Does Changing Lifetime Fluid Kill Transmissions?

[mattyb]

while this is up i might mention that when this waas current i said that mine had never been changed and all was sweet. well let me now tell you that at about 250,000ks it was definately not. I am now converted to the "change it every 30000k" side of the fence after $3grand and a fingered tranny. albeit with a beuatiful new tranny though and a chance to start from scratch. all the best to every one who was in the "dont touch it" team! I realised when I touched wood when i posted originally it was an Ikea laminated look a like timber sufrace. Damn!!! and damn again!!!

[zhandax]

swenpro, did Kirt's rebuild get rid of the hard kicks? I only feel mine between 3rd and 4th when the car is cold but it annoys me greatly.

[Elekta]

Did not vote because no catagory fits my issue. Bought tourer with 58k miles, and changed the fluid every year since owned (3+ yrs now).

tranny needs valve body replacement due to the changes is my guess. I had to change the fluid as I was getting a bad clunk, and that was solved by the change. Since then I do have a shifting miss and bang when coasting and reaccellerating which I am told is the valve body not working properly. Though with left foot braking and cognition of this issue, I have not toasted my tranny, but I am positive my wife could toast it with one outing.

I have another issue of the d light going out on the display and only staying on if I pull back on the shifter. What's this all about and do I need a severe cleaning of everything under the shifter?

I think I am going to buy a rebuilt valve body from Kirt and ship him back the old one after my indy makes the switch. Anyone priced this option? What' the all in including shipping?

[632 Regal]

the valve body issue is with the 5hp30 (540) transmission. my US 530 uses a 5hp18.

[Elekta]

I know we are the 5hp18, but does that mean we don't need valve body replacements too?

[swenpro]

swenpro, did Kirt's rebuild get rid of the hard kicks? I only feel mine between 3rd and 4th when the car is cold but it annoys me greatly.

Well, I've been laying low about this issue for a while now...

to answer your question. No. I've been quite dissapointed to find out that after putting my car up for a week in my garage to have the valve body sent out, rebuilt, and reinstalled, as well as having installed a new filtran filter and poured in 13 quarts of Pennzoil Multi-Vehicle ATF (it took 12.5), the shifting is as bad as ever.

Now, I in no way want to give Kirt Koeller, Pennzoil, or any of the above a bad rap. Kirt is amazingly helpful, and he has been guiding me through this process over the phone. He first had me try a few "computer resets" (known on here as the "shogun reset"), then I did the valve body work as outlined above (costed me ~$400 and I did the work myself), and finally he sent me a new "transmission control module" (would be $100 if I bought it), because sometimes those chips are burnt, but alas that fixed nothing either so I sent it back.

So: My auto tranny is still performing abysmally, especially when warm--a lagged shift into 2nd gear, a VERY hard clunk into 3rd gear, and--more recently--small clunks when I begin coasting or accelerating between about 40 and 60 mph. Oh, and the delayed engagement of reverse is back! I'm beginning to wonder if something's wrong with the rebuilt valve body I've installed. Again, maybe not.

From my last conversation with Kirt, it sounded like the worst-cased scenario--don't quote me on this cuz I didn't understand it very well--was to go in and change the clutch packs (?) Anways, it sounded like quite an involved project, and doing the valve body with detailed lego-building-like instructions found online was enough for me, thanks.

Now you've had an update. My car still drives, and it actually shifts fine in sport mode. So I cope by driving in sport mode till about 50mph, then put it into Drive. It's not economical and it's highly annoying, but it's what I must do to prevent big clunking. I will let you know if I ever get this resolved.

[zhandax]

Does sport mode use different clutch packs than economy?

[Elekta]

I'm thinking I will get a used tranny here to drive around in and then send mine off to kirt for a rebuild, then sell the used one, or the rebuilt one, if it turns out the used one is fine.

Those aamco guys were pretty adamant about it being pretty impossible to only fix one thing on a tired tranny just to save money, because eventually you will have to totally rebuild it. That said, trust is truly a four letter word in the tranny rebuild business.

[grave77]

sometimes the used trannies work good and you don't need to rebuild yours, after all, a bad valve body will make a rebuilt tranny perform bad. I have rebuilt my 850i tranny and they were not able to do anything more than cleaning the valve body of the tranny and it still changes the speeds roughly. so I'm planning on getting a used tranny with a warranty, change the ATF then drive it.

[swenpro]

Does sport mode use different clutch packs than economy?

No, I believe it's just that the 5HP30 shifts best at high revs.