Well, I finally got my car into the tranny shop. They took a look at it and they said...... ITS DONE. They took the pan of and found all kinds of peices of metal. They say that the clutchs are shot and will have to do a complete rebuild. Now I am pondering the idea of just doing everthing at once, first robbing a bank, then purchasing the INTENSE transaxle rebuild kit? I am pretty lost right now on what I should do. please help with suggestions.
thanks.

Also they said they have and itemized list of what they have for parts in the rebuild kit. Are these pretty much the same parts that the INTENSE upgrade kits have in them, besides the big parts? I work long hours during the day and have only been talking to the tranny shop over the phone. They are willing to work with me if i supply different parts for the rebuild.I will try to get in there tommorow to look at their list of parts and compare them with the INTENSE list of parts. I am pretty much dumbfounded when it comes to trannys so hopefully they don't bend me over.

There are other options to the intense kit, it does come with the upgraded parts however and thats what tips the scale. You could have the tranny rebuilt and go for the torque convertor, flex plate, shift kit and LSD another time as this does add almost $1500 to the total kit. The upgraded input and output shafts would be nice but unless your making 400whp or more I'm not sure you would need them?

I'm kinda in the same boat and have been looking at options, I'll find out tonight if I need a whole rebuild. I dont have the money now for an Intense tranny so if I have to I'll go with a straight rebuild and look for stronger parts in the spring.

The same thing happened to me in January. The torque converter blew up with 56K miles on it. After I paid for a $1700 rebuild, I complained to Pontiac and they eventually reimbursed me.

The transmissions just shouldn't let go so early in their lives, but the SSEi'* seem to have all sorts of tranny problems.

My 3rd clutch and sprag are shot and the tranny needs a rebuild. I've been scouting out options and am looking for a good used one or at least a great deal on a new one.

I stopped in the tranny shop today and talked to the owner for a while. He helped me out alot. He said that within the last month he has rebuilt trannys for 3 gtp'* and a 1999 bonnie. He said that pontiac has some issues to work out.

Does this seem to be a problem with just the HD tranny?

The problem seems to be with the HD 4T65 transmission, which I thought was just in the 2000+ SSEi'*. It may be in the new GXP'* also.

Don't know if the 4T65-E transmission is in the Bonneville GXP,...but they ARE going to be using them(a beefed-up version to handle the extra torque) in the soon-to-be- out Grand Prix GXP'* with the LS4 5.3L 290hp/325 lb-ft torque V-8'*....

Don't blaim pontiac, blame Buick. It'* their engine/transmission combo.
I have had torque converter problems since I"ve owned my car too. The torque converter lockup almost always brings along a surging problem with it. hasn't the 4t65e tranny remained the same from 97 until now?