Chevy Transmissions

playin'hooky7 · 03-16-2006, 07:28 PM

Looking at buying a used chevy but heard they have tranny problems around 100k miles. Does anybody know if there is an truth to this. Any body with that problem?

hot shot · 03-16-2006, 07:34 PM

What year is it? My family has had chevys all my life and no problems. I have a '76 chevy with 230,000 miles and I had to repair my tranny at 150,000 cause I was driving it pretty hard at sandlake. So I haven't heard alot of bad about them.

ICHTHYDEMON · 03-16-2006, 07:40 PM

IMO GM makes the best trannies on the market. Dodge and Ford have far more problems than GM does.

lundprov · 03-16-2006, 09:48 PM

what year chevy? I can tell you what parts will probably go bad on any automatic trans. I have sold automatic transmission parts for 14 years

MattPark · 03-17-2006, 12:53 AM

All other things aside, an automatic transmissions life is directly related to how it was treated.

If they towed a trailer in OD a lot I would run the other way. If it has a transmission temperature gauge and an auxilary cooler, I wouldn't worry.

SlipKnot · 03-17-2006, 06:51 AM

If it's a late model Chevy, I wouldn't worry about the motor or tranmission.

The electrical parts, computers, steering shafts, 4wd actuators, and exhaust system are another story......

playin'hooky7 · 03-18-2006, 03:42 PM

The year is a 1998

ondarvr · 03-19-2006, 09:59 AM

There were some tranny problems in the late 90s, I had one that went through 3 in 36,000 miles. They told me not to pull big trailers, my response was, "it doesn't have a hitch". It was my wife's vehicle.

Hook'm&Book'm · 03-19-2006, 08:47 PM

I have a 98 1/2 ton automatic with 165,000 on it. I use it to tow a 19ft alumaweld and my 4 place snowmobile trailer. The trailer with sleds weighs about #4000. No problems yet(knock on wood).

MattPark · 03-19-2006, 09:45 PM

Quote:

There were some tranny problems in the late 90s, I had one that went through 3 in 36,000 miles

There was another issue that was killing your transmissions.

ICHTHYDEMON · 03-20-2006, 11:03 AM

Quote:

There were some tranny problems in the late 90s, I had one that went through 3 in 36,000 miles. They told me not to pull big trailers, my response was, "it doesn't have a hitch". It was my wife's vehicle.

I had a '98 Z-71 that I used to pull our 6000lb travel trailer for 3 years. The max tow rating was 7200lbs so I was close to maxed out and the tranny never had a bit of trouble. I wasn't like most folks though... I actually did some maintanance on my tranny.

I'm not saying you don't maintain your vehicle,but IMO the tranny is the most overlooked/undermaintained part of a vehicle. As long as a vehicle goes forward or backward,people never think about the tranny.

ondarvr · 03-20-2006, 02:33 PM

Well, the dealer couldn't figure it out and I was told by the mechanics at the dealer that there were problems with some of these trannies. Not sure what kind of mantinance would need to be neglected in less than 30,000 miles that would kill a transmission, the dealer did all of the scheduled work, plus a torque converter failed during that time. This rig had warranty work done on almost every major component, electrical, heating, cooling, fuel system, brakes, tranny, torque converter and gauges, maybe it was made on a monday. We traded it in at 35,500 miles, we couldn't afford to drive it if it wasn't still covered by the warranty, we had loner cars at our house more often than this truck. This was a 97, I drove a 96 at that time and it was used hard, towing large boats and I had no problems. I'm in sales and drive about 50,000 miles a year, they get replaced at 120,000, most of my vehicles have been chevy trucks and for the most part they have been good.

Fish mojo · 03-20-2006, 02:45 PM

Interesting...
I have a mechanic who is pretty sharp and reliable. He has told me the GM automatic transmission is built to fail. He said their hydraulic fluid is unique to GM and has a compound that will eventually attack the friction points, leading to breakdown. He recommends highly that I have my tranny power flushed and replaced with standard ATF.
Am I being duped here to give him more business or has anyone else heard of this??

traks44 · 03-20-2006, 02:48 PM

Chevy has the best automatic trannies of the big three. I had a 2000 chevy with 182,000 miles when I sold it. tranny was still good(I drove that truck into the ground too). My dad has a 2000 chevy with 110,000 and has yet to have any problems(pulled trailer all summer). If you are lookin for a tow vehicle I dont think the 98s had a tow haul mode. The newer bodies from 1999 up have a tow haul mode and it makes towing with a half ton heaven on earth or as close to it as you can get with a 1500.

OB1 · 03-20-2006, 04:04 PM

My 1972 chevy truck was great truck with a good automatic transmission for it's time. I think the weakest link in any truck is the automatic transmission.
I currently have a 99 F350 4X4 crew cab with a deisel and with 125K miles on it has been a great truck, I've owned it since new. I'm not a basher on any brand but all of them had their share of problems, it depends how often you change the transmission fluid in my opinion. I tow a 27ft trailer that weighs 8500 lbs. I think the alison transmission is a big bonus for chevy though.
OB1

fishingls · 03-20-2006, 04:38 PM

This is a classic debate. Opinions tend to come down on personal preference with respondees looking for reasons to support one's beliefs. Currently, in HD 3/4 ton trucks Ford and GM both offer pretty good auto trannies. Ford's prior tanny, the R4100 had problems. Ford's current tranny seems to have a decent track record. GM's marketing of the Allison tranny is alittle skewed. The tranny is a very light duty tranny. It was first introduced for a low cost tranny mated with B series Cummins engines for the RV industry. Track record is good, however from a technical stand point-it compares very well with Ford's counter offering.
Currently, the manual five and six speed trannies used by the big three have the same vendor. The same is true of axles in the HD pick up trucks and some lighter duty pick ups. Difference between brands normally relates to OEM brakes speced for the axle (from what I have seen).

If I have my dream pick-up, it would have a C series Cummins with a real Allison 3060 tranny. I doubt the CEO of the house hold would approve of such a purchase. The CEO would probably put this request into the same category she consideres my wishes to own five boats for different fishing opportunities. Drat the luck.

MattPark · 03-21-2006, 11:18 PM

As far as Dexron being bad fluid, thats BS. As far as the transmissions being built to fail, I'll go along with that to some degree. They love to hunt for gears and unlock the torque converter when towing instead of downshifting into the correct gear and staying there, which creates heat and ultimately the death of your transmission.

Lots of transmissions have used Dexron for a long time. It is the "standard" ATF. It is used in GM autos, Allison autos, Ford 5 speeds, BMW autos, many Japanese autos and many other places. Some Dodge Cummins transmission builders recommend it as a replacement for Dodge specific fluid, it doesn't have the friction modifiers that the Dodge stuff has, clutches theoretically can hold better with it.

fishingls, the manual transmissions in the 3 trucks are not from the same vendor, and neither are the axles.

Dodge now uses a Mercedes built "G56" six speed in their 3/4 and 1 ton pickups. Before that they used New Venture transmissions, the NV4500 and NV5600. 3/4 and 1 ton trucks also came with Dana axles front and rear fron the 80s through 2002. The 2003+ have AAM axles.

Ford uses a ZF 6 speed. The fronts are Dana axles, and most rears are Sterlings but the duallys are Dana 80s.

GM uses a ZF manual transmission, American rear axle, and their own front end setup.