I'm hoping to get this fixed enough to make the drive home with as small an investment as possible, given that I have a complete 6MT swap once I get there. Would super suck to have to rebuild a trans just to yank it back out in less than 3k miles
GM auto box issues, far from home edition
1 - 20 of 27 Posts
Put it u[p in the air to check fluid level, which was fine. Because I was under there with the car running I was able to hear some pretty bad noises coming from the box, which gave me a sinking feeling. Drained fluid - very dark given that it was changed somewhat recently, and could see some sparkles in it - and dropped the pan. A prospector would be thrilled to see so much metal in their pan!
Looks like it's toast.
Looks like it's toast.
If you can get a trans for that little $$ it definitely seems like the best course of action.
2
Last Week -
![]()
I got headed out a week late, but still headed home.
Ogden Utah here, on the second morning.
![]()
Battery light came on briefly in Wyoming so I started watching the temp gauge in case the serpentine belt had been thrown, but all good. Light went back out so I decided to just monitor it and see how it shook out, since I really wasn't anywhere where I might have done anything about it anyway - there's a whole lot of nothing in Eastern Wyoming and Western Nebraska!
Plan had been to spend that night in Lincoln, NE, and I was on track to roll in about quarter to eleven. At some point the low coolant light came on, but the car was too warm to check it and it tends to give a lot of false alarms anyway, so I didn't think too much about it, check it before heading out in the morning.
Half an hour West of Lincoln the dash starts lighting up, the trans cog right among the first. I was still driving, but now locked in fourth gear, more lights coming on and I figured out that this was low voltage and that I'd lost the alternator. When the headlights cut out I had to make it to the shoulder.
Called AAA at 10:10 and didn't hear from a local dispatcher until 1:30, was after two when she told me that they weren't going to be able to send a truck for me and that I could either find my own tow and submit for reimbursement, or Uber or something into town and they'd pick it up unattended at some later time. I talked to a guy who wouldn't be able to get anyone there until morning, so I made enough room in the back to get a little bit comfortable and get some sleep until then.
He was supposed to call me at 8 (he didn't) but I figured I'd give AAA another go and called again at 7:30. This time got a guy who had me all set up in just a few minutes, even accounting for the trailer. I found European Auto Tech on Google and decided that a good indy shop was going to be a better bet for me than the dealer, so called as soon as they opened and let them know that I was on my way. Corey and Ben there took care of me (and my cats!) and got an alternator from a NAPA that was in town (lucky, since the next closest was in Kansas City) and I was back under way around 1, hoping to make it 7 hours to St. Louis for the night, leaving an 11 hour drive home from there.
I made it less than five miles.
I'd noticed the temp creeping up leaving red lights pretty quickly, and the low coolant light came back on despite having just been topped up, and thought that perhaps the harness to the cooling fan had been forgotten, but when I pulled in to gas up and look at it I saw expansion tank spewing at the top seam. I turned around and started trying to make it back to European Auto Tech, but by now the temp gauge was starting to get dangerously high, so stopped and bought 3 gallons of water and fought for about an hour to get rid of the air bubbly that had by now gotten into the engine.
Did eventually get back and Corey happened to have an expansion tank on the shelf and Ben popped it in for me and filled up the system in no time.
...and then saw the crack in the radiator end tank.
I spent two days in Lincoln waiting on the part, then the bypass assembly on the Nissens unit wouldn't seal and it dumped all the coolant straight out onto the floor.
Ben happened to have one from a genuine radiator that fit somehow and that solved the problem and finally got me back under way.
I made it to Nashville last night, and finally home this afternoon. Finally.
The trans that I had put in learned some weird trick during my stay in Lincoln, and now it stumbles and sometimes stalls when put into reverse. Not really sure what's up with that, but it really made for a tense two days wondering whether it was going to hold up and get me home or not. I think I'm going to be doing this manual swap that I've been meaning to get to sooner rather than later.
All in all, it was a pretty hellish trip this time, but glad to have met Corey and Ben at European Auto Tech. If you happen to be in Lincoln, NE and need help I can't recommend them enough.
I got headed out a week late, but still headed home.
Ogden Utah here, on the second morning.
Battery light came on briefly in Wyoming so I started watching the temp gauge in case the serpentine belt had been thrown, but all good. Light went back out so I decided to just monitor it and see how it shook out, since I really wasn't anywhere where I might have done anything about it anyway - there's a whole lot of nothing in Eastern Wyoming and Western Nebraska!
Plan had been to spend that night in Lincoln, NE, and I was on track to roll in about quarter to eleven. At some point the low coolant light came on, but the car was too warm to check it and it tends to give a lot of false alarms anyway, so I didn't think too much about it, check it before heading out in the morning.
Half an hour West of Lincoln the dash starts lighting up, the trans cog right among the first. I was still driving, but now locked in fourth gear, more lights coming on and I figured out that this was low voltage and that I'd lost the alternator. When the headlights cut out I had to make it to the shoulder.
Called AAA at 10:10 and didn't hear from a local dispatcher until 1:30, was after two when she told me that they weren't going to be able to send a truck for me and that I could either find my own tow and submit for reimbursement, or Uber or something into town and they'd pick it up unattended at some later time. I talked to a guy who wouldn't be able to get anyone there until morning, so I made enough room in the back to get a little bit comfortable and get some sleep until then.
He was supposed to call me at 8 (he didn't) but I figured I'd give AAA another go and called again at 7:30. This time got a guy who had me all set up in just a few minutes, even accounting for the trailer. I found European Auto Tech on Google and decided that a good indy shop was going to be a better bet for me than the dealer, so called as soon as they opened and let them know that I was on my way. Corey and Ben there took care of me (and my cats!) and got an alternator from a NAPA that was in town (lucky, since the next closest was in Kansas City) and I was back under way around 1, hoping to make it 7 hours to St. Louis for the night, leaving an 11 hour drive home from there.
I made it less than five miles.
I'd noticed the temp creeping up leaving red lights pretty quickly, and the low coolant light came back on despite having just been topped up, and thought that perhaps the harness to the cooling fan had been forgotten, but when I pulled in to gas up and look at it I saw expansion tank spewing at the top seam. I turned around and started trying to make it back to European Auto Tech, but by now the temp gauge was starting to get dangerously high, so stopped and bought 3 gallons of water and fought for about an hour to get rid of the air bubbly that had by now gotten into the engine.
Did eventually get back and Corey happened to have an expansion tank on the shelf and Ben popped it in for me and filled up the system in no time.
...and then saw the crack in the radiator end tank.
I spent two days in Lincoln waiting on the part, then the bypass assembly on the Nissens unit wouldn't seal and it dumped all the coolant straight out onto the floor.
Ben happened to have one from a genuine radiator that fit somehow and that solved the problem and finally got me back under way.
I made it to Nashville last night, and finally home this afternoon. Finally.
The trans that I had put in learned some weird trick during my stay in Lincoln, and now it stumbles and sometimes stalls when put into reverse. Not really sure what's up with that, but it really made for a tense two days wondering whether it was going to hold up and get me home or not. I think I'm going to be doing this manual swap that I've been meaning to get to sooner rather than later.
All in all, it was a pretty hellish trip this time, but glad to have met Corey and Ben at European Auto Tech. If you happen to be in Lincoln, NE and need help I can't recommend them enough.
1 - 20 of 27 Posts
