average lifespan of a transmission?

might be time for another flushing????? try that first for another year and a half.. the transmission should last as long as the vehicle.....

The FMX transmission in my '67 Galaxie 500 was still working at ~202,000 miles when I sold it. The only problem it had was that when it got below freezing the transmission would slip on the first 2-3 shift if I didn't let it warm up before allowing it to shift to 3rd. After warming up shifts were firm. This started happening after a few obscenely high RPM full throttle manual shifts, holding 1st until the 289 ran out of breath, and sometimes

2nd. Keep in mind 289s love to rev, and that engine kept pulling and kept revving... It would keep revving for a long while past what my '68 302 would! In any case, I'd call that a minor problem which was most likely caused by a bit of hard driving and beating on the tranny rather than any normal failure.

I would expect an engine and transmission, if well cared for, should last at least 200,000 miles without any major failures. Unless of course we are talking about most FWD automatic transaxles which just plain such and seem to be prone to failure. I've heard Ford has fixed that in recent years, but still, I hear about a lot of transmission failures in domestic FWD automatic vehicles... Not only Fords. I don't understand why that seems to be such a common failure point. Maybe it's all the heat in the engine compartment and the higher running temperatures of modern engines putting more stress on the transaxle than a normal transmission would take.

might be time to bring it to a place to diagnose...

good luck partner..

On a chevrolet it is 162,000 trouble free miles and counting But I do tow a flatbed trailer and race car with it

a friend of mine added brake fluid to his transmission. this stopped the transmission from slipping.

the the tranny fluid is correct, and it was flushed about a year and a half ago.

any suggestions? !Justin

go to any transmission shop and they can give a round figure of what is reasonable for a particular model.

there are a lot of factors, other than the usual - lead foot.

for example, some transmissions are the same and will give a certain amount of mileage out them, but when used in a heavy body, or hooked up to a slightly larger engine that was offered from the factory, the trans life shortens, not to mention what the transmission is hauling around on it's back.

for what's it worth dept. got a friend i've known for decades who works at trans shop. he can tell me within a certain amount of miles what the usual life is of a transmission for a particular brand.

i was told that the ranger automatic will get anywhere from 80 to 140k out of it. my son has one and took excellent care of the truck. at

130k, the overdrive unit went out. he kept saying, that he didn't do anything wrong. it just went out. i looked at him and said, i understand and left it at that.

yes, some trans units are going to get a lot more, but there are some that will be replaced at 50k.

bought a van with 63k and bad trans. records in the glove box showed the trans had been replaced at 43k. so this was the second trans that had gone out of it. paid to have jasper engines to rebuild it, and sold van. 11k, they said the trans was out of it again. luck of the draw???? i don't know. i can only tell you what i've saw or experienced.

~ curtis

knowledge is power - growing old is mandatory - growing wise is optional

My suggestion is to not take it to AAMCO. Try a Jasper transmission or have it rebuilt at an ATRA member shop. The Jasper transmission might have a good guarantee (their engines do).

And what kind of van was this?

Bob

hi bob - it was a 1993 dodge caravan.

we were the largest mini van dealer in the area. i've sold a lot of areostars, windstars, apv's, and caravans.

the areostar transmission is basically same as the ranger transmission but is has more load on it due to bigger body. jasper engine and transmission plant is just down the road. and when they did the rebuild on a transmission, they usually stayed fixed. that is were i got the numbers 80k and up because they see them come in.

the windstars had transmission problems when they came out. one transmission repairman just came back from school and said that ford has safety switches and limiters on the transmission to prevent damage to the unit in drive, but when you put it in reverse, the transmission bypasses all the safety switches and it will let the internal pressures build up too great and blow the transmission in reverse if you do over

30 mph in reverse. i said, "ok, that makes sense. how many drive 30 mph in reverse?"

he looked at me and said, "when you get stuck in snow and are rocking the vehicle out of the drift going from low to reverse, they blow the transmission. we got three of them in this morning alone"

the apv's held up usually very well. sold 42 to one company and we had reports that some of them had over 200,000 miles on them without a wrench put on either the engine or transmission. these were the 3.1 units. didn't get enough in to comment about the 3.8 units, other than to say they had more power. i'm not saying that all of them do that, but we had good service reports from our customers. never had a complaint about the transmission after we sold the unit.

the caravans would give us a lot of transmission problems. the 1993 was the worse. and the person who rebuilt the transmission was the head shop foreman in the jasper transmission shop with over 30 years experience. and as i said, the transmission didn't hold up that long. i've had a customer that brought a caravan in with 152,000 miles on it and wanted to trade it in. they had put 4 transmissions in it and spent

1100 on the last repair. the mechanic that repaired it told them to get rid of the van before it had 11,000 miles on it. they had drove it 12,000 miles and it was acting up, which is why they were wanting to trade it in.

speaking on the other side, i've known of a person who has had two caravans that they bought new, drove 200,000 miles and never had any problems with the transmission.

it also seems that the 4 cly transmission unit held up longer than the 6 cly models.

i had a full size dodge van that the transmission started shifting strange and took it to the transmission shop. i was informed at that time that it wasn't just the front wheel drive transmissions that have problems, that the rear wheel do to and at about the same mileage. and the cost of the repair for a rear wheel drive transmission was the same as the front wheel drive - 1600 dollars.

~ curtis

i will put a STRONG disclaimer on the post. i am NOT promoting one brand over the other. i presented the facts as i've experienced them. i'm sure that there are good units of all brands out there. i encourage others can join in and maybe the reader can get a more overall picture of what they have.

knowledge is power - growing old is mandatory - growing wise is optional

interesting you said it was a 93 caravan. My buddy has one he bought at 60K.

Had one trannie redone, and now it needs it again at 160K. He seems to think

50 to 70K are about average for them. And now, he is buying a 97 caravan with 60K on it. I wonder how much the mopars have improved? With this many years of failures, why have they not improved them more?

All my taurus have not lost any trannies (four of them). even the high mileage ones. But i baby my cars and only get 3.0's. And non were the notorious

91's.

I am curious to anyone's experience with different trannies and there lifetimes. It seems to me the auto makers don't want them to last forever.

BOB

,

We have hundreds of pickups and the more recent ones are Dodges. Compared to past Ford and Chevies used in the same service conditions these dodges have a lot more early transmission failures. Many going belly up by 30K. Many of them also have the paint come off if you try to clean tar off with a pressure washer - something that was never a problem with fords and chevies. I have rarely met anyone who owned a Chrysler product who didn't have more then the normal amount of problems.

-- Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts:

"What, sir, is the use of militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty. . . Whenever Government means to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise a standing army upon its ruins." -- Debate, U.S. House of Representatives, August 17, 1789

for what's worth dept - again i don't want to sound like i'm anti - dodge, but i talked with the person who rebuilds the transmissions at the dodge dealership and he said that the tranny will last about 80k before it needs a rebuilt and for some reason the rebuild doesn't last

80k but more like 50k, so at 130k, you are looking at another rebuild. he also said that was for the 3.0 engine, if someone has a 3.3, the engine is a little stronger and they see them come in with about 75k because it tears them out quicker.

he said the trucks are just as bad.

a lot of folks bought the dodge truck. the other manufactures thought enough of it to incorporate some of dodge's features into their vehicles.

dodge has had one fantastic drive train with the hemi and the 727 tranny combo. and how many people remember the old dodge trucks with the 318 in them. the body would fall off of them, but the drive train was still going strong.

that is what i personally don't understand. they had the mix to be successful. the had one of the strongest drive trains and now is rapidly becoming known as one of the weakest.

~ curtis

knowledge is power - growing old is mandatory - growing wise is optional

Good Morning all, I am going to take my truck to a mechanic after school today, Ill keep you all updated.

now it seems to be doing some more weird things, shifting VERY hard, and sometimes it will completeley miss a gear. also, it likes to stick in 3rd or 4th, as a result, when you go to accelerate after a red light, you wont go any where.

ill keep you posted !Justin

really now can you beleive everything your dodge dealer tells you? I think not....

I had a few dodge cars.. with EVERY one i had transmission problems... lately dodge transmisions are crap.

I belive one of the reasons they give such a long warrentee (limited) is because this is a known fact.. they need to try to persuade the consumer body (you me and the rest of the automobile driving peoiple)

I looked at dodge ford, chevy, GMC all of the maerican names for a new pickup... i liike at the rear diff and the front diff in a comparison i was doing... all I know is the F250 rear diff is beefy compared to the 2500 series the rest of the competitors put out there... that doesnt say much about the transmission but the final drive sure looks good so my assumption is the trans is also sturdy... the dodge looked like a tin can back there...

I ended up buying a f250 2003 4x4.... love it!!

My own opinion... Ken

Decent choice. Driven normally, it's nearly impossible to break a commercial vehicle drivetrain in city driving under no real load.

Bob, I've got an 87 Tempo with 165,000 miles on it. I bought it new. The transmission has never been worked on and it still runs fine. If you drive them easy ,the transmissions should last.

********* TROLL ALERT *****************

Blows Fuses? Whistles?

How the heck can a tranny blow fuses? I never heard one whistle either.

IDIOT

The other problems sound like it's time for an overhaul or replacement.

Of course all I am doing is feeding the troll by replying.

bye

I've heard transmissions whistle! It was or is a known problem with 96-97 V6 Explorers. I know because I had a 97 fixed under warranty back in 99. Sounds like it is sucking air. There is a TSB on it too. As for fuses the poster may be referring to a fuse inside the fuse box under the hood not in the transmission itself or passenger compartment. I don't know about the vehicle in question but I have a 2000 Chevy Prizm that has a 30 amp fuse in the engine bay clearly marked "transaxle"! Just my .02 cents

Good morning all.

first off...

************DIPSHYT ALERT**********************

1. a rock or something on the road took out some wires on the wiring harness, causing them to short fuses
2. the filter (i didnt know there was one for a transmission) was clogged and never changed, causing the whistle

if the sensors arent sending data to the computer, and shorting the computer out, and if there is little fluid flowing, i would assume the transmission would behave irratically.

as for the rest that helped, i REALLY appreciate it... its running perfect.. thank-you

!Justin