2005 Yukon XL 3/4 slipping, rebuild/replace/upgrade?

[aczlan]

The wife's vehicle is a 2005 Yukon XL with pushbutton/auto 4wd (has 2WD, Auto 4WD, 4WD High and 4WD Low options), 5.3L motor and just over 200k miles.
Took it to work today and it feels like it is slipping in 3rd and 4th gears (like 35MPH with the engine at 4000RPM and slowing down going up a hill), changing the gear selector from D to 3 changes nothing, changing it to 2 or 1 firms things up and it no longer feels like it is slipping.

This is new as I just drove it on Wednesday (towed a 3000# landscape trailer with no gate to pickup a flatbed for the truck) and it did not have this problem.
I am assuming that this means that the 3/4 clutches are going bad?
Fluid is above full on the dipstick (even when checking with it warm, in N and having gone back back and forth between R and D)

Get the transmission rebuilt, upgrade to a better built 4L60/4L65, or?
Its a daily driver, so reliability is first priority.

Aaron Z

 

[Bebop]

It made it to 200k miles on a stock trans.

Get it rebuilt back to stock specs by a guy who knows what he's doing, put a new converter and enjoy it for another 200k.

 

[aczlan]

It made it to 200k miles on a stock trans.

Get it rebuilt back to stock specs by a guy who knows what he's doing, put a new converter and enjoy it for another 200k.

Talked to a coworker who used to work for a good local shop and called the places they used to send them to, 1 week out.
$2500 to rebuild it with "all the upgrades" or $1750 if I pull it.
The other place is $2850 for the same and they are 2 weeks out (drop it off in a week and they will get it back a week after that).

Worth it to have them do it all IMO given what I have going on, digging the 4L80E swap is more involved than I want to get into.

Aaron Z

 

[budget76]

sounds about what my escalade did when it failed. soon you're going to have 3 Neutrals on your tranny

i surprisingly didn't find any shops around here that didn't give me FU pricing on a rebuild, I might have bit on a $2500 with removal/install. Truck's now a yard truck, hoping the 115k mile Yukon gives me 30-40k before it shits the bed too and that one will get rebuild by someone.

 

[aczlan]

sounds about what my escalade did when it failed. soon you're going to have 3 Neutrals on your tranny

i surprisingly didn't find any shops around here that didn't give me FU pricing on a rebuild, I might have bit on a $2500 with removal/install. Truck's now a yard truck, hoping the 115k mile Yukon gives me 30-40k before it shits the bed too and that one will get rebuild by someone.

Well, work is only a few miles from the transmission shop, so hopefully I don't lose another gear between here and there. Talked to the guy there and I am going to just drop it off and he'll get to it when he gets to it.
If that's in 3 days great, if it's in a week and a half that'll work too, little one-man shop but it sounded like he had everything in stock versus the other place it said they would have to order it.

Aaron Z

 

[Fnl8t]

Went through this on my 04 4.8 truck a few years ago. 2nd was basically gone but it remained drivable. Ended up pulling it myself and giving it to a local rebuilder (that I ended up working with for awile) with a parts list. Get a good quality full rebuild kit, billet sun shell, transgo shift kit, vette servo, and a new converter...up to you to go higher or lower stall, I actually went a touch lower than stock to take advantage of the lockups. With some diy tuning it worked out very well, ended up swapping 2500hd springs and a 9.5sf and it turned into a killer light 3/4 ton hotrod that worked hard got great mileage and was fun to drive with the small engine.

 

[aczlan]

Dropping the stall speed would mean that the torque converter would lock up and start transferring power efficiently at a lower engine rpm, correct?

Aaron Z

 

[Fnl8t]

Yup. The primary reasoning was durability..as we all know heat is the big killer. Shift kit, servo, and tuning helped also helped alot. Figured the lower stall speed would also make it a little easier to make tractable power off idle without breaking loose. The last bit of the thought process was a bit of an experiment. Knowing that the 60e can lock the converter in 3rd and 4th, my theory was that with a bit of a lower stall that it could in essense make it feel like a 6 speed. It pretty much worked as intended...there is a clear split on lockup. While that also exists on a stocker, with the oe converter stall around 1850 it isnt as noticeable.

Might be a bit more than you want to do on the wifes rig, but it worked out pretty well for me.

 

[aczlan]

Yup. The primary reasoning was durability..as we all know heat is the big killer. Shift kit, servo, and tuning helped also helped alot. Figured the lower stall speed would also make it a little easier to make tractable power off idle without breaking loose. The last bit of the thought process was a bit of an experiment. Knowing that the 60e can lock the converter in 3rd and 4th, my theory was that with a bit of a lower stall that it could in essense make it feel like a 6 speed. It pretty much worked as intended...there is a clear split on lockup. While that also exists on a stocker, with the oe converter stall around 1850 it isnt as noticeable.

Might be a bit more than you want to do on the wifes rig, but it worked out pretty well for me.

He is supposed to be good, so I will leave it to him and add a aux cooler once it comes back (have one on the shelf, from something else that didnt work out, just need the mounting kit and hoses).

Aaron Z

 

[YotaAtieToo]

Check into a crate trans. Sometimes it's about the same cost, but much quicker, r&r, better warranty and often better quality.

 

[aczlan]

Check into a crate trans. Sometimes it's about the same cost, but much quicker, r&r, better warranty and often better quality.

To be honest, I won't have the time to R&R a transmission sooner than this guy can get to it and most of the "name brand" or "non sketchy" reman transmissions (including direct from GM) that I found were $2000-3000.

Considered replacing it with something with less miles, but that would take time to fly in and drive home and aside from the rockers and behind the rear wheels its holding up pretty well.

Aaron Z

 

[YotaAtieToo]

To be honest, I won't have the time to R&R a transmission sooner than this guy can get to it and most of the "name brand" or "non sketchy" reman transmissions (including direct from GM) that I found were $2000-3000.

Considered replacing it with something with less miles, but that would take time to fly in and drive home and aside from the rockers and behind the rear wheels its holding up pretty well.

Aaron Z

I know a few mechanic shops who use crate trans and engines. I'm sure there is one near you.

 

[aczlan]

I know a few mechanic shops who use crate trans and engines. I'm sure there is one near you.

I'm sure there are some, I don't really want to send this to some place I don't know though.
One shop I normally use said "I'm sorry but we're backed up enough that you probably need to look elsewhere"
The other one I normally use doesn't do crate transmissions (per my coworker who used to work there until he got head hunted to work here), they send them to the guy I'm taking it to or another transmission shop a couple miles down the road who has a longer turnaround time and costs $300 more.

Even if they did do them, most any general mechanic shop in this area is scheduling at least a week out and most are 2-3 weeks out, so it wouldn't be done any faster, and I imagine by the time I pay somebody shop rate to r&r a transmission, plus $1600-2200 for a rebuilt one it's going to end up pretty close to what this guy is charging, he has at least a 2-year warranty and it might be 3 years (I can't remember).

If I did do a crate one, it would be at whatever quality level the person rebuilding it was that day (which given my luck on rebuild power steering racks can be very hit or miss) and if there were warranty issues, I would then have a back and forth between the shop and whoever they got it from on who's fault it is vs everything being with this guy.


Aaron Z

 

[YotaAtieToo]

I'm sure there are some, I don't really want to send this to some place I don't know though.
One shop I normally use said "I'm sorry but we're backed up enough that you probably need to look elsewhere"
The other one I normally use doesn't do crate transmissions (per my coworker who used to work there until he got head hunted to work here), they send them to the guy I'm taking it to or another transmission shop a couple miles down the road who has a longer turnaround time and costs $300 more.

Even if they did do them, most any general mechanic shop in this area is scheduling at least a week out and most are 2-3 weeks out, so it wouldn't be done any faster, and I imagine by the time I pay somebody shop rate to r&r a transmission, plus $1600-2200 for a rebuilt one it's going to end up pretty close to what this guy is charging, he has at least a 2-year warranty and it might be 3 years (I can't remember).

If I did do a crate one, it would be at whatever quality level the person rebuilding it was that day (which given my luck on rebuild power steering racks can be very hit or miss) and if there were warranty issues, I would then have a back and forth between the shop and whoever they got it from on who's fault it is vs everything being with this guy.


Aaron Z

The bonus of the crate is you can warranty it anywhere that is a dealer for that crate. So if you get a gm crate trans, any gm dealer in the country should warranty it. If you get a jasper trans, any jasper dealer can warranty it. If you go with Jim Bob down the road and 6 months later your trans shits the bed right after he closes shop, you're SOL.

However, I'm typically a fan of quality over warranty. It's just a matter of if you have a shop local that really does good work that you trust or not.

Also, 4l60es suck

 

[aczlan]

The bonus of the crate is you can warranty it anywhere that is a dealer for that crate. So if you get a gm crate trans, any gm dealer in the country should warranty it. If you get a jasper trans, any jasper dealer can warranty it. If you go with Jim Bob down the road and 6 months later your trans shits the bed right after he closes shop, you're SOL.

However, I'm typically a fan of quality over warranty. It's just a matter of if you have a shop local that really does good work that you trust or not.

Cant disagree with any of that. He is reported to do good work, time will tell on the rest.

Also, 4l60es suck

So I am told, but this one made it to 17 years and 200k miles with (as far as I know) 1-2 fluid changes so I really can't complain.

Aaron Z

 

[aczlan]

Well, it's been 2 weeks and absolutely nothing from the shop. Should have been done Tuesday or Wednesday (I dropped it off two weeks ago today, he said a week to get to it and then a couple days to rebuild it and put it back together), called and left a voicemail every day since Wednesday, no callbacks.
Stopped over there today on my lunch break and again after work and the Yukon has been moved but unless somebody carefully rearranged the dirt on the bottom of the transmission pan, it hasn't been opened up or removed.
Nobody there, looked exactly the same after work as it did at lunch time.
Left a note stuck into the door saying to call me, not sure what happened, my first guess would be some kind of accident or family emergency, but I have no idea at this point.

Probably should have stopped by sooner, but I had things happening after work Wednesday and Thursday, so it wasn't possible to run over there after work either day and I had enough stuff on the schedule that I couldn't be late getting back from lunch.

YotaAtieToo I called the local dealership, $4400 to drop in a reman transmission.
They said a rebuild there could be less or it could be about the same as a reman depending on what had to be replaced.
At this point I'm going to start digging and see if I can find a home number for the guy who wants the shop and see if I can get some information.
I've also going to call some of the other shops that I've used and see if they'll drop in a reman.

Aaron Z

 

[aczlan]

Found an email on their site and sent an email last night.
He replied this morning saying that he had been out sick since the 10th, but that he would be back in on Monday and would get it done ASAP then.
So, we wait some more.

Aaron Z