Dropping tranny pan soon.........

[stevensolds]

Alright, guys this is it. My tranny is acting up a little bit now. I did a pretty good amount of WOT. Let it cool down for a while then started it up. put it into reverse and BOOM it made a loud noise then engaged. The fluid actually looks dark now. Its time for a pan drop me think.

Also gonna have them remove the side pan and clean the filter out and whatever gunk is underneath there. The side pan is where the oil is held to be pumped up into the tranny, i believe. Correct me if i am wrong? I am not doing a flush........too many horrible things heard about that. I believe just dropping the pan and side pan and cleaning out the filter area would be good enough, then refilling the correct trans fluid amount and quality taht was drained. I am tkaing it to WC Olds. They said it should be fine. They have done this to several Classic Auroras and the owners have no problems. They said it is better to do it this way and not the flushes, as some shops including their own may have debris in the machine that could blow into your transmission and cause it to fail in 2 or 3k miles. Not what I want.

the mechanic said though, that someone F'ed up (exact words) by not changing it if it was dark like that. He said Olds meant it that it doenst need to be changed but he said if you kick it in the ass a lot, its gonna need a pan drop and filter replacement.

Anyone else done just the pan drop and filter replacement and drove significant miles to prove that nothing happened? I would like to know if this is a good idea or not, so i can set it up soon. Then I can drive it around a little bit and go to Carsisle without worrying that im gonna have my tranny come thru the floor when i bury the gas pedal at the drag strip.

[erw38]

Dropping the pan is a good idea. Since the tranny is going to be open already, I would have the dealership look in the tranny to see if the loud 'bang' had to do with the shift solenoid(s). I hope its not to late.

Good luck with it. BTW, my tranny is still fine. I don't think I drive nearly as hard as you do though.

[stevensolds]

erw38 said:

I don't think I drive nearly as hard as you do though.

I doubt you do. Nobdoy here probably drives like i do. What do you do, stay in the right lane go 55mph the whole time?

[Custom88]

stevensolds said:

I doubt you do. Nobdoy here probably drives like i do. What do you do, stay in the right lane go 55mph the whole time?

Actually I am almost always in the left lane in the 10 miles I'm on the highway everyday driving around 75. I don't think I even go over 1/4 throttle hardly ever either. my car rarely sees anything over 2,500 RPM shifts either. (redline is 6,400)


EDIT: back to original question. Yes, if the fluid is dark now it's a good idea to change it. I'd change it once drive it about 1,000 miles then have it changed again. After that it should be good for another 30,000 before it's changed again. But if you're going WOT a lot it'll need it before even that because WOT causes a LOT of heat inside the transmission.

[JimW]

The 4T80E with 3.71 gears is a bit more revvy, its hard to stay at 2500, even when cruising. If you drove mine Custom, you'd be revvin

I'm due for a tranny servicing now too, the fluid is getting darker after a tough winter

[Marc]

StevensOlds....The side pan is were most of the trans
oil is before being pumped into the trans' internals.
There won't be much oil in the bottom pan.


_________________

GM!!! BRING BACK OLDS!!!

[erw38]

stevensolds said:

I doubt you do. Nobdoy here probably drives like i do. What do you do, stay in the right lane go 55mph the whole time?

Sometimes I am a bad boy and even take her up to 60 MPH.

;D ;D

[stevensolds]

ive had er up to 100

so Mark your saying that dropping the pan isnt gonna do anything now? There is 7 quarts inside the pan....... i dont want all the dirty fluid changed, just some. I think its better that way and wont be as rough on the clutch packs and solenoids because of the Ph change.

plus the tranny likes that, it doesnt have to think as hard.

Jim when you get yours serviced, do you take it to an Olds dealer? also do you have them just drop the bottom pan and refill with fresh Dexron III , with how ever many quarts came out?

[JimW]

Eat my 140 mph dust ;D

I havent changed my tranny fluid since taking ownership, I will be checking at the dealer to see if its been done in the past, my thinking is that it has...the owner before me was meticulous. ALL repairs came back to his dealership (where he worked)

I am not nervous about the servicing. My Bonneville had a tranny fluid service and didnt harm my tranny at all.

I know the manual says I dont really have to, but I want to.

[stevensolds]

set up my appointment for the 22nd. at least i will be on a break then and can just sit there while they look at it for free and see if it needs to be dropped. Also they said they will do a check to see if its been breached before (which i dont think it has, at least my mechanic said it wasnt), but you never know.

I asked them if they do this on a lot of Auroras and they said they see a lot of classics and 2nd gens coming around here for the same old thing. He drives a green 1999 for himself and he said he loves it and is keeping it until its a real classic.

[Marc]

StevensOlds.....they will not have to drop the side pan.
It has a drain plug. According to pg. 7-450 of the 2001
factory manual, "to drain fluid from the side cover, remove the drain plug in the case after bottom pan removal."

_______________

GM!!! BRING BACK OLDS!!!

[stevensolds]

After i get the pan dropped and cleaned and everything, what was the name of that GM Platinum Additive? olds Mechanic said he never heard of that one before. ::)thanks

[Marc]

I never heard of that additive either. There is a GM
additive for the cooling system, but no such for the trans. GM wants only Dexron III in the trans.


________________

GM!!! BRING BACK OLDS!!!

[erw38]

I put Valvoline Maxlife in mine

And Steven, I go 75 to 80 on a regular basis (of course that is on a freeway). ;D I've gotten her as high as 100 too, but slowed down because I don't want a ticket. It's fun playing with people. This one lady decide do follow me to close (I really hate that), after slamming on my brakes (no contact made) I then pulled into the lane next to us. Got behind her and tailed her until my exit came up.

I do not recommend what I did, but it was lots of fun!!!!!!! ;D ;D

[stevensolds]

LOL ELAN im not gonna do that, especiayl with this big investment. she was probably pissed though, good. i always do either one of two things when people do that. (1) i slow down to a crawl (if its local streets), and one person actually passed me on the double line or (2) floor the accelerator up to 80 and get the hell away from the moron. Even if i go 85 they will still pass me. jerks.

i cant do more than 26 over the limit because if i get caught i will lose my license for 90 days. thats PA law for ya. when i have my unrestrict licesne i can go 35 or over and still be allowed to drive

[stevensolds]

OK, tomorrow is the day the pan gets dropped at the olds dealer.

I talked to the Olds mechanic some more, he said that when they drop the pan and if they find any metal shavings, that they are going to have to diagnose the transmission to see if theres anything wrong with it, because i brought up that it has been shifting a little rough and things like that. Then they can get a better idea of the problem. They said putting fresh fluid into a system that has metal shavings in it can cause some problems and i have the option of going undiagnosed until it breaks....you get the idea.

I warmed the car up a good bit....and checked the fluid and it came out kind of red on the towel. Is this good or bad? On the dipstick it kind of looked pink, but i cant tell for sure. Hmm...i guess im gonna take it in tomorrow. I just hope there isnt any metal shavings or anything.

[BuccaneersFan]

About 8 months ago I brought my 96 in to the dealer and was going to have the trans filter replaced and new fluid put in. A couple hours after I had droped it off they called me and said that they realized there was no filter and in that kind of transmission all you can do is back flush it to clean the screen out and then refill with new fluid. I do not know if what they said was true or not but I have had absolutley no problems with the trans since then.

[stevensolds]

how many miles have you driven since then? also had it ever been dropped before this?

[BuccaneersFan]

It has been at least 10,000 miles since then. I can't say for sure if it had ever been dropped before but I bought the car in september of 2003 and my guess would be it hasn't. Right after I bought the car I had the radiator flushed. The guy doing it told me that someone had put the regular green colored coolant in instead of the orange dexcool. It was obvious that the previous owner didn't know what they were doing so they probably didn't do much maintenance at all.

[stevensolds]

ok. how many miles was on the car at that time u had it dropped?"

also im sure the stealership will prolly try to rip me off, especially this one around here and say that its fudged up or something. i will just tell them to bolt it back up and refill then i will just take it to a few good tranny shops and see what they say.

[kobalt]

Steven, don't let the deler talk you into a transaxle overhaul because of metal filings in the pan. I guarantee that you will have metal filings in the pan but just remember that this is completly normal in an older car and part of regular vehicle operation. I like your partial fluid change idea as well.

[Custom88]

Kobalt is correct. small metal shavings are normal. But, large metal chunks are not. ;D Transaxle fluid in good condition is normally a bright red/pink color btw.

[BuccaneersFan]

stevensolds,
I have about 96,000 on it now so there was about 86,000 or so when I had it done. I would also agree with kobalt and Custom88 on the metal shavings. That is normal for a car as old as yours is. I had a 94 Dodge intrepid with 98,000 miles on it and I had the fluid changed and there were some metal shavings but I never had a problem. The only thing was that when they refilled the trans fluid(in the intrepid) they did't put enough back in. It was only short by about 1/2 of a quart or less but it caused it not to shift quite right some times. I went back to the place where I had the job done and they topped it off and then I had no further problems. I was surprised that such a small amout of missing fluid would cause a problem but it did.

Jon

[Aurora40]

BuccaneersFan said:

The guy doing it told me that someone had put the regular green colored coolant in instead of the orange dexcool.

You should continue to use the green colored coolant, then. You will definitely have to follow the regular coolant change intervals (usually about 2 years/30k).

Green coolant will ruin the long-life properties of the DexCool, and there's no way all the green stuff was drained and flushed out completely before adding the DexCool back in.

No harm in the green stuff, just the long-life ability of the coolant is shot.

[stelte]

If your changing the tranny fluid, make sure to remove the plug (looks like a normal bolt head) after you drop the pan. You'll get another 2-3 quarts out.

[oldsauroraman1]

Steven:

Did you get the fluid change done yet?

[stevensolds]

12:45 today. be done in 1 hour after taht im just gonna drop it off then have my mom come get me and i hop in to the truck and drive home til its done

[scottydl]

Hey steven, if you (or anyone else reading) does end up needing a tranny, make sure you check this thread ... the poster is parting out a 95, which includes a rebuilt tranny with only 1500 miles on it.

[stevensolds]

im not planning on it

[oldsauroraman1]

Ok. So how did the tranny change go and how's the Aurora doing?