So did I kill the trans in my OCC??

When all the work was done a week ago it included a trans fluid and filter change. (63K miles). Well over the past week I've noticed it felt like the trans was slipping just a little pulling away from a light every so often. I checked the fluid and it looked waay overfull. SO last night I got a cheap hand-pump from Harbour Freight and snaked the hose down the dipstick tube and sucked about a pint out. I STILL read way overfull on the stick, and now it slipped going into reverse and first.

SO I got up this morning and jacked the car up and loosened the bolts on the trans pan...and made a huge mess of myself and the driveway....missed above half my drainpan when it came loose all at once. I let it drain a while, lowered the car, checked the level, still high (?) and let more out. Did it again, now laying in red mess....then re-tightened the pan bolts.

Now the fluid level is perfect on the dipstick....but I have no gears. Shifting it through the gears does nothing at all. I did start the car and let it warm up, checked the level, and it's perfect, but no gears....?

I'm frustrated and boggled....any ideas? Do I dump all that fluid back in there and see if it will go into gear again, despite the high reading?

Little help??

-Mike

I'm not a trans guy, but to me it sounds like you may have some sort of blockage in there. I'm assuming the dipstick goes down into the pan? If you let it all out it can't possibly be full.
I'm sure others with more knowledge will chime in.

I've had over the years several mechanic type people say, never change the trans fluid/filter as sometimes, the whole thing will go shortly after. I hope that is not what has happened here.

First of all are you checking the tranny full and warmed up? How many quarts did you add when you changed the fluid?

It will measure very high if you are checking it not running. So if you drained it to read perfect cold and not running will will not have enough fluid to make it go into gear.

I would start from scratch and drain the fluid.

Check the filter to be sure it is up in the orifice/seal properly.

Find out the proper re-fill capacity (5 quarts maybe) then start the car. With your foot on the brake run through the gears stopping at each one for a few seconds. Put it back in park and check the fluid level.

Top it off. Warm it up by driving a few miles and check/fill again.

Sprocket wrote:

I've had over the years several mechanic type people say, never change the trans fluid/filter as sometimes, the whole thing will go shortly after. I hope that is not what has happened here.

jeez really? i did the filter on my '92 wagon back in may when it had over 400k km on it. not because i was having transmission problems, i just figured it should be done. a month and a half or so later my transmission went. ended up being the governor but the 3-4 clutch packs were replaced too. i really hope this isn't the case for yours. especially since yours has waaay less miles then mine.

Does the level on the stick change if you check it with the engine off and then check again with it running? If the level doesn't move then the pump probably went out.

Ok so sorry for not posting a reply sooner. As you can guess I was somewhat upset yesterday. I called my Dad for advice and he tore me a new one over selling my reliable-as-the-sun Roadmaster and replacing it with this new "POS Oldsmobile that has something wrong with it every other day...". Thanks Dad.

Anyway I had promised to take the kids to the Trail of Lights down in Austin last night, and did not want to mess with the Olds anymore. I pushed the car up the driveway, cleaned all the trans fluid I spilled, and then cleaned myself up, and sucked up my repair-guy pride and called my buddy Truong.

Truong told me to dump all the fluid I got in the drainpan back in the transmission and see if I had gears again. Oh and to answer the above questions, yes the car was on level ground, yes it was running and warm when I checked it and yes I was checking the trans and not the oil. I've done trans services on all my cars over the years...it's a mess, but I've never lost a trans doing one. I have heard it's a bad idea to do one of those flush jobs, but that changing the filter and fluid in the pan every 50K miles is a good idea.

ANYWAY I go the funnel out and emptied the drainpan of fluid back into the dipstick tube. Checked the level...WAY high again, but the car would now fall right into Drive and would also go into reverse after a second or so.

I called Truong back and he said his best guess was the new transmission filter did not get seated firmly and had fallen down into the pan itself. He told me to drop the pan again....at this point it was 4pm and I needed to get ready to take the kids downtown.

SO he said if I could drive the car to his shop he'd drop the pan for me on his lift and see what he could see. I called my Dad and he followed me to the shop and loaned me the Suburban to take the kids to the lights.

On the drive to the shop the car shifted through all the gears but if I pressed too hard on the gas it slipped in 1st and 2nd gears. I barely touched the gas pedal and made it with no issues.

SO now I'm waiting on a phone call from Truong. I sure hope it's good news. If this wagon needs a new transmission I'm going to pass out.

Thanks for the comments and ideas gang.

-Mike

Sprocket wrote:

I've had over the years several mechanic type people say, never change the trans fluid/filter as sometimes, the whole thing will go shortly after. I hope that is not what has happened here.

I have had that happen. This might shed some light on this:
http://www.impalassforum.com/vBulletin/showthread.php?t=252894

I hope everything works out on yours, Mike. I know it can be frustrating when it seems like you are fixing one problem behind another.

Jon

A common error with the 700-R4 & 200-4R filter changes is to mistakenly leave the old filter seal up in the pump bore when installing the new filter. With them double stacked, you won't get the filter properly seated.

NO FILTER IN THE PAN...OR IN THE TRANS FOR THAT MATTER....

No joke.

Truong let his apprentice Sam from the tech school do the tune up and trans service. If you remember when I first got it back it quickly developed a miss that turned out to be a cracked spark plug...well now it turns out I've been driving a week with no filter in the transmission....

At least Troung was honest when he called me. Said he took the pan off and could not believe it.

New fluid and filter are being installed by Truong right now. I hope it's ok. You will know soon after I do.

See what lazyness gets you...I should have just done all this myself, but he offered to do it nearly free as a "learning experience" for Sam......turned out to be a learning experience for me....

Whoa.

-Mike

I think Sam needs to repeat the year.

Tom

Fixed. Truong says it shifts fine now. Jeez.

Going to pick it up after work. Hopefully it's really done this time.

-Mike

Geez. That's exactly why I try to do all my own work!

Hope it's all set!

Wow! I'm surprised it worked as good as it did without a filter.

Glad to see you got it solved. I hate when others work on my car. Be sure get it in writing what they did and did not do so if the tranny craps out 3 months from now THEY pay to rebuild it.

toomanytoyz wrote:

Geez. That's exactly why I try to do all my own work!

Ding Ding Ding.

I had some work done by one of my friends from High school, family owned shop, known him for years. Had the new guy put the rad back in and the dummy forgot to tighten the bottom hose. Luckily, I saw the temp go sky high while I was on the interstate and got off quick. put the hose back on the rad and filled it up with a garden hose and on my way.

Can't be too careful out there.

Glad to hear it's in good shape

Hope everything is fine Mike but if its not you get a free trans for all this frustration!

Glad it wasn't an actual failure.

94X2 wrote:

Sprocket wrote:

I've had over the years several mechanic type people say, never change the trans fluid/filter as sometimes, the whole thing will go shortly after. I hope that is not what has happened here.

I have had that happen. This might shed some light on this:
http://www.impalassforum.com/vBulletin/showthread.php?t=252894

I hope everything works out on yours, Mike. I know it can be frustrating when it seems like you are fixing one problem behind another.

Jon

Thanks Jon. Makes sense.

The only reason it worked is that it was overfilled.

Hi all. Car is home, picked it up last night. Knock-on-wood it seems fine. I drove it about 20-miles yesterday afternoon and then stopped and checked the fluid. It's spotless red and right on the mark where it should be.

I'm putting the X-Cargo up on the roof rack, and my wife, 5-kids and 100-pound Labrador plus luggage and gifts are headed to Dallas for weekend. That will for sure be the test!

Never a dull moment!

In other news, the replacement stereo came in and I installed it last night. Works perfect. Small steps!

-Mike

silverfox103 wrote:

I think Sam needs to repeat the year.

Tom

^this