Hello there, I have a chevy 2008 uplander with 94k miles on it, I've never felt the transmission slip once, however after starting up, the first time you give it gas while in drive it would give you a 1 second hesitation and then jerk forward and drive great the rest of the trip, the hesitation started when the weather started to get colder/damp outside a few weeks ago and didn't always happen, it was just a rare occurrence. Other than that no tattletale signs of what i'm going to describe next.

Woke up yesterday and backed out of my driveway with zero issues or signs of what was going to happen next, i shifted back into drive and it would not go into gear. i tried going back into reverse and it worked perfectly fine. Put it back in Drive, nothing at all. Put it in first gear and it drives, i shifted up to 2nd and it worked fine, i started head picking up speed and could shift into 3rd and eventually to drive. Got back home and instantly started becoming an internet mechanic, Most common thing i'm reading is that it'* pretty common for when you need a pressure control solenoid replacing at 100k for the uplanders, they all described the same exact situation problem i'm having.

So i think my next move is my biggest mistake, i went straight to a transmission shop.

When i got there i explained what was going on, they kept interrupting me and told me they'll find whats wrong themselves. They told me it would take 4-5 hours just for them to get a look at it and asked me to leave it. So thinking i was in good hands i left it there and walked home since it was a 20 minute walk. 10 minutes later i get a call from them telling me my transmission was dead, they told me no Solenoid errors and quoted me 2k right away. SO clearly i need a second opinion, but wanted to get advice to take it to a 2nd shop and not tell them what the first told me? and if so do i take it to a normal mechanic or to another transmission shop? I was hoping for a 400 dollar fix, not a 2k + fix for a car that hasn't had a lot of miles on it for a 2008. And they wouldn't give me the error codes either.

any help/advice/suggestions is very welcomed/ appreciated

Is the transmission fluid full?

Maaaaybe on this. Depends on how defective it was from the factory plus how it has been treated its whole life plus how plugged up the filter is.

In your activities above, it could also be that as you were doing all of this, the transmission (and fluid) was warming up, That makes them happier.

Has it ever had a transmission service? The kind where they drop the pan, change the filter, clean everything up, and put it back together?

Maybe. Depends on how reputable they are.

When any repair person will not listen to the customer'* description of the problem, that'* a really bad sign. Especially if they're interrupting. Unless the customer has been yapping on forever before the interrupting. I'm not accusing you on this, just saying.

4-5 hours to look at it for a prospective new customer after not listening to a description from same customer of the problem? This tastes like "leave your car here then we have you trapped muahahaha"

Now I'm thinking huge scheduling problems at this shop. If they can't get to it for a while I can understand. Then they diagnose that it'* dead in less than ten minutes?

Keeping in mind that you drove it there. Now "dead" seems a scare tactic.

In ten minutes, the most they could have done is scan the PCM, check the fluid level, and look for major leaks. This is not enough time to pull the pan or anything. Run away from this shop.

$2,000.00 isn't too bad for a full overhaul. That having been said, with some shops out there that'* all they do. Don't diagnose anything except the easiest things and otherwise just replace everything, make your money, move on to the next. I think I know which kind of shop this one is.

Yes. I have one: run away from this first opinion.

That'* what I would do, and only after they listened to my description of the problem.

But wait, has it ever had a service done like I was asking above? If not, a good transmission shop would be happy to do a service for you at the cost of a service, and warn you that it might be a gamble on your money spent on doing a service.

A normal mechanic that has some familiarity with transmissions (A) can usually do a transmission service for you, (B) isn't prone to wanting to tell you the transmission is shot so he can make $2,000.00 overhauling it in the next two days, and (3) is likely to look at the bigger picture in the event that something else is causing this, say . . . the shift linkage or etc. Remember this one for later.

. . . depending on the reputation of the normal mechanic etc.

Did they say they found error codes?

Did you pay for their "diagnosis"?

Run away from that transmission shop. Seriously, on your toes sprinting like Usain Bolt.

So, in typing the above, it occurs to me that it could be the shift linkage out of adjustment. I wonder if you put it in drive "plus a little" if you get the functionality of Drive? So for this, move the lever to Drive, then without letting it stay in that slot move it about a quarter of the way towards "3". See if you get the functionality of Drive from that. I think it'* a bit of a long shot but still worth testing.

What part of the nation are you in?

. . . and you're right, 94,000 miles in nine years is under 10,500 miles per year, so yeah not a lot. Question here is: What does it do for a living? Lots of city driving or lots of highway, or a mix, or five times a year it takes a 1,044 mile each-way trip to the coast and is otherwise parked?

How long have you owned it?

How many miles have you owned it?

The hesitation on take off is definitely a sign of a failed pressure control solenoid (PCS). The 4t65e is very common for this but the PCS is not the only thing that can cause a hesitation on take off, the other most common thing is a worn out input piston. The seal around this piston hardens and allows for pressure loss, so you slip on take off and as engine RPM increases, transmission line pressure increases and eventually overcomes the seal leak and thus you get a clunk. I have dealt with several 4t65e transmissions and most of the time, the hesitation on take off is the PCS.
However, not engaging in drive is more than likely a broken forward band. The forward band is what engages the transmission when the shifter is put in "D". When this band breaks as they like to do on these transmission, you won't have forward engagement in "D" but can normally get the car to move by placing it in 1st gear (or manual mode) because manual mode uses a different band, the manual band, to engage the gears. So to get it to take off in low gear but won't go forward when in "D" screams a broken forward band to me.