I would drop the pan change the filter and top it off. if it still feels the same after a while I would do it again to try to clean every thing out of there. as in try to get what ever the new fluid pushed through. it would be cheaper to start with second if it feels like it still has a long shift there might be a silinoid or the nutral safty switch they might be a play on it. when I had a long shift I replaced the safety switch and the fluid twice on how funky the pan looked when I dropped it. there was some worn things I didn't want floating around after I did it. the shifts seem to be better when driving

 

Here's what I can tell you from personal experience

On my monte, I did a flush at 100k miles and discovered that there was gunk in the valve bodies, or somewhere, and it literally grenaded my trans. I saw the internals, there were shards, the 3rd and 4th gear clutch pack lubrication channels got clogged, they starved, and something broke. How they still engaged and moved the car was a miracle.

At 50K's... I would be cautious. If you have a shop that can do a thorough flush, I would do it. I might even recommend dropping the trans out and opening it up, take out the valve bodies and other channels and make sure there's no gunk in there.

If your car was supercharged, I would recommend taking the trans to a speed shop and building it up as the 4T65E-HD can be fragile, and is a time bomb if you're making anything more than stock power, but if I remember right, there was no supercharged options in 02.

 

Just wanted to bump this sticky a little bit as I haven’t been on much in the past 8ish years.
The tubes everyone the tubes...

If and when I do a pan off service to the trans I will take detailed pics, sorry that never happened for anyone that wanted them. Busy life got in the way and a forgetful mind.

 

I used to do them at a local quick lube place, never had one go wrong. But we based our recommendations on color and smell of fluid. If it was black and smelled worse than a house fire, let it ride. If it was dark red but no smell we would do a flush or pan drop/drain and fill.


I think the majority of prob6came from the "back" flush machines. Out used the trans pump so fluid went in its natural direction.

 

Hey, so i have a higher mileage 2006 SS Monte Carlo w the automatic transmission. I know this is an older thread so hoping for an answer. I am above 150,000 miles on the car, i bought it like this and am unsure about the previous maintenance on any of the parts, it does not have trouble shifting and drives pretty smooth, it does however sit on a slanted driveway and it sticks when i go to shift into reverse sometimes, i am unsure if this is because it sits on a slanted driveway. But i would like to know what would be the best method of servicing my car in every way in order to last to it’s full potential? Should i do a flush?

 

I wouldnt flush it. Just regular fluid and filter changes.

Also parking on an incline, I'd always set the ebrake before shifting to park when shutting it off - especially if its notably tough to shift when you come back.

 

Honestly this alone helps a lot, thank you! I have done a bit of research and just got a CAI for just a but of added hp, I live in Cali so not much I can really do for modifications but I’m thinking about a super 40 or super 44 flowmaster. I would swap the exhaust if i had the money and was able to find one that would ship here . As for maintaining the engine as well as the transmission, any suggestions?