Need transmission advice please

[bigfeet]

Hello everyone. I have a 99 tahoe w/180k on it. My engine light went on and the code says trans slippage. It has been slipping very slightly once in a while. Fluid is clean and full. What tranny do I have and what is my next move. Can a shop fix it or should I go to the junkyard. Any advice at all will be a great help. I have no experience with tranny's. Thank you all in advance.

 

[Phone Man]

You have a 4L60e. I personally never had a good experience with local rebuilds. I ended up getting one from transmissioncenter.net and it wasn't cheap. Your signature says 383e. I have the same engine and had to get a beefed up tranny because the rebuilds blew. This one is holding up just fine.

 

[willxfs]

I'll second what phone man says. For some reason I just dont trust the local shops in my area. I'm sure they do a ton of trannys that work out just fine but all anyone talks about is the horror stories. So I ended up ponying up 2500 for a transmission from transmissioncenter.net (Makes no sense really, dont know why the internet shop seamed more trustworthy, at least they were semi local for me) That was 6 months ago. Working great so far!

 

[ChvyGirl]

Hello everyone. I have a 99 tahoe w/180k on it. My engine light went on and the code says trans slippage. It has been slipping very slightly once in a while. Fluid is clean and full. What tranny do I have and what is my next move. Can a shop fix it or should I go to the junkyard. Any advice at all will be a great help. I have no experience with tranny's. Thank you all in advance.

I would personally do some searching for tranny shops in your area. You never know, there may be some great shops that trucks use regularly...

If your search comes up empty, there's always the internet!!

Also, if you tend to beat the heck out of your tranny...I would beef it up versus just rebuilding your 4L60E!!

 

[KPOD]

There is a guy near me that mainly just does work on off-roading vehicles, he says he can rebuild my 4L60E and get it installed for about $2500. He offers a 3-year/36,000 on it as well. As far as I can tell, he rebuilds it specifically to handle the demands of off-roading. If I were you OP, I would call around to any local shops and see if anyone offers anything better than the crappy 1 year/12 month warranty.

 

[bigfeet]

Thank you all. My sig says "soon, 383, shortys" I have not got aroung to that swap yet, lol. Currently running the stock motor. Is getting a tranny from the junkyard a bad idea? If so I should probably go for the $2500.

 

[KPOD]

If it's in a junkyard, you have no idea of it's current condition unless you can still drive the vehicle.

 

[Gzes]

My junkyards trans blew fast.... My local guy is the best n got it for 1200

 

[WalterMitty]

I'll chime in with my experience. I had 4L60e rebuilt at a dealership at about 74,000 miles. The rebuild almost lasted that long and it wasn't cheap. Replacing it was not an option for me because it was an oddball revision. When it came time to do again, I shopped my state for a rebuilder that serviced the high performance market, offered serious upgrades, and had a very good warranty. That rebuild solved my problems and it's new owner has a great truck.

This will not be the cheapest path to go, but unless your goal is to just get it going so you can sell it, your best path will be a high quality upgraded rebuild.

If your choice is to find a salvage transmission to fit a 14 year old truck, well, a transmission isn't like a bumper or a skid plate that if it looks ok it'll be ok. The only use for a salvage transmission in my view is to provide a core for a rebuilder to work with because your original has a hole in the case or some other serious problem.

 

[purple 'hoe]

Either rebuild it yourself, find yourself a good builder (who offers a warranty also) or buy a new transmission from a vendor.

Or, find yourself a 4L80E and swap it in. That swap will take some modifications, but it can be done. A built 4L60E has about the strength of a stock 80E IMO