2001 Chevy Suburban shifts fine when cold, but.

Tiny
BOYETTSIX6
  • MEMBER
  • 2001 CHEVROLET SUBURBAN
  • V8
  • 2WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 141,000 MILES
This started saturday. We got home after 30 minutues of driving and my wife stopped for a moment in the driveway. She then put it back in drive and it took HIGH RPM's to barely go forward. No REverse at all. Fluid level fine with no burnt smell or debris of any type present. Tonight I was taking it to GMC dealer and shifted perfect in reverse and drive for about 2 miles then same thing. NOTHING! Is this tranny, electrical or torque converter, etc. THANKS
Sunday, May 10th, 2009 AT 9:38 PM

8 Replies

Tiny
MIKE H R
  • MECHANIC
  • 3,094 POSTS
If the trans has not given you a problem before then it could be that it just needs to be flushed and the filter changed
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Monday, May 11th, 2009 AT 9:11 AM
Tiny
BOYETTSIX6
  • MEMBER
  • 3 POSTS
I'm sceptical of it being just that, the fluid/filter is 40k miles. Speaking in percentages here, what do you think?
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Monday, May 11th, 2009 AT 11:20 AM
Tiny
MIKE H R
  • MECHANIC
  • 3,094 POSTS
With 141,000 on the transmission and 40,000 since the fluid and filter was changed. It is possible unless when you had the filter and fluid changed they flushed the system. Most places will drain the transmission and put a new filter on. There is a difference of flushing the system and just changing the fluid. Sometimes there is still stuff I would call it left inside the transmission itself. You said you were on your way to the gmc dealer. What was his recomendations? There could be other problems but flushing the system is the cheapest and easiest to be done. I had my system flushed on my car at a monroe muffler shop.
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Monday, May 11th, 2009 AT 1:27 PM
Tiny
BOYETTSIX6
  • MEMBER
  • 3 POSTS
The guys at walker gmc say a band is broken or something else is cracked i.E. Need rebuilt tranny. $2100 plus $235 towing bill! Ouch
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Monday, May 11th, 2009 AT 7:48 PM
Tiny
MIKE H R
  • MECHANIC
  • 3,094 POSTS
These days it helps to be able to save some money. I have looked around some and found that summit has a rebuilt th350 transmission for 649.95 and shipping is free, not saying that is the one you need but check around maybe you can find something that won't cost a arm or leg. There are ones on e-bay that are rebuilt for about the same price. It's up to you what you want to do.
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Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 AT 10:28 AM
Tiny
DR LOOT
  • MECHANIC
  • 2,311 POSTS
Excuse the intrusion but I can't help jumping in because the conversation is good.I had the same problem, when my truck was cold the transmission worked perfectly and when it warmed up it would come out of gear, then I noticed my speedometer was not working, right a intermittent problem, and every time I had transmission problems the speedometer quit working, then I realized the computer controls the shifting of the transmission through the speedometer, and if the speedometer fails to work so will the transmission, it's called the speed sensor on the transmission, how is your speedometer working?
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Saturday, May 16th, 2009 AT 4:14 PM
Tiny
MIKE H R
  • MECHANIC
  • 3,094 POSTS
Dr loot, has a good point, how about trying to reset your computer. Has the truck been scanned for transmission errors? Try disconnecting the battery and leaving it off for a couple of minutes, then reconnect it. Most vehicles has tob be driven appox 50 miles before resetting. Ity's something to try before spending $2100.00 for a transmission.
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Sunday, May 17th, 2009 AT 8:58 AM
Tiny
BIGZ
  • MEMBER
  • 21 POSTS
My friends truck had the same problem, he put a bottle of "Lube Gard" in the transmission and the shifting problems went away. Not saying that will help you 100% but its worth a try for 13 dollars at Napa auto parts that's the only place I could find it at. My truck was shifting hard to and I put it in my Chevy suburban and mind shift fine now, its really good stuff.

Hope this help you out.
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Sunday, May 17th, 2009 AT 9:51 AM

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