Major Transmission malfunction! Was fine, now barely made it home 2 miles!

[CowboyErik]

Wow, I've doctored my VX all these years, all of a sudden this evening, transmission is slipping, big time, I barely made it home at 20 miles per hour just 2 miles home; , I could not get the car to go faster; by the time I got home the transmission check light was blinking, I've never seen that light before; I flushed and filled last year, but not this year, gonna check fluid level in the morning; I barely made it up my driveway and it's nearly flat! I could smell a burnt smell when I got outta the car. I have had no leaks so I never really check fluid level but it was perfect last year and I don't drive it long distances; my regular scanner didn't show any codes besides an evaporator clog code I get regularly; I guess I need a different scanner to pull tranny codes? Why would I suddenly lose all tork!!!! Holy Cow! My poor VX! Help!

[samneil2000]

Sounds like it was low on fluid. You might not have done yourself any favors driving it home like that tho. I hope it isn't serious. Best of luck.

[CowboyErik]

Getting it inside now to check; did some reading on here; it's never leaked a drop, don't know where fluid could have gone; I was very careful when I changed fluid last year, it's never given me any trouble, it was a shocking 5 minutes, holy cow, problebly gonna drop the pan and see what metal accumulation I have; air tools should make quick work of it

[LittleBeast]

I also had no transmission problems until I had the Isuzu dealer change my tranny fluid, 1 month later my tranny was fried, I too noticed no leaking and I always park in garage. They had forgotten to go through all the gears and warmup the tranny to the correct temperature while filling the tranny and it was just a little low, but just enough to cause issues. Also too much fluid can also be bad.

[Scott Larson]

Somehow I doubt that your tranny was low enough on fluid to have caused your problem, if you as thorough as you say, you should have noticed a leak as a spot in your driveway or on your garage floor. Also, if it were a blown trans cooler line you would have smelled hot trans fluid as it thoroughly lubricated the underside of you truck, it's a distinctive smell. I suspect the final drive clutch pack just "let go". Lots-o-miles or hard driving has a way of eventually wearing things out. Too much fluid will blow a seal and you would definetly have noticed that, sometimes it just leaks out past the seal but not actually "blow" it. Whatever you find, I wish you luck, but I suspect a tranny rebuild is in your future...

[CowboyErik]

nearly no fluid came outta drain plug; what did, smelled terrible and was burned; I immeadiately noticed a mess of ATF fluid all over the front end; looks like intercooler blew; no leaks around lines that I have disconnected and previously drained, all of if came from above; gonna inspect closer in the morning;; I guess I will learn more from what i find inside the pans when I drop them in the morning; perhaps lots of metal; I fear tranny is toast; There are a dozen Isuzu Tropper 2 - 4L30E tranny's available, some under 100K and alot over 100K; any mating problems? Did Troppers not have dip sticks either?

[Scott Larson]

Too bad you drove it home, if you had caught that when it blew and immediately parked it, you probably would have saved it. It is most likely toast. In rare instances you can refill and still have a serviceable trans but it's life will have been shortened dramatically. Pull the pan and be prepared for the worst, it won't be pretty. As to what transmissions will fit from other Isuzus or Hondas or GMs, I can't say, but there are others on here that can and I'm sure they will. Best of luck!

[vt_maverick]

I for sure wouldn't buy a used transmission with 100K+ miles on it, you're just begging for it to go bad in a year or two also. I was quoted around $3400 installed for a new Jasper transmission or $2200 for a rebuild of my existing transmission. For that price (or less if you do the work) you could do a 5-speed swap and get a transmission that isn't even supposed to be serviced until 150K miles. Good reading for you:

VT Maverick's 5-Speed Swap

[CowboyErik]

I'm in the Cincinnati area; the 4L30E is a very common General Motors transmission; I was surprised there; about a dozen of these at various salvage yards around me; $250 to $500; they all give some kind of warranty, but no labor of course so I'm rolling the bones; I really don't want to swap in non-OEM parts, from Fiat, Bertone, Nissan to my Isuzu, I keep them stock. if I could get a rebuild for $1000 I would jump on it; still haven't dropped main pan, intercooler still leaking fluid 2 days after shut down; messy; trying to figure out how to support "transfer case" properly to drop crossmember, I can't remember how I did it before; getting old I guess!

[Scott Larson]

You can use a scissor jack, a floor jack, a bottle jack, any jack and jack it up just enough to take the weight off the crossmember and unbolt it from the frame and trans tailhousing, dropping it out of the way.

[CowboyErik]

Scott, thanks, I actually used 4 truck stands, and used my 2 floor jacks; wanted to be safe; I used one jack at the front of the car at the skid plate, and my 2nd jack to lift the transfer case; I took the skid plate off the crossmember to reveal the lower transmission mount bolts cause I noticed the space created when I supported the transmission; so I took the crossmember skid plate off and unbolted the lower tranmission mounting bolts that gave me about 2 more inchs of space between the cross member and the rear most transmission pan bolts, a flexible 10mm head made them easy work; got all the pans off; I have obviously never done this before, I had my shop to it in 2007-08, then I did a fluid, small pan and intercooler drain/fill between now and then; this was a hard day; VERY LITTLE METAL IN MY PANS; NO CHUNKS! MAGNET HAD NORMAL AMOUNT OF residue on it as I have seen in my Nissan and Buick pans when I've done those pans/filters; alot easier I must say

[Mile High VX]

You did make sure that you ran through all the gears, got up to temp, and rechecked the fluid level right?

This is an often overlooked step that can cause problems later if not done correctly.

[CowboyErik]

Well, the bottom of the pan was black; but no loose metal; the magnet had what I think is a typical amount of residue on it, no chunks; I think my intercooler (cheap to replace new under $100); let go, and that leaked out quarts of fluid and I didn't know it, my "check trans" light came on only the last 2 minutes of my drive home though the clutchs/drive engage was acting up for several miles atleast, I wish I would have just parked it; letting it all drip out; DOES ANYONE THINK THAT WITH ALL THE PANS DOWN AND THE INTERCOOLER DISCONNECTED THAT I SHOULD TURN ON ENGINE AND CYCLE THRU GEARS TO GET MORE FLUID OUT!?!??!!?

[CowboyErik]

You did make sure that you ran through all the gears, got up to temp, and rechecked the fluid level right?

This is an often overlooked step that can cause problems later if not done correctly.

YEP, I followed a published procedure and an illustrated one on here, "TriAtheletes" I think; gonna put my pans back on in the morning after driping all nite, blow out the intercooler with compressed air and put a gallon of ATF III in it; my written record says thats how much it took last time; cycle, test drive, and may dump it again right away and fill, fluid is cheap, tranny isn't; don't think I'm going to start the car up and cycle gears with pans off; since it's been sitting a week, I am thinking most ATF has dripped out, still dripping now and what is dripping is normal color, normal smell, what was in my pan, was black nasty! Keeping my fingers crossed that this GM transmission is over-engineered to with stand a few miles of abuse, else, I'll be swapping in a salvage yard tranny; dozens available locally since it's a common transmission, cheap, 30 to 90 day guarantees but $400 to swap in, fill and test, if fails, swap again, in the computer industry, we call it "SWAP TIL YA DROP!"

[Scott Larson]

Don't run your trans dry, never run your trans dry, it can only cause problems as you have already discovered. You may get lucky and discover that with a simple filter change and refill with fresh fluid, that you still have a working transmission. Don't expect it to do you any favors though as you weren't very nice to it. If it does work however, you can do it a big favor and change the filter and fluid again in about a week to flush out the rest of the carnage you've left behind. Don't forget to follow the trans fill and check procedure every time you change or add fluid or you'll be running with an underfilled trans!