I just moved and now I am having transmission trouble. This car has 110,000 miles and still rides great. It has a difficult time going from first to 2nd most of the time. A “friend” says it is the planetary gear most likely and that the whole trans is shot. I called a few shops to get estimate and the best is $1,100 for a rebuilt trans. Is this right, am I screwed? I am 20 and broke as hell. Any chance to fix this myslef?
Yes, this estimate is in line with a transmission rebuild. I can’t tell from here if you actually need such work, but if you do that’s what it costs. Of course, you can continue to drive a very long time bypassing second gear, getting a little extra speed in first and shifting directly to third.
Explain what a “difficult time” is. Does it slip? Does it act like it’s in neutral? Or does it just hold 1st gear? What happens if you start out in manual first gear, then manually the transmission?
If the planetary gearset were failing you would HEAR it. I too would like to know a little more about what it is doing. Does it do it more when it is cold as opposed to when it has warmed up??
transman
The transmission fluid could be to high (overserviced). Did you add any when the transmission was cold? Old Chevy experience in cold weather.
yeah it holds 1st for a while like it is trying and failing to get to 2nd and then finally it gets over the hump. It doesn’t seem to happen at a particular RPM, what I mean is that flooring it doesn’t make it shift faster. Also this is a automatic trans which I gather is a lot harder to mess with.
Yeah I don’t hear it. But even when I have driven to work, a good 25-30 minute city drive it is still doing it. I’m avoiding the interstates in case something really messed up happens.