Transmission issues after radiator failure

[dradeka]

I have a 1999 Limited, V6, Automatic, currently with 127,800 miles. My truck suffered the "pink milkshake" radiator failure this January at 121,406 miles.

I wish I had known about this issue beforehand but I did not fully research everything here, and I have all the maintenance records back to new. I would have preemptively replaced the radiator when I got the truck. (Hindsight and this forum are 20/20) The truck has been in my family it's whole life, bought new by my Mom in 99, serviced by the book, garaged and babied. I acquired it last Fall at around 116,900 miles.

After the failure I had the radiator replaced, along with all of the hoses. They flushed the transmission about 5-6 times until all was clear. The recommendation was to go back after a few k miles for another flush, which I did in March at 124,409 miles.

Everything was fine until a few weeks ago. I was headed to Vermont and noticed after a couple hours of drive time that the transmission didn't seem to be as smooth as I thought it used to be. I stopped for gas about 2.5 hours into my trip. When I shifted into reverse to pull out of the parking spot the truck would not move at all, until I shifted in and out a couple of times and then stepped on the gas. I took it easy the rest of the trip. Shifting seemed ok but overall sluggish.

The next day the truck seemed ok and shifted into reverse with no problems. On the ride home, again a few hours into the trip, at a rest stop, the same reverse shifting issue occurred.

Last week I had the trans flushed again, plus had both the diffs fluid changed as well.

On this weekend's Vermont run the same thing happened with reverse after a few hours run time. Again though, the next day and with local driving there was no issue with reverse.

I've also noticed some whining noise but this is very intermittent. There is also an intermittent drone or hum at 60-70 but I can't always replicate that. Tires are Toyo ATs with only 7K on them, balanced and the truck has a fresh alignment. I had to replace the U joint at around 121,000 so its not that.

Today, locally driving, there is no issue and reverse shifts are fine.

By the way there are no brake issues; I had them serviced and the rears adjusted and lubed etc a couple thousand ago.

In reading the forum posts about transmission failure, rebuilds, the planetary gear failure and so on, I am starting to get a bit worried.

I think I will keep the truck local for awhile (no long runs where I can get stuck far from home) and see how she runs.

It seems like local driving, where the trans itself does not get too warmed up, are fine.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[MStudt]

This situation has zero to do with ATF levels. I was I this exact same spot last summer, and just replaced the transmission. Everything works fine until the transmission is heated up. Mine ran great for 10-15 miles, but after 30 or so I had no reverse. About 2 weeks after that my transmission started overheating. Don't mess around with flushes, and changing shift solenoids.

 

[LittleCaesar]

Unfortunately coolant (antifreeze) eats the clutch pack material, thus killing the transmission. Some members here have had it rebuilt but most opt for the lower cost option of finding a used one. I think that is what Mike (MStudt) did.

If you feel adventurous swap in a 5 speed.

I didn't even know this forum existed in 2003. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[LookAtThatDog]

Not the end of the world. I got a used trans for 400 and labor was 700. Sucked but have no regrets - ~15,000 miles without issue since.

 

[thegipper]

Sounds like you might have a new tranny in your future unfortunately. I think the biggest difference between those who have saved their trannys post milk shake and those who have not, is how soon the problem was noticed and how well they did flushing the contaminated fluid out.

I think one of the biggest mistakes that people make post milk shake is they flush it a bunch of times and then never check it again. My brother flushed probably 10 gallons of ATF through his before the fluid was coming out brand new. Even then, after driving it a few thousand miles I checked the fluid (it's mine now) and the fluid showed signs there was still coolant in it (cloudy). I have since flushed another 7 gallons of fluid through it over the course of a few weeks until now it looks brand new again

I'll check it again in a few weeks and act accordingly. Even after all of this it still may be toast but as of right now it works perfectly fine. I've driven it for 30 mile trips and short 10 mile trips and it has no issues, hopefully it stays that way.

it's been about 6k miles post milkshake.

I'd start looking for a used one and plan on swapping it out. Good luck

 

[midevilgargoyle]

Pink Antifreeze

I owned a 2005 Nissan Frontier which had the radiator failure which caused the antifreeze to mix with trans fluid. I had to replace the transmission a few months before that because of clutches wearing. I wish that radiator manufacturer would reimburse the consumers. I hate outsourcing. You don't know what your getting & then Toyota & Nissan get bad names for a part they didn't manufacturer.

 

[MStudt]

Unfortunately coolant (antifreeze) eats the clutch pack material, thus killing the transmission. Some members here have had it rebuilt but most opt for the lower cost option of finding a used one. I think that is what Mike (MStudt) did.

If you feel adventurous swap in a 5 speed.

I didn't even know this forum existed in 2003. Good luck and keep us posted.

I found a used one for $600, and did the swap myself. It's a good weekend, and not a bad project.

 

[thegipper]

I found a used one for $600, and did the swap myself. It's a good weekend, and not a bad project.

For those of us who may be swapping a tranny in our future, what is the hardest part about the swap? A guy I work with (mechanic for 17 years) said he can pull a 4R tranny in a "few" hours.

This may be in my future so I'm starting to collect whatever tips/info I can on how to make it go smoothly.

Also, I have read that any year 3rd gen tranny work in 96-02 but I've also read that 01/02 is slightly different.

Thanks

 

[MStudt]

For those of us who may be swapping a tranny in our future, what is the hardest part about the swap? A guy I work with (mechanic for 17 years) said he can pull a 4R tranny in a "few" hours.

This may be in my future so I'm starting to collect whatever tips/info I can on how to make it go smoothly.

Also, I have read that any year 3rd gen tranny work in 96-02 but I've also read that 01/02 is slightly different.

Thanks

An 01/02 transmission will only work on an 01/02. While it'll bolt up to the other years the valving is different between.

The hardest part for me was getting the transmission back in. You'll have the line the tines up on the new one to match how the old one came off. If you don't get them as close as you can you'll be rotating the transmission from side to side trying to get it to seat. Be careful with all the wiring since some of the plugs can be a bit brittle. You don't want to damage on of those. One plug on the top of the transmission is a pain to get to, and you'll need to tilt the transmission down some to get it.

I think this took me about 2-3 to remove the transmission, and about 2-3 hours to install the new one. There were some breaks in there so it wasn't constant working. I also did some other work to took even more time.

Here's a good link with some good information. This is all the information that I used to do my swap, and some very helpful people on the thread as well.

 

[thegipper]

Awesome, thanks!

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[amalik]

"They flushed the transmission about 5-6 times until all was clear"

Something about that seems fishy to me. It takes a good 14 quarts to do a good flush. You're telling me they used 84 quarts for a 6-time flush?

Anyway, sorry to hear about your tranny.

 

[MStudt]

"They flushed the transmission about 5-6 times until all was clear"

Something about that seems fishy to me. It takes a good 14 quarts to do a good flush. You're telling me they used 84 quarts for a 6-time flush?

Anyway, sorry to hear about your tranny.

Nothing fishy about it. After a pink milkshake you'll need to flush it a lot more than a normal flush. Trying to draw the oily coolant out takes a bit more work since it coats everything.

 

[amalik]

Nothing fishy about it. After a pink milkshake you'll need to flush it a lot more than a normal flush. Trying to draw the oily coolant out takes a bit more work since it coats everything.

It's believable I guess, but let's say it takes a few hours of shop labor, even 2 hours would be $200 +tax at most shops.

84 quarters; you're talking $400 in just transmission fluid for a 6-time flush assuming $4.74/quart or $28.44 for 6 in this case

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1PCRVET31HZ984W5MVED

at $600 for all that flushing, you're almost at the price of a used tranny for swap.

 

[thegipper]

In my situation I've been buying the cheapest Dexron 2 fluid at fleet farm which is only 9/gallon. I've been driving it for a few days and then doing a simple drain and fill which is almost always exactly 1 gallon (4 quarts). I've spent about 60 on fluid so far, I figured if it saves my tranny for that much money great, if not, it's only 60 bucks.

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[MStudt]

It's believable I guess, but let's say it takes a few hours of shop labor, even 2 hours would be $200 +tax at most shops.

84 quarters; you're talking $400 in just transmission fluid for a 6-time flush assuming $4.74/quart or $28.44 for 6 in this case

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1PCRVET31HZ984W5MVED

at $600 for all that flushing, you're almost at the price of a used tranny for swap.

I see the logic, but that's not really how a shop bills you for it. The shop that I used had a flat rate for a transmission flush, and charges additional for the extra fluid used. They hook it up to a machine, and let it run so there's no hourly rate. I ended up paying around $200 for the flush I did, and that was about 56 quarts worth.

In my situation I've been buying the cheapest Dexron 2 fluid at fleet farm which is only 9/gallon. I've been driving it for a few days and then doing a simple drain and fill which is almost always exactly 1 gallon (4 quarts). I've spent about 60 on fluid so far, I figured if it saves my tranny for that much money great, if not, it's only 60 bucks.

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The only thing with doing this is you're not getting a lot out. The majority of your fluid is going to be in the torque converter, and inside the transmission. You're basically draining just the pan, and then mixing it all back up. I guess something is better than nothing though.

 

[thegipper]

Oh I know, my brother actually flushed it. I was just doing changes since I found some evidence that there was some moisture still in the tranny, although a tiny amount, I wanted to make sure I got it all out.

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[dradeka]

I took the truck to Monro for the radiator replacement. They had done some good work for me on an old Saab, and they also did the u joint on the truck. They charged me a flat rate of $160 for flushing out the trans after installing the new radiator. There were other line items for parts and labor etc but they didn't really make money on the trans flush. The total was shy of 700.

All of the comments here are helpful. I'm going to check the trans fluid this week, after a week of driving and maybe 600 miles from the last flush, for level and condition, just to be sure.

I have a couple of (maybe dumb) questions:
1) When/if the trans fails should I be concerned about sourcing a used trans with 100K or more miles?
2) I have heard not so good reports about rebuilds. What about remanufactured transmissions?
3) Where is that planetary gear? Is that part of the trans?

Thanks for the advice/guidance.