Transmission gone

[Mark B]

This is not a VX problem but a Isuzu problem.
My 1999 Isuzu Amigo with 115,000 just blew the transmission. This car looks and runs great.
I alway service my Isuzu vehicles and have never had a major problem with any of them.
I took the Amigo to my local repair shop which verified that the transmission was shot. I have taken many vechicles to this shop and kind of trust the guys.
They said that you need a new transmissison and that Isuzu put some French built transmissions in their vehicles and they are no good. This might be the case, but I have never had a problem with any Isuzu transmissions in the past.
They installed a used transmission they found with 40,000 miles for $ 1,200.00
Car runs great again. They did a good job.
Anyone have any problems or issues with Isuzu transmissions.
I trust the help from the members at this site on your opinions.

[WiSDoM]

My tranny went last years at around 140000 i think 430le tranny i think GM tranny made in france i beive it is the same used in one of the BWM suv and Acura SLX. not sure if the rannies are junk or the problem is that you can not check the fluids easily so people don't. My problem was the shop that serviced my tranny only put 3 qts in and I beive it take like 7 or 9 can't remember. I had them paid for another tranny and to have it installed.

[TheGanzman]

Whenever I hear about a (modern) auto transmission "failure", I always ask two questions: What has the service history been on the transmission? (Usually NONE!) What have the driving/towing conditions been?

The modern automatic transmission is virtually bulletproof, no matter WHO makes it. GM, Ford, and Chrysler ALL make fine transmissions; many people don't realize this, but Rolls Royce apparently thought that GM's Turbo 400 was good enough to put it in THEIR cars!

The GM 4L30E transmission is a FINE medium-duty transmission; no it AIN'T a 4L80E, but with proper care and attention (like changing the fluid/filter once every 50K miles!) it should last 150K+ miles. I'd bet a cookie that the transmission in question either has an unknown service history, or NO service history...

[WiSDoM]

yeah your right mine wouldn't have gone bad if those nit wits put the right amount of tranny fluid in it. :p

[kodiak]

It’s not a bad transmission, it’s just a little to small for towing. You need to remember that Heat kills, if you over heat them they will die.

Here’s some info.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_4L30-E_transmission

[SlowPro48]

Whenever I hear about a (modern) auto transmission "failure", I always ask two questions: What has the service history been on the transmission? (Usually NONE!) What have the driving/towing conditions been?

The modern automatic transmission is virtually bulletproof, no matter WHO makes it. GM, Ford, and Chrysler ALL make fine transmissions; many people don't realize this, but Rolls Royce apparently thought that GM's Turbo 400 was good enough to put it in THEIR cars!

The GM 4L30E transmission is a FINE medium-duty transmission; no it AIN'T a 4L80E, but with proper care and attention (like changing the fluid/filter once every 50K miles!) it should last 150K+ miles. I'd bet a cookie that the transmission in question either has an unknown service history, or NO service history...

I dunno man, I'm no mechanical engineer but it seems like there could be all sorts of weaknesses due to design, metalurgy, manufacturing and/or assembly that no amount of maintenance will overcome. The TH400 in my truck went out at about the 180,000 mile mark. Considering the amount of livestock/cars/sand/rock/gravel/wood/etc it had moved, I was not surprised and was fully expecting to have to cough up some big bucks to replace it - and receive a tongue lashing from the mechanic as well. I'm pretty sure the previous owner - an old farmer dude from Virginia who hauled livestock with a big gooseneck trailer - never changed the fluid and filter in the 82,000 miles he owned it - and I know I didn't. I figured the mechanic would tell me it's totaly worn out and it's YOUR fault!!! As it turned out, all it took to get 'Ol Gus back on the road was a $15 plastic gear that had broken. They could have gotten a lot more out of me because, well... automatic transmissions are mysterious things to me. I wonder how many get replaced to the tune of thousands of dollars when all they need is a $75 solenoid or something...? Anyway - I thanked the powers that be for my good fortune, thanked the mechanic for his honesty, and had them change the filter and fluid for luck. That was 135,000 miles ago. So that's 315,000 miles with one filter/fluid change and it's still going strong. (hope saying that doesn't jinx it!!!)

Contrast that to a guy here in the office - transmission went out on his brand new minivan at 36,000 miles. Or my sister-in-law's Mercedes SUV - it was on its third transmission by the time her three year lease was up. Both these vehicles were properly maintained and neither one was ever used for towing.

I suspect transmissions are like everything else - including people. Some are more equal than others...

In the case of ours, it may have been bulletproof when it was a simple mechanical three speed. But then they added another gear section complete with its own cute little pan and added a bunch of electric solenoids so it could be controlled by a computer. You know how it is - more complexity and more modding usually means more opportunity for problems. For example, the gasket between the tacked-on overdrive section and the main body is a known failure point. Also consider it may have been a robust transmission when it was propelling a 2100 pound, 70 hp Chevette but now in the VX we're feeding a couple hundred ft-lbs of torque through it and it has to launch a 4000 pound vehicle from a standstill. And with AWD hooking up like it does in the VX, it has to transfer ALL that torque instead of spinning a skinny tire for some relief like it could in a one wheel drive Fiat or even a two wheel drive LSD equipped BMW. I imagine the 4L30-E is just about at it's limit and therefore more failure-prone in vehicles like the VX and Trooper/Acura SLX. Two tons of mass, AWD, a frisky engine and a light duty transmission just don't mix. It's rated for 258 ft-lbs of engine torque and gross vehicle weight of 7716 lbs so as long as we don't hop up the engine too much... or try to pull a heavy trailer... or use some weird gasket swelling additive... we should be OK.

.

[Diogenes]

I feel your pain.. While taking a 2 day road trip to Crater Lake, I was returning through S. Oregon (not the end of the world, but you can see it from there) and I suddenly got a CEL and Check Transmission light...

Was able to get it back to Boise, and noticed absolutely no difference in performance or shifting along the way. But that blinking link just makes a person nervous.. ;0)

Anyhoo.. I had already had the tranny flushed about 4K miles ago and had received a P1870 code back in 2008 during a cross-country trip. Had it reset and drove on, looking for a reoccurence, which didn't happen. But I've watched that tranny closely ever since and figure more frequent flushings is better than just praying.

And about 6 months ago, I developed an issue where the tranny will not manually select 2nd or 1st gear settings. It manually shifts fine between 3rd and D, as well as R and P. And it doesn't seem to impact the automatic shifting/downshifting, just manually putting it in 1st or 2nd.

So I just got my VX back from having the tranny pan dropped, inspected, and flushed again and there is apparently evidence of metal in the pan. The smear does have an appearance of a metal flake paint job when viewed in the sunlight with very small particles, so obviously I have an issue. The mechanic was emphasizing that these 4l30e trannies have a history of bearing problems and that he could rebuild it and install the updated bearings.

So now I have to make a cost/benefit analysis.. It's a 1999, Ebony, @78K miles, and I'm not sure it's worth the $3K for the rebuild/installaton. And getting a used tranny is still going to be about $1k, plus the $700 installation.

So I guess my question is what risk am I taking by just driving on until I get another CEL/Chk Trans light? Is there potential for a catastrophic failure that would be a danger during highway driving? Could the tranny fail without any physical/auditory warnings?

Thanks for any suggestions/advice!!