Hello,

04 Monte Carlo SS w/ 180,000 miles on it.... Unfortuantely, dumbass me never changed the fluid in it or anything and now the tranny at random times will shift hard from 2nd to 3rd. It'll do it for a few days and then stop, go a few days fine and then randomly start back again.

Tranny continues smooth when its in that proper gear and only happens while shifting.

Fluid appears fine, does not look burnt and has still has good color to it at an acceptable level.

No check engine lights or anything being thrown when it jerks changing gears either.

Thoughts? Recommendations?

 

Are you saying the tranny fluid has 180K miles on it? If so, change it and the filter immediately. In fact, I'd recommend you have someone flush out all the old fluid. Just opening the pan and draining the fluid while changing the filter can leave quite a bit of old fluid in there.

BTW, the fluid can look / smell normal and still be completely used up. If it's old (30K or more miles on it), or you don't know how old it is, change it.

 

Yes, its the to the best of my knowledge original fluid.

Uhm, I thought it was a big no no to flush it out with such high mileage and just do a pan drop and change the ATF and Filter?

 

Hmmm... Not sure. Better check further, online here or with a local mechanic, before doing the flush. My thinking was that if it's never been changed, there will be relatively large amounts of contaminants / metal shaving sludge (the gunk that gets trapped by the magnet on the pan if you have one) hidden in the fluid / tranny. Seems like it would be good to eliminate as much of that as possible.

 

I've heard of instead of "flushing" the fluid, do a pan drop fluid/filter change, drive it less then 1000 miles and then change it once more. That is a kind of a psuedo flush.

 

That's the method I use! Since fluid is cheap relative to some shop's labor, I guess it's the cheap version of a flush. Just did that on one of my older cars. But it's not too messy on that car; I can drain the fluid before dropping the pan. Draining the tranny fluid on most cars, like my Monte, is more of a mess. Lots of folks don't want to do that more than once.

 

mine was shifting hard after you drove for awhile.......does it do it when the tranny is cold?.....i ended up having to get the pressure control solenoid replaced.....solenoid if faulty will show up on a code.....they usually check that first...

 

Took it to Autozone, their little thing showed no codes

Hardly ever it doesn't do it when its cold only after its warmed up and been driving a while but only while its shifting gears not while is in a particular gear.

Will autozone scan show that?

 

From what I understand some of the shops that "fush" the tranny fluid run a chemical through the system as well and DON'T change the filter. Seriously, I don't see how NOT changing the filter is a good idea (especially since the tranny fluid isn't changed too often).

 

I agree. Though I have a friend with a Honda (CR-V I think) who swears that his tranny maint. procedure specifically states to NOT change the filter. I don't get it. Maybe something vehicle specific? I don't see how putting in a clean filter in any vehicle could be a bad thing.