VE transmission slipping

[johnonetrillion]

Does it do it when you manually change gears? Assuming it has the ability to go through the gears manually?

Good question. I tested this yesterday. It shifted manually with no problem.

 

[Subju]

a

 

[greenacc]

Strange that it has supposedly had a transmission service yet the other shop is saying the fluid is dark.
Wonder what the first shop actually did!??

 

[johnonetrillion]

Then it sounds like an electronic problem. Try changing it manually for a week and see if it does it again and if it doesn't, its not a clutch problem (From what I understand, they basically have a clutch between in each gear in a automatic) which means it shouldn't have to be reconditioned.

Trans shops make their money from reconditioning, personally I would just treat the car as a manual from now on and drive it till it dies and then I would buy a second hand transmission.

In the meantime, keep an eye out for a second hand transmission on Gumtree and when you see one for the right price, buy it and stick it in your shed.

In saying that, I'm not a mechanic and am a tight arse so I normally drive things till they die and then just replace them as they die.

I never use the manual shift, so it was quite lucky that I thought to test it. Yes, I'll try the manual shift for a week and see what happens.

 

[johnonetrillion]

Strange that it has supposedly had a transmission service yet the other shop is saying the fluid is dark.
Wonder what the first shop actually did!??

Apparently when the ATF is changed a good deal of it remains in the unit ... so it ends up looking dirty again shortly after change even though 80% of it is new. Of course, it's hard to check on the road given this is a sealed unit – no dip stick.

 

[greenacc]

Yes that is true, it's not possible to get all the old fluid out and replace with new. Sometimes it is worth doing a second fluid change for that reason. It must still have a lot of crud in it, or that shop did a rush job ...

 

[Fu Manchu]

Or, they never changed it in the first place and charged you for it.

 

[Fu Manchu]

Also, this started happening to ours until one day no engagement of anything that drives the gears.

$3600 by Wanneroo Transmissions. Still like a slug going from Park or Neutral into drive. Converter constantly locks and unlocks.
They took a look and said it was fine and life went on.

 

[greenacc]

$3600 by Wanneroo Transmissions. Still like a slug going from Park or Neutral into drive. Converter constantly locks and unlocks.
They took a look and said it was fine and life went on.

This is why I happily bought a VE with the old 4speed auto. I can buy a brand new trans for less than that!

 

[Skylarking]

Yes that is true, it's not possible to get all the old fluid out and replace with new. Sometimes it is worth doing a second fluid change for that reason. It must still have a lot of crud in it, or that shop did a rush job ...

A cheap trans service will either suck or drain the old fluid out of the pan and simply top up with new fluid. A slighlty better approach will see the pan dropped and cleaned along with the filter changed before it's reassembled and top up with clean fluid. In eitehr case it will only result in about 1/3 of the total fluid volume being replaced.

A better trans service could simply be the shop inserting a tube into the trans filler pipe and sucking out old fluid and then pump in new fluid before starting the engine and then repeating this process a couple of times using a fancy machine. Unfortunately the pan isn't removed and cleaned and the filter isn't replaced and such places state it's OK as that is all that is required... Ah, no...

In my mind, a better approach is to drop the pan, clean it and the magnet, replace the filter and reassemble before topping up with new fluid. Then disconnecting the trans cooler lines having the trans outlet side go into a big measured bucket and the trans inlet side connected to a fill tube. The car is started where the old fluid starts to be pumped out into the bucket while new fluid is poured into the transmission at a similar rate and volume to what is coming out. Usually at home this is easier done by starting and stopping the engine after around a pan's worth of fluid comes out, then fill up with that volume which was pumped out. Not sure if there is a fancy machine that can manage the above at a trans service place as i've only seen the older dipstick type machines.

Sadly many car brands state that the auto is filled for life and don't recommend trans flushes... Year, right

Gone are the days where good trans shops would check band pressure and such during their quality full flush service... Now it seems to be don't touch it till it breaks and then buy another reco'd transmission...