Originally Posted By: carviewsonic
How many miles on your Transmission? 160k miles. It is shuddering under acceleration. I tried all the remedies, short of a rebuild, no luck. My Buicks all came with Dex 3 in them, but GM switched to Dex 6 in 2006. From what I have researched, Dex 6 is a better trans fluid. So I use Dex 6 in all of them now.
How dirty have the filters been ? Wondering about just changing the fluid at 30,000 miles and leaving the pan & filter in place ?
I just did a pan drop and filter on my "garage queen" with only 14k miles. The fluid was clean red in color, but I was surprised to see the material on the magnet and gray layer on the pan bottom. Didn't open up the filter to examine. I installed a Transgo shift kit (lots of info on-line), a stronger high temp. magnet from K&J Magnetics (BY0X02SH), and used Dex 6. On your car, I would change the filter this time and install a pan with a drain plug, and maybe a filter every second change after that. My belief is that transmissions have break-in debris in the same way an engine has. The GM pan does have a magnet on the bottom, but GM issued a service bulletin to replace that one with 2 stronger ring magnets. They are available on-line. I haven't tried the Dorman drain plug pan yet, but might in the future when I get tired of undoing all those pan bolts . BTW I use a in-lb torque wrench (not that expensive to buy) on them, 120 in-lbs. Hope this helps...
Yes , the owner's manual indicates Dex 6 on our car .
I agree with you about " break-in debris " . One of the reason I did a spill & fill on our Chevy Sonic at a little over 30,000 miles . Since the filter on it is not DIY serviceable .
I wonder about these , I have several left over from another project ?
https://www.harborfreight.com/pack-of-2-ceramic-block-magnets-97504.html
Yes , looking at the Dorman pan , also .
I bought a filter & gasket . Think I have read the GM gasket is re-usable ?
Thanks for the torque specification . I have a 1/2" drive and a 3/8" drive torque wrenches / ratches .
Appreciate the assist !
God bless
Wyr