Another Tahoe and another transmission….

[A930Rocket]

So, Ms Rocket is on her way home from working as a traveling nurse in New Hampshire. She’s in stop and go traffic and when she hits the gas pedal, nothing. The engine works, it just won’t go anywhere. She calls 911, state troopers show up, they stop traffic, and then push the car from the fast lane to the breakdown lane.

She’s in Sturbridge, which is south of Worchester, Massachusetts.

Today, I was going to call our transmission shop here in Charleston, to make an appointment, to have it looked at next week. Instead of a $2500 rebuild, now we are going to scramble to find a place up there to rebuild or replace it and probably pay twice as much.

When she was having starting problems a month or so ago, we had the park/neutral switch replaced, which is inside the transmission, so we have a filter and fluid changed at that time.

This is a 2015 Tahoe, and she’s at 180,000 miles or more, so the transmission doesn’t owe us anything. Last time, it was her 2010 Tahoe. Just bad luck that she broke down up there and not at home.

[Eric 951]

same thing happened to me this AM 2016 suburban 120K, no gears forward/reverse. I know GM transmissions from this era in these models can have failures like this, luckily I was in the driveway. Oh well, definitely worth fixing, since it is a great truck.

[A930Rocket]

You might want to check and make sure the shifter cable did not detach from the transmission. That happened once before on her 2010 Tahoe and left her stranded. Luckily, the tow truck driver looked underneath. He was able to rig it, so she could drive home from Savannah.

She loves the truck. We bought it a couple years ago with 125K, so I don’t know if the transmissions been rebuilt before or not.

[Brian 162]

I remember your last thread, I may of mentioned the torque converter has issues as well. This would be the time to have it looked at.
Hopefully they can find the problem, they’re great vehicles. I just returned home from Florida in my 17. Great long distance vehicle.

[A930Rocket]

Reading online, it was recommended to get a billet torque converter.

Here’s what a guy on the Tahoe forms recommended for the transmission rebuild. I did a copy and paste, because I have no idea what he’s talking about. Transmissions are not my forte.

Billet torque converter
Billet piston: The Sonnax 4-5-6 piston kit is a good upgrade but I'd have also installed their 1-2-3-4 billet piston as opposed to another GM factory piston

Replace the TEHCM??

flip the pill inside your thermal bypass valve

replace the piston set snap rings in the 3-5-R and 4-5-6 drums? The 3-5-R apply/balance piston snap ring is more prone to failure and if it goes, it usually takes the 1-2-3-4/3-5-R circuit partitioning O-ring with it resulting in 3rd gear starts.

The 2012 and up 3-5-R drums will accept a spiral-lock snap ring in that location

Delete the AFM-active fuel management. Stops the engine from going from an eight cylinder to a four-cylinder.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by A930Rocket

Billet torque converter
Billet piston: The Sonnax 4-5-6 piston kit is a good upgrade but I'd have also installed their 1-2-3-4 billet piston as opposed to another GM factory piston

Replace the TEHCM??

flip the pill inside your thermal bypass valve

replace the piston set snap rings in the 3-5-R and 4-5-6 drums? The 3-5-R apply/balance piston snap ring is more prone to failure and if it goes, it usually takes the 1-2-3-4/3-5-R circuit partitioning O-ring with it resulting in 3rd gear starts.

The 2012 and up 3-5-R drums will accept a spiral-lock snap ring in that location

Delete the AFM-active fuel management. Stops the engine from going from an eight cylinder to a four-cylinder.

Uh huh, sure. Exactly what I was going to say.

[Brian 162]

^^^^^^ That's to complicated for me.

[jyl]

How are you finding your new couch bed? Comfy?

J/k but when my wife’s car breaks down, there is hell to pay.

[A930Rocket]

^^^ She understands there’s not much I can do. from 900 miles away, but I’ve been helping her look online, finding a shop, talking to the guys, etc. They have the transmission rebuilt, with updated aftermarket parts, back in the truck and are dialing it in. Hopefully it’ll be ready this afternoon and tomorrow morning she can start to head back home again.

Talking to the guys at the shop, they recommended replacing the fluid and filter, every 25 to 30,000 miles.

As we bought it used, who knows if it was ever changed, except when we were looking into the starting issue and replaced the neutral safety switch. There was a ton of fines on the magnet and in the pan. The shop that did the work at that time, said the transmission was on its final legs. We just wanted to nurse it to get it home and have it repaired here.

[jyl]

Ah so you will move onto the couch when she gets home. Enjoying your last nights in a real bed!

[A930Rocket]

They rebuilt the transmission and she picked it up a couple hours ago. She said it drives like a new truck.

She’ll leave in the morning and we’ll see how it does on a 900 mile trip.

This is the last vehicle she’s going to own, so there will be expenses, every once in a while.

[onewhippedpuppy]

All I can say is sorry man, you’re living my current nightmare! My daughter is about to head off to college 2.5 hours away where I can’t always fix her car. Makes me nervous as hell! Considering upgrading her GLK350 but all the modern stuff either sucks or is too expensive.

[Brian 162]

Glad you got it sorted.

[WPOZZZ]

Originally Posted by A930Rocket

They rebuilt the transmission and she picked it up a couple hours ago. She said it drives like a new truck.

She’ll leave in the morning and we’ll see how it does on a 900 mile trip.

This is the last vehicle she’s going to own, so there will be expenses, every once in a while.

They rebuilt the tranny overnight? Wow!

[A930Rocket]

Originally Posted by WPOZZZ

They rebuilt the tranny overnight? Wow!

They pulled it Tuesday, started the rebuild, finished the rebuild Wednesday and got it back in the car Wednesday afternoon.

They were really trying to help her out, by jumping the line, rebuilding it, and getting her back on the road.

They said they get three or four transmissions every year at this time, from people traveling for the holidays.

Also, they said they keep one on the shelf, to speed things up, but they rebuilt hers. At least, that’s what they said…

[onewhippedpuppy]

I’m really surprised they actually rebuilt it. Typically those places just swap out with a reman, especially for something common like a Tahoe.

[Arizona_928]

Judging off the YouTube videos where guys do complete tear downs in less than 30 minutes… Entirely possible to rebuild a 4l80 in a morning after the parts come in.

[A930Rocket]

And she’s home.

She left Worchester, MA at about 1:30 this morning and got home at about 7:00 pm.

[Steve Carlton]

Good news. How much was the job and what upgrades did you get?

[A930Rocket]

I haven’t looked at the receipt yet, but it was $4998. It was under $5000, so there’s that! 😂

I haven’t seen the receipt yet, but need to look at what all they did. I asked him about standard upgrades, and he said they upgrade all the known parts that fail. He didn’t recommend the billet torque converter.