pull out your crystal balls

[Wheels]

I've got a 99 TA with abot 55000 miles on it, and it's doing what many of you have said is a sign of impending transmission doom bouncing off the limiter when it's pushed.

It doesn't do it often maybe once every 4rth or 5th time I really pound on it, but it's there.

I've got a road trip for the car planned this summer in July, a long one, out to the coast and back, 1500-2000 miles.

Those of you who've had trannies pile up with this as the precursor what do you think? Should it get a new tranny before the trip or will it hold out if it's not being beaten on? I don't go to the strip, I don't bo burnouts, I just drive the car, and occasionally teach a kid that no matter how many stickers are on his civic there's only 4 cylinders under the hood.

[Y2KPewterSS]

I would really really suck if you got across the coast and the tranny took a crap 2k miles away from home. I would get it rebuilt before a cross country trip.

[Jumper]

My stock trans did that a couple of times, and I just added some fluid and it stopped. I dont know if that will correct your problem or not.

[99formulals1]

dont risk being broke down that far from home, that will cause a lot of headache.

[Wheels]

Thanks for the reply's guys. How about someone who's actually had this happen and then had the tranny fail later though?

I just bought the car last fall, in fact it hasn't even come due for an oil change yet, shrug, I'm just reluctant to sink another couple thousand into a car I've had essentially no use off, especially when I think about the low milage and impeccable shape that the rest of the car is in.

I might just be being tight I guess, but I really don't feel like shelling out for a new/rebuilt when it drives so nicely under any other conditions.

[sreve]

i had the same problem when i started this thread in oct of last year

http://www.ls1.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65875

it got worse. i pulled it for a build. the band was roasted, sun shell almost completly striped, sprag was toast. i was a holeshot or two from walking or pushing.
there are better hard parts than OEM for the weak links.
wish i had better news.

[silverz28camaro]

don't risk it, but when you do get a rebuild upgrade all parts, and get a 2800 stall, on your 1500 mile trip the stall will not hurt your mpg, my car gets 23 mpg with stall, 3.73 and full bolt-ons

[Wheels]

Thanks for the posts guys, I'm playing wait and see for the moment.

Since my last post in this thread I've discovered tha while installing the air filter a previous owner managed to pull the air piping off the lid and the car was running with no air filtration. When we pulled it apart I found all kinds of crap in the MAF screen and can't help but think that the sensors were dirty too. I bought some cleaner and sprayed them down repeatedly and SO FAR the car has not done it since, so I'm hoping this is all it was. I've read elsewhere that a dirty MAF can do some pretty weird things.

[JoshieDoom]

Thats true. My egr stuck closed, dirty maf, bad TPS sensor. They all caused my converter to lock and unlock randomly.


nice usage of doom btw.. :)

[silverz28camaro]

i found that same clamp loose on my car and my girlfriends car, just get anslp air lid and you won't have the boot there to slid off.

[Wheels]

Just an update. The transmission began acting up again so I took i down to the local tranny shop. The couldn't get any codes out of it and reccomended I take it to GM. They might as well have recommended I buy a quart of vasaline and practice putting my head between my knees.

I called a local performance shop (AFI performance for anyone from alberta who might read this) and they made time to pull the program off it and see wht was what. Turns out that the same asshammer who ensured the car would run without an air filter also set the rev limiter to 5000rpm and the WOT shift point to 6200 rpm. not hard to see why it wouldn't shift is it? The owner of the shop corrected the problem, NO CHARGE, then offered me a beer.

Pretty sweet deal if you ask me, saves me the 2000+ that the dealership probably would have asked for for a tranny rebuild, charges me nothing, then buys me a drink.

[silverz28camaro]

cool, now you should buy them a 24 pack for their honesty. Cool the hear that there are still good shops out there.

[JoshieDoom]

Well done.. AssHammer is now added to my vocabulary :)

[Wheels]

yeah it rolls of the tongue nicely, doesn't it?

[JoshieDoom]

I used it today. A machine broke down causing us to do nothing all day.. so I asked who was the AssHammer who broke it.. :)