Road Trip Disaster? -- Tranny

[TooFarPast]

Automatic Tranny. 2g. (140,000mi, tranny rebuilt at 130,000mi, warranty's up).

I made it fine, 1700 miles across the continental United States from New York to Denver, Colorado. As soon as I got off the main highway (I-76), I started hearing a noise and my tranny started acting weird.

It started making a weird noise (like, as if I had a rock stuck in my tire, so everytime it rotated you heard it, that sort of sound, cept I think it's from the tranny). It only makes the noise when in drive, and when I take it out of drive into neutral (which now it does pretty hard), it stops.

I also noticed that if I'm coasting to a stop and I put it in neutral, as soon as I come to a stop, I feel sort of a "kaplunk"and feels like my tranny drops.

I think it might of been keeping the cruise control on going through Nebraska (because I went about 200 miles without stopping) while going up hills it started to downshift hard but I didn't notice the sound before?

So my take right now is either A) it's just REALLY HOT, so it's not working right or B) I messed something up.

because it slips randomly when going through 1 2 and 3 and sometimes it's completely fine, sometimes it'll hold out the RPMs longer then shift.

I'm too tired at the moment, but I stopped at Walmart and got some tranny fluid and tranny treatment stuff and put some in, I'm hoping that helped relubricated everything. If it doesn't go away :-/ then blah.

Any ideas though? Torque converter? anything?

Thanks.

Edit: When I drove it, the temperature outside was extremely hot, and going on a trip, I just assumed that it cause way too hot outside and probably did something to the tranny. Maybe the fluid is old and useless now since maybe it was so hot? Should I drain that and replace it with new tranny fluid? Thanks.

 

[toybreaker]

Been there, got the dirty t-shirt to prove it...

Shoot me a pm with your phone number, I'm just up the road aways.

I have tools, and I would be happy to help in any way I can.

My wife and I fragged the pumpkin in our 92tsi on a cannonball run back east the day before christmas in the mountains west of pa...By the time it was time to come back, it was like a mix-master, got to build it in the farmland of ohio...not fun.. but funny now. Abused a gm dealer in a one horse town for the use of a press...it was fugly..

We got thru it with the help of a few good people ,

Please let me know if you need anything.

John

 

[TooFarPast]

Alright sweetness has occured.

John and I looked at the issue with help from a buddy, and pretty much determined it's something internal with the tranny (who knows what).

The car now shifts fine about 85% of the time, but still makes that awful noise from the front passenger hub area. Might be coming from the drive shaft.

I believe what John noticed when we took it around the parking lot and down the street is that it only changes with road speed, and it's a load bearing noise. You can hear it in neutral but it's very faint. When in drive you can hear it, but mostly when you're on the gas, otherwise letting it coast along, it's faint too.

Going to drop the tranny pan and find what we can see.

 

[TooFarPast]

Update: Went to a tranny shop and they diagnosed the issue as a possible bad bearing inside my differential. They said it may cause upwards of $1,500, which would be really costly. But odd considering I paid less to have my tranny rebuilt at like 130,000. Hmm, but anyways. that's how the situation's looking right now.

I hate this because I'm at a crossroads right now.

The motor's been really good to me, kept the oil changed every 2,500, I had the front end completely done (control arms, balljoints etc), brake discs, rotors, shoes. It just seems like the only thing that's going bad right now is the tranny.

I dont know whether to keep the car because that's the only thing that's wrong as a lot of stuff is new or sell it and get a car worth $2,000.

Anyone have suggestions? Keep it and pay the $1,500 roughly or pay the $2,000 and get another car?

 

[toybreaker]

Ouch!!!!

That estimate hurts a bit, considering you just had the thing "rebuilt"

I was a little afraid that's where we were going to end up, judging from our test lap around the town.

It sure did sound like a final drive/dif carrier bearing noise when we were trying to narrow it down. Varied under load, changed with road speed, and still made it with either wheel stopped. I've never had a fwd dsm automatic torn down that far, so I don't know how it's arranged inside. Whatever it is, it's after the planetary, (same noise/all gears/neutral with a varying engine rpm, and coasting) and before the axles, (because we could stop either wheel and still hear it) and inside the tranny, (although I wasn't ready to risk life and limb to go under a poorly supported car to verify that 100%...)

I'm tired of explaining to my wife that a dsm bit me...

The only advice I have as far as to keep it or run the other way is simply this. That particular car had some ugliness underneath in the form of structural corrosion. If you came into my shop as a paying customer, I'd probably make you look at the bottom of the car yourself before I let you authorise any major repairs. It's days are numbered....

It's still totally safe to drive, but it's not worth throwing much more money at.

I'd still recommend dropping the pan and inspecting the filter and magnet to get a better idea of what kind of carnage occured. If there's not a lot of metal in it, you might still be able to drive it for a bit......

At least it still runs/drives, so you've got a little time to make a decision.

Good luck, and let us know what you decide to do.

 

[n0c7]

Nice to see there are still some good people out there willing to help.

 

[TooFarPast]

Definately, John was awesome. I still can't thank him enough for him taking his time to help me out, I bought him some Subway after some persuasion but he's awesome. Rare good samartian to come across.

 

[toybreaker]

I've burned up drivelines/smoked wheel bearings/toasted brakes/busted motors, and just generically ceased forward motion in almost every state I've ever been thru....WTF ...sometimes, more than once...

I have some experience in the roadside tool drill,...WTF ... , and the kindness of strangers can really make a big difference in how things turn out.

Robby had a lot of tools, and wasn't scared of tearing into it, he just wasn't sure what it was. I wasn't really much help, I just helped narrow it down some.

It would have been nice if it was something simple like a wheel bearing or some such, but the automotive gods smote his tranny....

He had the courtesy to call me and inform me he bought another car, so hopefully he'll get some better service from his new ride.