Tranny Questions (looking at a burban)

[Yukon420SEL]

My brother was lookin at a 98 suburban yesterday, okay price 194k one owner since new, drove fine no spongy brakes no knocks or ticks straight body, tailgait, usual minimal rust, but it did have one issue that worried me. When you drove it normally the tranny would shit fine no issues but at WOT it would rev and not catch from 3 to 2nd, you could maually shit all the gears with no issue. Now iv read alot of threats on this issue and have found that it would be simply low fluid (which i did check and it was lower and brownish) spark plugs or simply in need of a filter change, or be about to blow. I would normally just walk away if there was any hint of tranny problems but in feel this might be an exception. any opinions would be apprecated?

-troy

 

[Donnie Yukonie]

brown low tranny fluid i would say is a ticking time bomb and sounds like the clutch bands are slipping . it could fail the next time its drivin or 6 months from now never know what a trans will do how muh they asking?

 

[Yukon420SEL]

well he wants 29oo, i bet i can get him down to 21-23oo, its a pretty clean rig, been sitting for a couple months, but im just tryin not to get buyers block (where you see past major issues because you want it) and the fluid didnt look that bad just wasnt cherry red

 

[Donnie Yukonie]

its a gamble , so count a new transmission in the future since we dont live in a perfect world where they fix themselves , offer him 2000 cash if he takes it buy it tranny rebuilds can range from 900 to 1800

 

[Yukon420SEL]

thanks for the input and yeah those were my excact thoughts for the price, no one wants a truck with tranny issues and honestly if i didnt put it to the floor on the test drive i would have never noticed it.

 

[purple 'hoe]

If you can get the price low enough, I'd say go for it. If you can do the work yourself in either swapping in a rebuild or rebuilding your transmission yourself then you can really save some money and come out with a good deal.

Does the seller know of the issue at all? Did you mention it to him?

 

[04SS99Denali]

sounds like slipping clutches as said above. probably a ticking time bomb but if the trucks cheap and clean buy it and drive it till it takes a hot and ******. you never know it might last for years or it could last for a few months. find a good reputable shop to rebuild it even if it costs a bit more. from my experience with these transmissions the cheapo shops that rebuild them usually dont last to long because they dont know what there doing