That’s not the best solution for cold climates. The “cooler” is really a temperature “regulator”. It uses the engine coolant to warm up the trans faster on those cold days…
We have lots of trucks with 4L60E and 4R70W transmissions in our fleet
They’re not dropping like flies, so neither of them are “the worst transmission ever” IMO
The only problem I’ve heard about the 4L60E is that it isn’t overly difficult to mess up and install the wrong filter, b/c there are several filters available, but only one fits correctly, something like that. The specific comment as I recall was that it wasn’t uncommon for a shop to discover a customer’s 4L60E had the wrong filter installed when they opened it up for diagnosis, and that was causing drivability symptoms.
I agree that may or may not have been why there was such a issue with this trans. but you would hope that a certified G.M. tech,-mech,-wouild have cleaned the cooler right off the start?
Yes, a decent mechanic (GM certs or not…) should have cleaned the cooler at the start.
Just curious, what does the 4L60E nomenclature mean? Like a Ford C4 means it was designed in 1964 I think. C6, 1966. Is there a similar meaning to the numbers and letters 4L60E?
4 forward gear ratios
Longitudinal applications . . . transverse applications get a T, instead
60 is a number that’s SOMEWHAT indicative of the torque the transmission can handle. But it’s usefulness is limited. However, a 4L80E can handle more torque, it’s got a larger case, and is generally meant for larger engines. I hope you can see where I’m going with this
E means full electronic controls
I don’t think the year of origin has anything to do with the nomenclature
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2009 was a long time ago… 
Thanks @db4690 , good explanation of the meaning of “4L60E”
This is definitely by a longshot the worst transmission I’ve ever owned. I should have stopped buying vehicles with this transmission a long time ago because I’ve now owned 4 with the 4l60e and they’ve ALL failed on me. Usually I’ve just sold them once it happens but this time I rebuilt it. So far it’s good. We’ll see but I can pretty much guarantee that at roughly 125k miles from this rebuild it will fail again. The reason why I’ve still bought them is because generally these vehicles are really easy to work on and parts are cheap as far as everything but the the transmission. GM knows these transmissions fail at very low and regular intervals and they refuse to change it. They make a ton of money on replacement transmissions and rebuild kits. That’s why and people will continue to buy them despite the subpar transmissions because they know that their vehicles are easy to work on and cheap. That’s why I’ve owned a few. I’m not happy with it each time it happens but I know it’s going to happen. This time I was smart and just budgeted a transmission rebuild with the cost of the vehicle. Sure enough 128k miles on the suburban and the transmission failed. To me I still think this is incredibly dishonest, sloppy, careless, and greedy of a company to do this. No wonder they had to have a bail out from the tax payers.
What sort of maintenance did you do on your transmissions before they failed?
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I agree with jtsanders about knowing what, if any transmission maintenance was done to any of those 4 vehicles you’ve owned.
My gut feeling is that you have never had a fluid change on any of them.
For what it’s worth, a good friend of mine 60ish years old has spent 40+ years in the transmission rebuilding field in his shop.
He has told me that in those 40 years almost (key word…) every transmission failure he has seen was due to not changing the fluid or running the transmission fluid low due to an overlooked or ignored external leakwith some damaged by coolant entering the transmission from a leaky fluid cooler.
So how often do you service your transmissions?
the common issue i hear is the 3-4 clutch packs fail and slip and burn up. i assume truck spends 75% of it life cruising in 3-4 gear so maybe that is something. hiway driving is 90% 4th gear usually? unless you tow?
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Must be why my 4L60E is still going strong at 132,000 miles!
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Very true. The 4L60E in my son’s Camaro just hit a quarter of a million miles and shifts like it’s brand new and the one in my Sonoma also shifts like new at a 130k miles.
Kind of reminds me of the person who posted on this forum some years ago with a Volvo with a transmission that died at 160k miles. They insisted Volvo transmissions were junk, Volvo is a bunch of low lifes for not providing a warranty at 160k miles and so on. They finally admitted the trans had never been serviced but still blamed Volvo.
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Ah, back to 2009. I have come to trust what Transman has to say about transmissions. Nice to see his comment way back 9 years ago. No offense to you other guys that offer expert advice, but Transman usually nails it with specific detail. Yeah change fluid and if trailer towing, stay out of overdrive.
Friends daughters ford focus powershift is on it’s 5th clutch, 65k miles, all warranty replacements. Just normal driving,
Owners of these vehicles can often be on their second, third… even fourth transmission after only 3-4 years of ownership.
http://www.fordtransmissionproblems.com/fords-transmission-problem/
Holy thread resurrection Batman!
That ‘96 S10 turned out to be the last GM vehicle I’ve owned to date. Since then I’ve had a 2000 Crown Vic (retired police cruiser) and a 2005 Grand Marquis, no transmission issues with either one. So far I like the 4R70W better. 
Gee you are still around? @budd2049 Without reading 9 years of comments, did you ever answer what maintenance you did? Just checking my book and I’ve got about 5000 miles to go for my 30,000 mile transmission drain on my GM.
Don’t forget to refill 