LS4 Front-Drives 2005-2010 - Longevity Of Your Transmissions

Hey guys,

Im curious to see what the trend is around here when it comes to broken and fixed trannies.

Id like to start a poll to see how long it took(mileage) before your unit failed and had to be replaced/repaired. It seems to me that the typical failure occurs between 30-50,000 miles. *This is going by the light reading i've done here every now and then.

Thanks and please vote!

didn't vote - cuz I haven't had to repair or replace mine yet... and it's still strong as ever, runs like new... haven't had any issues with it...

and I'm just about at 69,000 miles....

;)


and I don't baby it either... I get on it all the time... whenever I have enough room in front of me, I'm on it...

and have left my fair share of dual burn-outs on many a road/driveway too...

Looks like you are only polling cars that have failed already, mine hasn't failed yet either, 50k.

You need to add "suspect it to fail soon"...cuz that's where my vote would be placed. Every once in a while it will clunk when first accelerating, and the highway shifts are getting super sloppy. It likes to stay in 3rd a lot, and I need to play takeaway with the gas pedal to get OD to engage at times.

Are these symptoms of the Valve Body failing? What's the typical cost to get this fixed/replaced before the whole thing blows?

EDIT: ~46,000mi

Mine is still good - so far . 25K

mine has 21,000 miles and seems fine, however, mine tends to short shift from 2nd to 3rd at wot. Is that normal?

mine has 21,000 miles and seems fine, however, mine tends to short shift from 2nd to 3rd at wot. Is that normal?

If you're in drive, it should shift right around 90mph into 3rd gear at WOT. If you put it in manual mode in 2, it'll go to right at 100mph in 2nd gear.

Im curious to know. My old man has a gxp that he drives back and forth to work, 95% highway driving.

You need to add "suspect it to fail soon"...cuz that's where my vote would be placed. Every once in a while it will clunk when first accelerating, and the highway shifts are getting super sloppy. It likes to stay in 3rd a lot, and I need to play takeaway with the gas pedal to get OD to engage at times.

Are these symptoms of the Valve Body failing? What's the typical cost to get this fixed/replaced before the whole thing blows?

EDIT: ~46,000mi

I've noticed that when DOD engages, the transmission disengages and re-engages to smooth out the transition, you can see it on the tach. Anyone else notice that? Also, if you touch the gas under certain circumstances while the DOD is engaging, it will hard shift.

LOL... "suspect it to fail soon"...option....LOL

My GTP (Same tranny, car was putting out a little more power than a GXP GP) was starting to go at 70k. It'll be gone in the next 5k.

Mine is still running fine also 43kmi(knocks on wood)

Hey Miranda, I see you joined over here now. Tons o' knowledge here.

I've got 92000kms and just got the trans oil and filter changed, other than that its all good. And i've had the temps up buy 225-240 so many times i lost count, no burnt oil or anything

I'm at 70k now and mine is starting to slip in the cold and going up hills from a dead stop. I'm pretty sure it is valve body, but it is still nuts.


this transmission sucked in my 240 hp GTP, so it's a good thing that GM decided to put it in a car with 60 more hp.

84,000 km and counting - no problems yet.

:cheers:

i think GM weakness is the tranny. My dad has the b-body 96 impala, blown tranny at 100000 miles, he then had a 99 tahoe, tranny started slipping at 80000. I had an 01 grand prix gt, tranny started going around 90000 miles. my step dad has an 05 GXP, tranny replaced at 45000 miles..

Overall, My family has had bad luck with GM trannys.. The only one that lasted was an 91 caprice classic and it had 170,000 miles on it when he traded it in and we pulled a boat. No tranny problems at all..

my 95 monte calo Z34 went at 80k
my 01 gtp went at 75k
and my 06 Impala SS is going at 70k

My old man is looking at replacing his oil in it very soon. He wants to know whats the best fluid out there to use or should he just go with OEM fluid?

I have 67k on my 06 GXP and just had the fluid changed and had a cooler installed. The existing fluid wasn't burnt but it seems to be shifting better with the new fluid.

So what fluid do you guys recomend? Also for those that have installed a cooler, did you notice a drop in the trans temparature?

I replaced mine at 64 - 65 thousand miles. My trans. went bad at 48 thousand miles but I nursed it until the 64 thousand mile range.

It had a scortched 2nd gear drum, bad clutches, and a clogged valve body. The new one seems to get really hot so I am sure i'll be changing it again sometime. Oh, and this is driving like a grandpa and all that still went bad. These transmissions suck in the V-8's!

-Mike

Stealth,

Wow, did you have bad shifting at that high of a temp? 240 is very high for trans. temps.

-Mike

mybe u guys can tell me whats wrong..coming home the other night and im doin about 75-80ish and i go to floor it and my car goes absolutly nowhere..i mean nowhere. i took my foot off and did it again and same result happened..tach would just hover around 4000rpm and not move..does anyone know what this might be engine or tanny??

sounds maybe like transmission

My old GT did that and it turned out to be a bad cat. converter.

-Mike

43K a mix of getting on it and driving civil. Also doing manual down shifts. I want to change the fluid/filter at 50K.

43K a mix of getting on it and driving civil. Also doing manual down shifts. I want to change the fluid/filter at 50K.

yup, that's when I had mine done... got mine changed at 50/55k...

Damn I did mine @ 30K.

Has anyone with a cooler installed still have their trans fail?

I thought ATF needed to be changed every 30K. Am I wrong?

Well the fluid in our cars is a syntetic, It depends on what the owners manual says.

I need to look at that. lol

If you run the car hard then it's every 50K

If you drive normal (old lady like) then 100K

So if you are anything like the rest of us 50K is a good bet, or sooner.

Wow. That's good. I definitely figured it would be sooner. I had to do it every 30K miles on my Dodge Stratus R/T coupe (3.0L V6 / 4-spd auto).

mines is about at 50 k and when i jump from first to second the car jumps abit like givin it a push dont knw if thats good or bad and also it tends to high rev into second not wanting to go into third

Mine feels like you let off the gas during shifts, kinda annoying to watch the nose drop during shifts, but its always done that, hasn't gotten any worse. I don't think its handling the gears right.

mine took a shit at 37k, a week later it started to shutter again, and now iam waiting on gm to aprove the servcie bulletin for my car
there is a bulleitin for 05 gxp`s the repair is new tourqe converter, and new tranny
i cant wait to trade this car in i have had more problems then ever with this car, and iam not buying a gm product again

39,000

mine took a shit at 37k, a week later it started to shutter again, and now iam waiting on gm to aprove the servcie bulletin for my car
there is a bulleitin for 05 gxp`s the repair is new tourqe converter, and new tranny
i cant wait to trade this car in i have had more problems then ever with this car, and iam not buying a gm product again


well - why not??? you could probably get a Pontiac for CHEAP right now

:jest: :jest:

Mine feels like you let off the gas during shifts, kinda annoying to watch the nose drop during shifts, but its always done that, hasn't gotten any worse. I don't think its handling the gears right.

Do you have a tune? Torque management cuts throttle back between shifts.

Stock, no tune.

Mine was wierd like that, but adding pressure to the up shifts firmed it right up. Thank you again HP Tuner.

i have had more problems then ever with this car, and iam not buying a gm product again

word, i lost count how many times my car has been to the dealer. No tranny problems yet but the inside of the car is so f***in' cheap. Brakes last 6 months, compass always needs calibration, i could go on all day...

sad thing is, I really want to love my car.

u can calibrate the compass on your own

I'm on the third transmission in 29,000 miles.

I wonder all you GXP guys that had the tranny go, do you use the tap shift a lot?

A lot meaning more than 2-3 days a week.

Bryan, you might be on to something. On another note if the SS had tap shift, I'd use it everyday.

any suggestions on the type of fluid to be used when replacing?

stock. its a new formulated fluid i haven't see a good aftermarket replacement yet.

i never use tap shift, the bottom line is this crappy parts inside a tranny thats not made to handle all this power and torque, plus there is a service bulletin for the 05 for tcc, and to replace the tranny

iam with texasgxp i want to love my car but more problems then problems, here is another one this thursday i went to my car to get my smokes i look on my seat its wet look up and my headliner is completely soaked!!!

again had to fix the onstar antenna, and the problem was clogged drain tubes for the moonroof, unreal!!! iam sorry but i cant have this many problems with this car anymore, iam looking at either dodge srt-8, or an import, the quality from an import and the longevity is second to none

bye-bye gm

I'm at 76,000 miles and no tranny issues yet. the headliner rattles and squeks like crazy over every bump, but other then that no comlplaints.

im going to try flushing mine next weekend with Dex 6. hopefully it helps my slipping from dead start issues.