My brother and I dropped my tranny pan yesterday to change the filter and check magnets (I've been have "a/t oil temp" light issues). The filter was especially dirty and contained a piece of what looked like a clutch band. Probably not real good, right? The magnets just had like grey sludge (clutch dust?) on them but no signs of metal shavings. We cleaned the pan and magnets real well and re-installed then we topped off the fluid. This morning I took it for a test drive (to work) approx. 50 miles and got the a/t oil temp light twice. I've been messing with this thing for a couple of years now and am @ the point of getting a rebuilt unit to put in my truck. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. btw, 3.0 with a340h; diagnostic codes pulled only showed that my no. 4 solenoid was out.

 

Something is wrong for sure. When I dropped my pan the filter was hardly dirty at all and I've never had my AT temp light come on in 13 years of driving this truck. Have you been following the FSM trouble shooting proceedures? http://personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-b...fsm/index.html

trannies
http://personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-b...autotrans.html

 

we definitely covered much of the info in the basic troubleshooting just by default. Fluid looked suprisingly good considering the light has been tripped before. My brother said that it didn't smell burnt either. The filter had all kinds of crap in it but no metal. I'm thinking I'll be better of putting in a rebuilt unit as opposed to trying to chase down all the little things in my current tranny. I have a bad feeling that in the end fixing my current tranny will far exceed the price of have a rebuilt unit installed. btw, thanks for your response

 

Really, you are ready to give up on it all ready? It could be something simple for all I know. How much is a rebuilt one?

 

Did you check your trans oil cooler to make see if the ATF is flowing ok?

 

yeah, i focused alot of attention on cooling aspects early on, mostly out of fear of what other problems could exist. Sort of that "start with the simplest" probable causes first, fluid level, coolers (stock and auxillary), after posting this I drove the vehicle approx. 40 miles with OD off at speeds between 55-60 and had the temp light come on again. First time for that. BTW, wouldn't finding a piece of a clutch band in the filter be probable cause enough to want to look into a rebuild? I'm just afraid if I put money into hard parts that I'll end up in the same position in the long run. Thanks for the replies, I appreciate your insight!

 

If it hasn't failed in "a couple of years now" without failure or burning the fluid, at least take the time to check out the transmission temperature sending unit that triggers the overheating light. If thats bad, even a new or rebuilt transmission will trigger it. Good Luck.

 

Good idea, also consider installing a trans temp gauge so you know what temps you're at before your idiot light goes off. I'm putting one in now: http://community.webshots.com/photo/...42310107ciNNgv

 

thanks for the tips, I will definitely consider it. I backed out on the rebuild right now, my brother wants to drop the pan and check out the solenoids (mainly #3) plus drop the xfer case pan and swap out the #4 since a diagnostic test showed that it was toast (no 4low, found out the hard way) I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks again guys.