# New Transmission @ 63,000 Miles



## IndyDiesel (May 24, 2015)

Did you change the fluid prior to your problems? Crazy to even mention the scangauge.


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## cruze01 (Mar 25, 2011)

plasticplant said:


> As some of you may have read in previous threads I have posted in, I was having some trouble with my transmission (For the last few months now I've noticed that once the car is up to op.temp. Whenever I'm at a light, etc. and the car shifts into neutral (automaticmode), I get a HUGE delay shifting back into first gear. The car will almost felt like it's stalled and then boom, it will slam into gear. I cringe at whatit's doing to my trans.) Many of you pointed to the possibility of poor quality/old transmission fluid which might need to be changed. As much as I wanted that to be the issue, my sixth, or maybe even seventh sense was telling me it had to be something more "difficult". I finally had had enough of it and took it into the dealer to have to looked at. Right away they wanted to blame my Scan Gauge II as the cause of the issue (as they always seem to do). After they test drove the car with the gauge plugged in and disconnected and the condition still persisted, they agreed to call the mothership. I was not involved in these talks, but it looks like the dealership was advised to install a brand new transmission. I have not seen any paperwork since I dropped the car off on Wednesday, so I'm not sure what the actual diagnosis was. I was actually pretty shocked that they didn't try and at least change the fluid and see if that solved the issue. It must have been "bad" enough for them to not even want to try and save it. I should have the car back in my hands Monday, or Tuesday, so I'll be sure to report back on what the issue was (if the paperwork is complete enough).


Every now and then they will come through for you! Mine was acting very similar to this but not near as dramatic as you have described, they rebuilt it. Said there was an issue with the clutches.


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## plasticplant (Mar 26, 2013)

IndyDiesel said:


> Did you change the fluid prior to your problems? Crazy to even mention the scangauge.


No. I had mentioned to the dealership on several occasions that I was interested in a fluid change, but they never seemed too interested in doing it.


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

plasticplant said:


> No. I had mentioned to the dealership on several occasions that I was interested in a fluid change, but they never seemed too interested in doing it.


They weren't interested in lightening your wallet. I'm speechless. :grin:


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## IndyDiesel (May 24, 2015)

Oh well be thankful it is covered under warranty, if it were a 16 with 63k miles, you would be outside the original drive train warranty.


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## plasticplant (Mar 26, 2013)

obermd said:


> They weren't interested in lightening your wallet. I'm speechless. :grin:


Ha! I was surprised too. Maybe because I was going to bring in my own AMSoil fluid and just use them for labor.


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## diesel (Jun 8, 2013)

plasticplant said:


> As some of you may have read in previous threads I have posted in, I was having some trouble with my transmission (For the last few months now I've noticed that once the car is up to op.temp. Whenever I'm at a light, etc. and the car shifts into neutral (automaticmode), I get a HUGE delay shifting back into first gear. The car will almost feel like it's stalled and then boom, it will slam into gear. I cringe at whatit's doing to my trans.) Many of you pointed to the possibility of poor quality/old transmission fluid which might need to be changed. As much as I wanted that to be the issue, my sixth, or maybe even seventh sense was telling me it had to be something more "difficult". I finally had had enough of it and took it into the dealer to have it looked at. Right away they wanted to blame my Scan Gauge II as the cause of the issue (as they always seem to do). After they test drove the car with the gauge plugged in and disconnected and the condition still persisted, they agreed to call the mothership. I was not involved in these talks, but it looks like the dealership was advised to install a brand new transmission. I have not seen any paperwork since I dropped the car off on Wednesday, so I'm not sure what the actual diagnosis was. I was actually pretty shocked that they didn't try and at least change the fluid and see if that solved the issue. It must have been "bad" enough for them to not even want to try and save it. I should have the car back in my hands Monday, or Tuesday, so I'll be sure to report back on what the issue was (if the paperwork is complete enough).


As you probably know being a long time forum member, you are the first documented case here of transmission failure. At least it's not a common thing, and more importantly, you were covered under warranty. I am glad to hear that! Would be interesting to see exactly what the root cause was, if you can get that out of them.



cruze01 said:


> Every now and then they will come through for you! Mine was acting very similar to this but not near as dramatic as you have described, they rebuilt it. Said there was an issue with the clutches.


Diesel?


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## boraz (Aug 29, 2013)

diesel said:


> Diesel?


clearly lt1 rs


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

Plasticplant's signature block specifies CTD. It appears to be one of the first sold as he took delivery in August 2013.


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## diesel (Jun 8, 2013)

boraz said:


> clearly lt1 rs


You know I'm a big fan of gassers posting about their cars in the diesel section.


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## plasticplant (Mar 26, 2013)

Got the car back last night and everything seems to be working well. I'm not even sure if the transmission was this smooth when I bought it new. Anyway, I'm at work so I'm having trouble uploading my work order notes, but basically this is what they did: Replaced the transaxle (fluid, gaskets and a pipe). They also looked for bulletins and software updates, but found none. They also replaced leaking trans oil cooler lines (that explains the high trans fluid temps I was getting as of late 230F+), flushed cooler, programmed TCM and set front toe to spec. After a quick look through GM parts direct, with parts and labor (the transaxle being $2800 alone) if I was out of warranty and on the hook for these issues, I estimate my wallet would be close to 5 grand lighter. When it was all said and done, they had my car for about 10 days (including the diagnostic stage before they ordered any parts) and the folks at Symdon Chevrolet in Evansville, WI were pretty great throughout the entire process. Lastly, there was still no official "smoking gun" as to what caused the issue. The paperwork just states that they were told to "replace transmission"; nothing further as to why.


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## diesel (Jun 8, 2013)

plasticplant said:


> Got the car back last night and everything seems to be working well. I'm not even sure if the transmission was this smooth when I bought it new. Anyway, I'm at work so I'm having trouble uploading my work order notes, but basically this is what they did: Replaced the transaxle (fluid, gaskets and a pipe). They also looked for bulletins and software updates, but found none. They also replaced leaking trans oil cooler lines (that explains the high trans fluid temps I was getting as of late 230F+), flushed cooler, programmed TCM and set front toe to spec. After a quick look through GM parts direct, with parts and labor (the transaxle being $2800 alone) if I was out of warranty and on the hook for these issues, I estimate my wallet would be close to 5 grand lighter. When it was all said and done, they had my car for about 10 days (including the diagnostic stage before they ordered any parts) and the folks at Symdon Chevrolet in Evansville, WI were pretty great throughout the entire process. Lastly, there was still no official "smoking gun" as to what caused the issue. The paperwork just states that they were told to "replace transmission"; nothing further as to why.


Thanks for the update! I am glad to hear that you are back on the road again, with your wallet as heavy as it was before.  Any possibility that the fluid leak could have caused a low fluid condition leading to the damage?


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## plasticplant (Mar 26, 2013)

diesel said:


> Thanks for the update! I am glad to hear that you are back on the road again, with your wallet as heavy as it was before.  Any possibility that the fluid leak could have caused a low fluid condition leading to the damage?


It's entirely possible. If that was the root cause, I'm sure I'll never know about it. I'm just glad to have it fixed. Hopefully I'm out of the shop for a long while now.


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

IndyDiesel said:


> Crazy to even mention the scangauge.


I don't blame them for wanting to make sure there problem was still there with it disconnected. An ill-behaved device could cause no end of trouble with the car. The dealer doesn't want to risk chasing his tail over that.


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## CruzeDan (May 17, 2015)

It would be unlikely than any of us would ever get their transmissions opened up in a dealer. Our transmissions are not GM transmissions so they are almost always replaced instead of serviced.


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## IndyDiesel (May 24, 2015)

ChevyGuy said:


> I don't blame them for wanting to make sure there problem was still there with it disconnected. An ill-behaved device could cause no end of trouble with the car. The dealer doesn't want to risk chasing his tail over that.


I have no issue with disconnecting and making sure the device isn't the source of issues. I just have issues when dealers blow excuses before testing. Part of it is a manufacture issue, I would have no reason to buy a scan gauge if they just gave me some indication of a regen was in process. Only reason I purchased it.


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