Adelaide based car with a dead transmission near Melbourne - Options?

[J_D 2.0]

I think the TC itself fails in them and then the shards grenade the gearbox?

From what I’ve read yes, that seems to be a common failure mode.

Saving 0.001 litres per 100kms by having a lock up torque converter is sooo worth the $5-6k repair bill when the torque converter clutch inevitably wears out and grenades the gearbox!

 

[Skylarking]

4L60e or 5l40e? 4L60e was about $1,400-$1500 to overhaul about 3-4 years ago.

Sorry, brain fart… Meant 5L60E, updated my post.

 

[Anthony .]

From what I’ve read yes, that seems to be a common failure mode.

Saving 0.001 litres per 100kms by having a lock up torque converter is sooo worth the $5-6k repair bill when the torque converter clutch inevitably wears out and grenades the gearbox!

When you say lockup are you talking how when letting off the gas when going down a hill, the car feels like there is resistance (kind of like as if you are braking)?

It is a pity they use this style converter as really the 5 speeds feel pretty good to drive. Certainly feel better than the 4l60e in that regard. Enough gears to get moving fine, and not too many to be constantly kicking down like some newer cars (think VW DSG, etc).

Yep, those mostly unnoticeable fuel savings are very much worth it when the car drops all gears randomly… not

 

[J_D 2.0]

The torque converter has a clutch in it that locks the torque converter when the car is going above about 70kph to reduce fuel consumption on the freeway.

Realistically the torque converter probably should be a service item on modern automatic vehicles as the clutch in it is guaranteed to wear out over time.

I’d probably estimate that it should be changed out at around 200k kilometres. I’m pretty sure the torque converter clutch killed the transmission in my SV6.

When it started misbehaving I changed the fluid and it was full of glitter and it had about 280k kilometres on it at that point. If I would have known about that failure mode beforehand I would have preemptively changed the torque converter.

Edit: Take a shot every time I say torque converter!

 

[Skylarking]

From what I’ve read yes, that seems to be a common failure mode.

Saving 0.001 litres per 100kms by having a lock up torque converter is sooo worth the $5-6k repair bill when the torque converter clutch inevitably wears out and grenades the gearbox!

From what I’ve seen on YouTube, the wealth of all true knowledge , it’s a know issue with some GM OEM TC’s as they are made cheaply with welded tabs and the deformities that result from welding being the root cause of the clutch wear problems,

In the real world, supposedly there are aftermarket TC that resolve this issue but may be some some shops just stay with same faulty TC design if they even replace it to keep costs down.

If a shop rebuilds the trans, any trans, and keeps the old TC, that’s just asking for failure… really, TC and fluid/air cooler should always be replaced and lines flushed after a transmission failure but it’s not always done to keep rebuild costs down… and it’s rather neglectful … and it may be that which results in subsequent failure and not the trans rebuild itself or the 5L60E itself…

But I don’t really know as I’ve alway had manuals expect for my two current cars (daily = POS which I don’t care about and the garage queen = 6L80E MSE commodore) and never had to rebuild an auto

 

[Lex]

5L60E

Its a 5L40e.

 

[J_D 2.0]

Its a 5L40e.

Calling it a 5L60E is giving it far too much credit for what it is!

 

[carcollector]

Thanks all for your suggestions, comments and interest - it is appreciated. A "mid term update". I'll try to answer people's queries as I go.

Luckily we had friends in Melbourne where we could get the car towed to until we could work out what to do. 50 Km of towing From Ballan to west Melbourne via the RAA (RACV) cost us over $400 - hmmmm. There is more to that, but not to be posted publicly. We are Plus members, not Premium. I couldn't justify Premium, as even though it's only $5 a month more, that is times three (soon to be four) for a family membership, I've been a member for many many years, and I've had to call them three times in that period. Each time, they couldn't fix it (including a red motor fan belt), so I did.

We have decided to get the transmission rebuilt instead of dropping in a second hand trans. The box that was in the car (the one that is now dead) was a second hand unit, as about four years ago the radiator lower tank cracked internally and leaked engine coolant into the trans fluid cooler, which obviously then got into the trans and killed it. Back then, we found a low km 5L40E trans at a wreckers and had that fitted, as at the time a full trans rebuild was about three times the cost of buying and fitting a second hand unit. Thinking positively, that trans lasted four years and a fair few km.

Yep, a reconditioned trans is still not cheap (we tried a few places, and prices ranged from $4k to $6k). We picked a place that was fairly close to where the car was and had a lot of good feedback, and that is where it is now. Initial diagnosis is the usual 5L40E one - torque converter destroyed itself, and spat metal into the rest of the box to destroy everything else.

Is the car worth repairing - to us, yes. A mix of sentimental value, recent work (new brakes, new suspension, and we know its history), vs you don't really know what you are buying with another second hand car. This was our family car, and is now our daughter's, so it needs to be reliable. Oh, there is the fact that we are in Adelaide, and it is in Melbourne too. Makes things complicated. It is a Caprice as well, and they are still holding their value reasonably.

We used Fast Track Towing to get the car from where it was stored in Melbourne to the auto trans place (we didn't go through RAA/RACV for that second tow). They provided a very good service, and were happy to help out with anything else that we needed. a big thumbs up to them.

I'll post an update when the car is fixed. Repairs might take a week or so.

 

[losh1971]

At the end of the day, it's sometimes better the Devil you know than the one you don't. Cars are money pits anyway and for $6k you will be lucky to find anything as nice as what you have now. To sell it with a dead trans, I think you would have come off feeling pretty deflated. I think you have made a decent decision.

 

[Anthony .]

What is the difference between a reconditioned vs rebuilt transmission? Do they mean the same thing?
I’d also suggest servicing the transmission more often now that it is rebuilt