i swear to have the worst luck with cars with auto transmissions. now, i do beleive my lately purchased 2000 SLE is on the fritz. car has 77K on it... What i am seeing is that once the car is driven lets say about 30 minutes or so of highway time, that it begins to shift hard once starting from a stop light. AND, it begins to have a sligth whine sound to it as it runs out. I would have guessed the car to have a supercharger on it the way i heard it earlier tonight. I hate auto cars. should have stuck with my manual grand am...... i am cursed literally. just 1 summer i went through 4 rebuilds on my 98 trans am...granted it was a POS 4L60E...always 3-4 clutches...but still. 2 other cars i have had gave me problems too...and they were just daily drivers too. jinx i tell ya.

Any thoughts to what this is going to be. guess Pressure control solenoid due to hard shifts...the whine is what has me right now. last i checked, fluid level was good.

Ahh, another one to add to the club

I had the same sound when I had my PCS go bad. GO AND FIX IT NOW! Seriously, it causes tons of problems down the road. It completely destroyed my torque converter and turned my 5 month old fluid a dark brown. I decided to replace it with another transmission, and it seems to be working OK so far. Still some kinks to work out, but I don't think it has to do with my transmission. So yeah, bite the bullet and fix it soon!

great...well, guess im about to see what damage can be done to it then...i have no choice on this one..but it has to make a 3-4 hour trip each way next week...no way out of it.....soon as it gets back..i will get it in and have it scanned/checked out by my trans shop....

i hate GM transmissions......

you and me both. This will be the last 4t65e I will ever buy, sadly. That is, until I get a better job and I can actually afford rebuilding transmissions every other year . At least the rest of the car is awesome, though

Some food for thought...
http://cgi.ebay.com/2002-Buick-Regal...QQcmdZViewItem

If you can't afford anything else, in the meantime, try a can of Sea Foam'* Trans Tune, run it for a while, and then change the fluid and filter. See if that frees up the solenoid. If things start to improve after adding it you can try adding a shift kit for roughly $100 and put it in when you change fluid. Hawkjet (I believe) said that took care of his harsh shift problem.

I may look into this. i am going to talk to my trans guy today to see what he will charge me to install a new PCS first and go from there. i know im not forking over 5-600 just for a damn solenoid swap...crazy. i would rather just have it rebuilt at same time if trans is already about out to do that work....... typical stupid GM engineering on part placements and ability to get to them to work on.

here is a question though.....what damage can really be caused by this being left this way for this trip?? i mean, i know its harsh shifts...but really...i can't see that causing the clutches to go bad...if anything it is good for clutches to be firmer shifts.....is there some other damage to be had by this situation till i can get the fluid taken care of to see what happens?

I would not be so quick to knock GM for trans problems. EVERY auto maker has problems that plague their vehicles, not just GM.

As far as your Trans Am that had FOUR rebuilds in ONE summer, I would be looking at the trans shop as the problem, not the trans itself. Even if the T/A is heavily modded, that is no excuse for a trans to burn up four times in one summer. Your trans shop is at fault there

If you are even thinking about taking your SLE to the same shop as your T/A, I would definitely reconsider that choice.

Also, the 4L60E is not a POS. It is a very good strong trans. You just have to keep them cool



For the hard shifting right now, I really don't see that being a major problem in the next week, but some people have also had some luck installing a shift kit. It will firm up the shifts some, but not crazy hard. Check out www.Intense-racing.com for a shift kit if you are interested in going that way. Another benefit of the shift kit is the trans does not have to be removed to do it and it will cost less then $200 all said and done.

It'* the hard parts of the tranny that get pretty beat up during the harsh shifts, not the clutches. The transmission has to be lowered, and the side cover removed to access the PCS. Others have posted what it has cost them to have it done, but I don't recall what it was. In the meantime, a can of Trans Tune will cost you about $6. If you want to wait until the tranny goes, I guess you can but you may be adding a few more parts than your original upgrade plans. Your tranny guy should be able to do a comparison list for you.

If i recall, the trans in the TA had major 3-4 clutch failures due to the way it was reassembled also. there was a spring loaded clip of some sort my builder wasn't reusing for some reason. last time around it seemed like the clutches held longer, but not much more. we used alto red eagle clutch packs each time also. The guy had 15 years rebuilding experience so i was trusting him with it. I eventually yanked the 4L60e in favor of a coan racing TH400 setup in the car.....never looked back at the 4L again until i put back to stock to sell the car.

My Grand national tranny would have held up if i had a better cooler on it, so i can agree to that comment.

I am talking to another reputable shop in the area on the bonneville. When i called him about bonnie to ask about PCS issues...he told me everything i wanted to know and the info matched what i read here..

i am def going to try the trans tune and a fluid change. Can't hurt to try it. I just can't get it done before this trip it has to go on. When it gets back it will be top of the list.

Good deal on the info from the new trans shop. We won't steer you wrong here, we have thousands of members and have had just about every problem possible with these cars, so you know you are getting good info here.