Chevrolet Silverado Transmission Failure

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It will sound a bit vague, but my co-worker "blew" his transmission in his Silverado (ZL1) on the way back from West Texas. Truck had around 70K on the odo, no fluid changes on the tranny. Don't have many details but he said it was shifting "funny" first, then threw CEL and finally gave up completely. Luckily it happened next to Chevy dealership in Austin. Waiting to hear back from them since his warranty expired (despite the fact he had an extended warranty but they for some reason trying to deny this fact). I'll post more as i get details from him.
 
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What, a manufacturer is not honoring a warranty? Never heard of it… /sarcasm

I hope he gets a new one out of it.
 
My '08 Silverado is on it's third trans rebuild...those 4L60s for ya. What year is your buddy's truck?
 
Originally Posted by TXCarGeek
My '08 Silverado is on it's third trans rebuild...those 4L60s for ya. What year is your buddy's truck?


Goes to show that throwing Clutches at a transmission doesn't fix the underlying problem that made it go out in the first place. Unless your tearing up hard parts?
 
Originally Posted by TXCarGeek
My '08 Silverado is on it's third trans rebuild...those 4L60s for ya. What year is your buddy's truck?


I had a 1997 Suburban 2500 4x4, 4L80 - never a single problem with the trans, and I towed a 5000 lb boat with it. I recently sold it with 115k miles. It did get fluid changes every 30k miles with Amsoil ATF.
 
I know the feeling my 4L60E in my 07 burban went out few weeks ago. Luckily was only 2 blocks from home, Had to limp it in 2nd gear
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Guess I have been lucky so far. have had maybe 15 GM vehicles Mix Silverado, Caprice, Suburban, Sierra, Trans am's ??? last 20 years with 4L60E trans and this is the 2nd one that has gone POOP on me



Luckily found a good local trans shop in Dallas who is gonna do it for $1200 out door with 16 Month warranty
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Dave
 
Torque converters in the 2014-2018's take a pounding when you cycle between V4 and V8 mode. Lots of people on the forums talk about it. Come to think about it...know a few people that have had their torque converters replaced in the vans without AFM too.

I've been very proactive in my maintenance on my 2018...at 46,000 miles now and I've already dumped the tranny fluid twice (filter and pan drop once). Don't know if that's going to help or not, but I'm hoping it will.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by clinebarger
Originally Posted by TXCarGeek
My '08 Silverado is on it's third trans rebuild...those 4L60s for ya. What year is your buddy's truck?


Goes to show that throwing Clutches at a transmission doesn't fix the underlying problem that made it go out in the first place. Unless your tearing up hard parts?



The first time, I can't remember exactly what happened to it because it was grandpa's truck before he passed away. I'd have to ask the dealer for the service write up from the first time to see what happened. The second time, after the vehicle came to me and my parents, the rebuilt trans was getting a 2-3 upshift chattering noise...clutches were going bad and I caught it early because it wasn't at the point of slipping yet. Luckily the trans still had warranty on it from the first rebuild that my grandpa paid for at the dealer.
 
Originally Posted by TXCarGeek
My '08 Silverado is on it's third trans rebuild...those 4L60s for ya. What year is your buddy's truck?


I'm sorry I couldn't resist...

OP, I hope your buddy gets it sorted out and doesn't get the run around, I am curious on what failed.

[Linked Image]
 
70K miles out of a transmission, I'd be one very unhappy camper. It makes me wonder how the vehicle was driven and used.......
 
Originally Posted by rubberchicken
Originally Posted by TXCarGeek
My '08 Silverado is on it's third trans rebuild...those 4L60s for ya. What year is your buddy's truck?


I had a 1997 Suburban 2500 4x4, 4L80 - never a single problem with the trans, and I towed a 5000 lb boat with it. I recently sold it with 115k miles. It did get fluid changes every 30k miles with Amsoil ATF.

4L80Es are a lot tougher transmission, the one in my '93 C3500 has 155K used & abused miles on it, never an issue. I did lose the O/D section on a GMC Savana 2500 (5.7L), but it was a fairly heavily loaded cargo van, with nonsensical 3.08 gears, which (IMO) put a bigger load on the transmission (I also had multiple extension housing bushings fail on it). Extra cooling, fluid capacity, and quality synthetic fluid all seem to help on these, when they went to Dex VI they seemed to get a lot better, including the later 4L60Es.
 
Originally Posted by demarpaint
70K miles out of a transmission, I'd be one very unhappy camper. It makes me wonder how the vehicle was driven and used.......

We're in oilfield so the truck has been driven all over the country including dusty county roads. Can't really speak how good is at maintenance (I don't think he's the greatest)
 
Originally Posted by TXCarGeek
My '08 Silverado is on it's third trans rebuild...those 4L60s for ya. What year is your buddy's truck?

I believe his truck is ‘15 or ‘16. Very fresh i'd say
 
Originally Posted by JLTD
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What, a manufacturer is not honoring a warranty? Never heard of it… /sarcasm

I hope he gets a new one out of it.

Funny enough, dealership says we can install a brand new tranny, and it'll be covered for 72minths 100k miles. But the tranny that came with a truck is only 5/60. Makes sense? It doesn't to me
 
I thought the 4L60E was a proven GM unit used in everything from cars up to 3/4 ton twucks.

A neighbor's 2000 (2001?) Camaro with the 3800 had that transmission.
The unit over a quart low so I topped it off (naturally) and never saw any evidence of leakage over several months.
A little reading on it revealed nothing but positive comments.

I'm confused. Darned GM.
 
Originally Posted by Kira
I thought the 4L60E was a proven GM unit used in everything from cars up to 3/4 ton twucks.

A neighbor's 2000 (2001?) Camaro with the 3800 had that transmission.
The unit over a quart low so I topped it off (naturally) and never saw any evidence of leakage over several months.
A little reading on it revealed nothing but positive comments.

I'm confused. Darned GM.

Sorta. They started back in what, '83 and in '87 they made some big changes that resulted in better reliability. Back then it was the 700R4.

Here's the rub. I'd guess they made around 25 million of them, and arguably most of them didn't get service of any kind, driven perhaps aggressively by the second owner and often used with highway gearing to eek out mpg's. In those days it was common to unlock the TC instead of downshift for when "just a bit more power" was required and IMO it may have been harder on the trans than just shifting a gear (due to higher heat generation combined with a tendency to never change ATF). Regardless. That many transmissions made for that long and across that many models... the web is going to sound like the transmission line is awful when in reality it's still a wear item.

But they do have some issues (sun shells I think was the last thing to get upgraded?) and do seem to be one of the lesser transmissions, but only if you compare against its big brother 4L80 let alone TH400's or 727's (not sure if C6 is in the same class?), pretty sure TH350 was only better when compared against the first gen 700R4.
 
In the past I had a 98 Yukon with a 4L60E. I had trouble with the transmission in that truck regularly. I did not tow with it ever. I think I put two transmissions in it and two transmission computers. The failure was the computer not sending the signal to increase the line pressure for it to go into 3-4. Once it did it on the road, the trans would be failed internally and would require a rebuild. I think the second rebuild I had it brought up to 4L65E specs and the new computer and my brother took the truck and put almost another 100,000 miles on it.

My 09 Suburban has the 6L80E. The trans originally did not have a cooler. A couple of times, I found the trans oil burned so I added a GM cooler to it. Helped a lot. At 181,000 miles, a month ago, the trans started acting poorly. I had it rebuilt in it's entirety and now it feels perfect. I'll have it serviced at 20,000 miles. Probably 60,000 mile intervals after that if I still have it.
 
Originally Posted by parshisa
Originally Posted by TXCarGeek
My '08 Silverado is on it's third trans rebuild...those 4L60s for ya. What year is your buddy's truck?

I believe his truck is ‘15 or ‘16. Very fresh i'd say


Could it have the 8sp in it?
 
Most of them have a pretty poor oil cooler. The one I have now has the additional ( tiny) ahead of radiator cooler. The first thing I did was tap off he outlet of that cooler and run it into a fill size generic one ive had on the shelf forever. You need all the help you can get with those trannies if you tow with them. I switched mine to synthetic Valvoline as well. An oil temp gauge would be a nice touch too. They are a good tranny just not so great for routinely towing or hauling heavy loads.
 
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