i ran for 1 hour on trans program....i shot the tranny!

[Young Pete]

my e34 has 201k miles.

did i just toast my tranny?

i was coming home from work while the e34 is in limp mode (trans program) and drove for about an hour and as i waz looking for parking i noticed the car having a hard time running....i started to smell tranny fluid and saw smoke near the middle portion of the car....at this time my ride has stopped running, it can idle but won't go.....
i noticed that the e34 can run (i changed parking spaces) but i smell a small amount of tranny smoke.....

may i ask, is the tranny still fixable in this situation...is my tranny shot ???please let me know...


just a little history: my friend and i did change the filter and fluid 1.5 months ago.......tranny slips when cold initially, and trans program have been appearing more and more.......it does not appear if u drive from point a to point b, but if u make multiple stops the trans program will engage....

[Scott H]

driving it in limp mode for that long? I drove my wagon in limp mode but not for an hour at a time until I finally drove it to the place where I did my engine swap. the wagon had smoke pouring out from the underside and smoked out the garage I parked it in. it would accelerate slower and slower after each stop. I think the torque converter was roasting.

I'm no auto tranny expert as I have three 5-spds at my house

[Young Pete]

thats what im afraid of....please any answers would help i need this car for work!!!!

[632 Regal]

check if the fluid is burnt, if so pick up another trans and converter and swap them out, make SURE you get the same year/model trans cause some small differences exist.

It will be more cost effective to swap it with a known working unit than to have someone rebuild it (with the chance of them doing it wrong)

thats what im afraid of....please any answers would help i need this car for work!!!!

[Kalevera]

I don't mean to be a jerk about it, but if it's been popping the trans program check control message for a while (weeks? months?), there's only one person to blame for why it's not working now.

Unlike most other cars, these things tend not to utterly fail -- they give you some warning. And they still need to be maintained. Like this car that came in today -- owner is planning on driving it *across the country* next week. This is the first time we've seen the thing and it's got a bad trans cooler and needs brakes...pads are on the backing plates. But the owner doesn't want to do the work, even after standing under the car and analysing it. You can't help but be frustrated over peoples' stupidity.

So the car probably needs a trans, because getting 200k out of a GM anything is a feat to begin with

But the GM trannies are cheap and easy to find from wreckers, so it shouldn't be that big of a deal.

best, whit

[wingman]

.

owner is planning on driving it *across the country* next week. This is the first time we've seen the thing and it's got a bad trans cooler and needs brakes...pads are on the backing plates. But the owner doesn't want to do the work, even after standing under the car and analysing it. You can't help but be frustrated over peoples' stupidity.
best, whit

Customer: "just fix it cheaply and it'll be fine"
Mechanic: "ah no it will kill you"
Customer: " You are just trying to rip me off!"...

[Will308]

Don't know if your tranny is done just yet. I remember someone servicing my tranny a few years back and they didn't use the proper length pickup tube for the filter. The filter wasn't getting the tranny fluid at the proper depth in the pan. It was sucking air and you could hear it. I took it back to the shop. They changed the pickup/filter added fresh fluid and it's been O.K. ever since. The car now has 212,000 miles on it. This incident happened about 5 years ago at 165,000 miles.
I would check to make sure you have the right filter/pickup for your car, put in fresh fluid and see what happens. Hopefully it will sort itself out.
Good luck!

[Young Pete]

i dont know what pickup tube you are talking about...but i bought a new tranny filter from an oem parts supplier....anyways, i will try to drain/add new fluid in the tranny next weekend and check and see little things here and there....i really love this e34 and hopefully i don't have to replace the tranny / torque c.....

thanks,....

Don't know if your tranny is done just yet. I remember someone servicing my tranny a few years back and they didn't use the proper length pickup tube for the filter. The filter wasn't getting the tranny fluid at the proper depth in the pan. It was sucking air and you could hear it. I took it back to the shop. They changed the pickup/filter added fresh fluid and it's been O.K. ever since. The car now has 212,000 miles on it. This incident happened about 5 years ago at 165,000 miles.
I would check to make sure you have the right filter/pickup for your car, put in fresh fluid and see what happens. Hopefully it will sort itself out.
Good luck!

[Paul in NZ]

make sure you know the procedure for checking the fluid level for your tranny.