Auroras first tranny fluid change?

[oldsauroraman1]

Steve:

Sure appeared like it was. I just bought mine in December and when I pulled the stick on the tranny it was dark, not very red. Got it home and had Mr. Goodwrench flush it. Works great.

[stevensolds]

damn, i thought that ive you change it after so long without a change it would fail. hmm.

what year is your rora?

[oldsauroraman1]

1998.

Never believed that tale. Some do. That's OK. Mine did not smell all that good either. When we pumped out the old fluid it looked pretty dirty, although, we have seen worse.

[Custom88]

My Riviera was driven 95,000 miles before I had the transmission flushed when I bought it. It had never been serviced before according to the original owner. I had it done at 95,000 when I bought it and it was flawless even until the time I sold it at 120,000 miles 2 years later. And this is on a transmission that has more failures caused from heat than anything else that kills a transmission.

[stevensolds]

did the riviera use the 4T80-e?

[Custom88]

stevensolds said:

did the riviera use the 4T80-e?

No, but it uses the 4t65E-heavy duty transmission which wasn't made to handle as much power, yet it had an engine attached to it that put out significantly more power than the northstar. The 80E is a much better transmission. So if a 65E didn't meet an early death from changing the fluid I doubt the 80E would. It's a better transmission.

[stevensolds]

Custom88 said:

. So if a 65E didn't meet an early death from changing the fluid I doubt the 80E would. It's a better transmission.

^^ erm do you mean from NOT changing the fluid you doubt the 80E would??

[Custom88]

stevensolds said:

^^ erm do you mean from NOT changing the fluid you doubt the 80E would??

no, from changing the fluid. I thought a fear of you and many other people was that your transmission would fail if you had a flush done at this stage in your cars' life. I was just saying I had mine done for the first time at 95,000 miles and with the car being 6 1/2 year sold. that's all.

[stevensolds]

yaeh but are you sure that the car was 6 and NEVER had it changed before?? ....im just saying that if i was gonna spend 118 bucks to have it flushed (which i could easily do thats NO BIGGIE),, at west chester Olds, and that tranny f'ing breaks 200 miles or so down the road...im telling you i dont have anywhere near the 3 grand to repair it. And i would be very pissed probably never come back again. However its still pink. If it gets brown or smells nasty i will change it. I am just really worried that it may damage from doing it. Signature Olds refused to change it. West Chester tells me do it or i will be replacing it at 100k. i dunno, ive heard stories that JimW said of people with their 4T80-e's running 150+ on original fluid. What does that tell you? The manual says not to change it unless doing a lot of hot weather driving or police cruiser.

Does it say if you do WOT all the time? No. While that may not be helping the tranny i dont think its gonna kill it. ITs a strong tranny like you said. There is one guy on here who has 226k on the original motor and tranny. I wonder if he changed his fluid i would LOVE to hear his story on that.

Thanks for the advice but i am still neutral on whether to change it or not. I wish i could get an extended warranty for my 95, but unfornutely since the previous owner got it once for this car's VIN i am not eligible.

[erw38]

Steven,

I would say to go ahead and change it because it is a preventativ maintenance thing. I just had them drop the pan and change the fluid. So now their is both new and old fluid in there. Best of both worlds ;D

Tranny fluid is very similiar in a lot of aspects to your brake fluid. They are both very suceptable (sp?) to heat. Granted, the tranny has more moving parts though. Fresh fluid, if you ask me, lubricates better. Getting them to drop the pan and change the fluid was what I did and I can't tell much difference. I can tell you that my tranny is not any worse for wear!

P.S. Its been about 1500 miles or so. ;D

That's my two cents to add to the pot.

[Letitroll98]

I didn't know any of the following until we knocked this issue around a while back and I checked some other sites. It's what makes this club so great, really good discussions on relavent topics, thanks guys. However I will now attempt to put this to bed.

If you change old tranny fluid you need to use the Platinum additive from GM. This conditions the seals from the shock of the ph change in the clean fluid. Everyone is right. You should change old tranny fluid, but it does cause a dangerous failure condition by damaging the seals. The Platinum additive solves the dilema.

[stevensolds]

do you have a link to that or something. Even Signature Olds 30 miles out from here never heard of that before And they still refuse to change the fluid or even drop the pan. They said theve seen many trannies fail and to just leave the F'ing thing alone if its working right (exact words the guy told me).

Also Elan, did you say its been only 1500 milse snice the pan was dropped? Hmm...have you done any WOT lately? Do you do WOT a lot? Do you drive like an old lady in the slow lane. These are all questions i am asking because i do not do either one of them and i am just making sure i make the right move here. thanks elan and letitroll. Platinum additive sounds good

[erw38]

Steven,

I wounld not say that I go WOT a lot, but on on a regular basis (at least once a day when I have to cross 4 lanes of traffic to get on the freeway). And yes, it has been about 1500 miles (6 months or so) (I don't drive a lot).
When I talked to the people that did mine, they suggested that I stay away from flushing as well. They said that dropping the pan and changing that fluid was probably for best. While it does not change all the fluid, it does replace enough to get by. This method, does not "shock" the tranny while still getting many of the benifits that changing the fluid gives.

I was very hesitant as well and will tell you that the longer you wait, the more hesitant you will become. So if you inted to do it at any time in the future (whether near of far), it might be better to go ahead and do it now before you get up there in mileage.

If you want to, call your local tranny shop (I think this shop is close to you - www.transmissionspluspa.com/184940.html) and ask them thier opinion. Don't give them your information, jusk ask them. Hopefully they will give you a neutral 3rd party opinion (and they work on transmission everyday)

Best of luck to you.

Also, I do not drive like an old lady or like speedracer for that matter. I am a normal everyday 28 year old male (if that helps). Is there such a thing as a "normal" 28 year old?

** edit **

There is even a 10% coupon for you to use! (How's that for being cheap) ;D

[oldsauroraman1]

Go for the flush. And by all means, have the shop put the conditioner in, it will greatly extend the life of the seals and as a result the transmission.

[stevensolds]

im not flushing, just dropping the pan like elan did. I like the idea of getting some of the fluid out.

The electronic computer management on the 4T80 controls the tranny so that it adjusts the shift points over the life of the transmission, so that humans never tell that it shifts differently. To humans, it shifts exactly the same as it did when its new. My other Olds mechanic that worked on Auroras since 1994 told me this. He also said taht when you drop the pan and change some fluid, the tranny likes that. It doesnt have to "think" as hard, finding different shift points all the time and it wont "dip" into 400rpm and nearly stall out at idel like mine does ALL the time. I swear, if i leave it in drive, sit at a stoplight for about 20 seconds, it does that and goes "pop" as it comes back to life around 1000rpm again.

Btw, i will be taking it to the local olds dealer, i am gonna tell them just to drop the pan, thats it. They better not screw up. Or for that matter, i better not be screwing up...

I am gonna have them put this Platinum additive in though, i like the sound of that. Extend the life as much as we can here....i beat this tranny a little too hard when i got the car, i shouldnt have punished it like that, its too good.

[oldsauroraman1]

Steve:

Pulling just the pan is the same method that has been done since the first hydra-matic transmission in Olds. Its your safest move and shouldn't hurt a thing.

The big beef that many techs have had with GM trannys over the years is that we could never completely drain the fluid out. Some fellows actually got up the nerve and drilled/tapped the torque converter! They used a short machine bolt to go back in the hole. Some guys also would do a change and then in 5,000 or so, change again - hoping to get a "complete" change.

So, when the flush machines came out a few years ago, we finally had the answer to the problem in not being able to get all the fluid out.

I'm not a Chrysler man, but, have had many techs tell me over the years that being able to drain the fluid out of the Chrysler tranny was a "smarter" thing to go on Mopar's part and dumb for GM in not having a way to completely change the tranny fluid - as they wanted us to.

Best wishes.