# 2004 Cadillac Escalade - Trans failure

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/2004-cadillac-escalade-trans-failure/160745>\
**Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\
**Tags:** cadillac\
**Created:** [March 11, 2020, 1:09am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2004-cadillac-escalade-trans-failure/160745 "2020-03-11T01:09:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Cotinna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b782af/32.png) [@Cotinna](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Cotinna)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2020, 1:09am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2004-cadillac-escalade-trans-failure/160745/1 "2020-03-11T01:09:46Z")

</div>

3rd gear started slipping. It has an automatic transmission but I had to drive it as if it had a manual transmission. 1st gear , 2nd, then 3rd. After a bit 2nd started slipping ,then no gears except Reverse. I changed the filter and the trans fluid because it was black. I found very little metal shavings. Put Lucas transmission fix in it now reverse is good, 3rd hesitates then lundges forward, 2nd and 1st really hesitate and sometimes the vehicle will crawl if I accelerate almost to 3000rpms in 1st and 2nd?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Purebred](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/purebred/32/46796_2.png) [@Purebred](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Purebred)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2020, 2:54am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2004-cadillac-escalade-trans-failure/160745/2 "2020-03-11T02:54:32Z")

</div>

You could try another fluid change to see if it might help, but I doubt it. Since the old fluid was Black you probably need to budget for a replacement transmission.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mustangman](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/mustangman/32/44130_2.png) [@Mustangman](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Mustangman)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2020, 8:06pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2004-cadillac-escalade-trans-failure/160745/3 "2020-03-11T20:06:54Z")

</div>

Time for a new transmission.

You didn’t ask that or any question. Just because you ended that last sentence with a question mark, didn’t make it a question.

No amount of fluid changes will fix this.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Cavell](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/cavell/32/43396_2.png) [@Cavell](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Cavell)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2020, 9:27pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2004-cadillac-escalade-trans-failure/160745/4 "2020-03-11T21:27:33Z")

</div>

4l60e? Yep. Clutches tend to fail. Quite modest rebuild prices since so many fail. Big market

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mustangman](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/mustangman/32/44130_2.png) [@Mustangman](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Mustangman)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2020, 9:50pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2004-cadillac-escalade-trans-failure/160745/5 "2020-03-11T21:50:05Z")

</div>

Might just be a 4L80E in a 'Sclade with the 6 liter engine, I thought. Either way, gotta get replaced. I’ve got 140K with some serious heavy towing duty on my 4L60E and it is just fine.