a delay in reverse most likely means a ripped low/reverse piston with possible burnt clutches from that. most shops will take into consideration the milage/fluid condition and decide if its worth it to repair or overhaul. IMO they probably made the right decision because if your going to dissasemble a transmission at 90K it would be silly to not rebuild the whole thing or just opt for a reman with a warranty.

 

I also resent the comment ALL transmission shops are crooks and thieves! I work in one and WE ARE NOT either of the afformentioned, just because you got lucky on something means nothing. Some times you can replace something (aka Band-aid the bullet wound) and depending on the Butterfly effect (he farts in africa, hurricane in amsterdam) you either get by with no issue or the next week POOF it grenades.

Generally when a shop tears into a vehicle and has it apart they recommend repair as it is already apart, you are paying the labour any way so why not reassemble with good parts right? Its not uncommon for any vehicle to suffer the low mileage bad transmission problem, just depends what day of the week it was built and how many extra bolts were laying around after. No two are alike, no two will last the same.

Best of luck with your new transmission, if your lucky it will serve you well.

 

My '06 is in the shop this week for exact same symptom - and it needs a new tranny at 61k miles -$3100. !!

During all the snow here last week i nearly got hung up for a couple minutes and lost reverse. I was pushing through some drifts where i needed to go back 20' then forward 30' to keep gaining 10' at a time. Couldn't believe it. Reverse started working the next day after 3-5 second delay and then a thunk. Fluid was clean, on the mark and no odor - if that indicates anything. I've abused my share of vehicles in my day (i'm pushing 50) and never lost a tranny - I certainly didn't consider this snow storm abuse. I do have 35's but never towed or thrashed off road. I was hoping it was a simple fix but to my dismay, NOT.

Great tranny shop that all the local folks know well, http://www.jimjenningstransmissions.com/ ,so at this point all i can hope for is no more failures in the future. I'll have to baby this girly thing. tranny guys said they don't see the chevy's and dodges in there like these 1/2 ton fords.
I do think this is a good looking truck but I believe my '96 chevy was a better running tougher unit.
. . . . 3100 bucks . . .still can't believe what a tranny job costs ....

 

no pun intended but you were asking for it. What you did cooks many transmissions. The torque converter is pumping out alot of heat pushing through all that snow and your 35s and im assuming factory gearing did not help. Plus the snow around the transmission and most likely packed into the cooler makes for good insulation to hold in the heat. If you had a trans temp gauge you could have prevented this.

 

Bottom line, the Trans shop will NOT provide a complete diagnosis until they tear the unit down. Of course, it is now too late to get a second opinion unless you want them to put it back together.......

 

I hope that $3100 is for a new one, cuz that seems quite pricey for a rebuild. I had mine rebuilt a couple years ago for about $2000 when I managed to weld together 3rd gear. It was completely my fault tho, guess my truck doesn't like being airborne and landing with the wheels spinning at mach 3.

One good thing tho is that I took it out and sent it to a place that had it rebuilt and back to me in a day.

 

I said "most" not all and I stand by it.

I expect a shop to warranty they work they do. If all they did was put a valve body in then that is where my expectations end. I would not take my truck in for a tune up and expect them to cover me when the motor blew a month later. Having to rebuild the whole transmission claiming "warranty" issues for the failure of one small piece is just another reason to gouge a customer.

 

Again I said "most" not all.

I did not "get lucky" as you say implying that I don't know what I am talking about. I did a lot of reasearch on the very specific problem I was having and the code I pulled from the Blazer PCM. There was a ton of imformation posted on this and it was a well known problem. I would assume a competent transmission shop would also have seen this issue several times in there own shop. It was not a "band-aid" fix. It was the solution to the problem I was having but they did not care as all they were interested in was rebuilding my entire transmission and screwing me on it. By your logic if I blow a headgasket on an engine in otherwise perfect order I should just go ahead and rebuild the entire motor.

 

have you ever worked in a tranny shop? how do you know most are thieves whether you say all or most its the same thing, most are not thieves, some are yes... but not most. and a tranny is not engine, you can replace a head gasket with out taking out the crank... you however cannot get out the clutches (using this as an example)out of any auto tranny with out taking it out of the car and taking it apart. not to mention the tranny shops probably looked at the mileage on the blazer what it was doing and tsb's and said it was probably better to overhaul it vs just repairing it... please know how businesses work before calling most of them thieves.

 

those blazers had a bigger problem than just a valvebody.. good luck with that shell stripping out on that crappy *** 4l60e

yea i work in a trans shop as well. thieves or crooks i think not.. like mentioned there is no reall way to inspect or diagnoise a tranny till its on the bench in peices..

 

It needs to be said that the only way to get a new transmission from Ford is to buy it in a new vehicle. There are some new transmissions that are sold as overstock, but Ford doesn't sell them individually. They are sold in lots and I don't know how that works at all.

Darrin

 

No I haven't but I do know how a transmission works.


I didn't need the clutches out. That is the point. The trans was not slipping and there was no material in the pan of any kind. The fluid was clean and not burnt.

Yes, less than 55,000 miles and babied the whole way. Time for a rebuild. The Chevy TSB's are the main reason I knew it was a valve body problem.

I am getting to know how transmission shops work. When I go to one they tell me I need my transmission rebuilt without even looking at it. It must be just me that has this problem. I guess the next time I go I should just say OK and get my wallet out.

 

Back in the late 70's my dad had his 77 chev 1/2 ton and had trans issues. Took it to a tranny shop and they said he needed a new trans. Took it to an independent shop and it was just the kick down cable.

In my experience you need to take it to an independent shop that does NOT overhaul trannys and let them diagnose it. Where I was working for a while I was working with 2 red seals (canadian highest standard mechanic) who know how auto trannys are built and how they work. They have accurately diagnosed many auto trannys with "band aid" fixes. Older 2.2 cavi's. Many people came there saying that they went to this tranny shop and were told that they need a new tranny. Torque converter lock up solenoids on most of them. $200 they are out the door. who knows how much life the tranny has left, a few months a few years, you wouldn't know unless you dug into it. For me I would roll the dice on a $200 fix and see how long it lasts rather than a $2000 job almost every time.

Side note my original 4r70 has 227,000 miles. The first 160k miles were all 5th wheel horse trailer miles and the rest have been hard driving, lots of WOT, burn outs, mud racing, seen over 120 mph on gps a few times and its still kicking with regular fluid changes.

 

FWIW... not that i'm an expert or anything, but in my experience the first thing to do with any automatic acting iffy is change the fluid and filter... as long as it's still moving, anyway. it's the cheapest thing you can do and it's just amazing how often this solves a problem.
of course, if it's already been torn down, well, sorry about that...

 

Now im not making excuses for the tranny shop, nor do i care to defend any service shop any where, were all guilty of a little bad behavior. But about the knowing whats wron with out testing, in some cases based on the customers description, you can pretty much tell whats wrong. its fairly simple just because its repitition. but as far as the engine and tranny go in some cases its actually cheaper to replace it than it is to try to fix it. hes really doing you a disservice if he sells you a repair.....

the parts and labor on a repair 85% of the time will cost more for the new tranny less your core charge so if thats where his head was then he was doing you a favor. as much as i hate to say it.