Paperboy719

Hello,

I am curious if anyone else is having any sort of tranny problems with their express vans. Mine Is a 6.0l 3500 2wd 106,000miles. I'm so frustrated this is the 3rd time I need to replace the tranny. I purchased with 60k miles from a dealer and bought a 3rd party warranty with it. At 65k, the tranny made a weird noise mostly in first and second gear and the Chevy dealer said it needed to be rebuilt or replaced. The warranty covered this, but they installed a used tranny not a new one. 1 week after being replaced. It started dumping fluid while I was driving. I took it back, they replaced it again with a different one.

Things were fine for the next 2 years and now I'm at 114k. I didn't drive the van for 5 months and had no tranny problems when I parked it. Started to drive it the other day and in the first few miles I felt the tranny slipping out of gear. The next day it was slipping terribly. Now I have no reverse, and cannot start from a dead stop if the lever is in D, but if I put the lever in 3, it will drive like there's no issue and shift through gears 1-3 without slipping at all. And what's even weirder is if I get to 50+ mph I can put the lever into D and it shifts to 4th and overdrive fine. Slow down to a stop and I have to put it back into 3 or it won't move.

Does anyone have any comments or experienced any sort of issue similar to mine. Do these trannies just suck or am I hitting a string of bad luck?

Thanks
Chase

PitCrew

Do you get any engine codes?

My only trans problem was it not shifting out of second gear, tripping a P0758 code. The corrective action was the replacement of the ignition switch (no lie). The ignition switch was working to start the engine but internally was failing to energize and provide 12v to the transmission shifting solenoids. Who would have thought but look it up on the wiring schematic. Note: There was a batch of bad ignition switches from the vendor during production. [URL="http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/Reliability.aspx?
year=2004&make=Chevrolet&model=Express%20Cargo%20V an&wa=wsignin1.0"]

Now about your problem. No codes?

Paperboy719

Thanks for the response. I don't get any check engine lights. Are you talking about doing like a full diagnostic to see any stored codes cause if so then no I would have to take it somewhere and get that done.

I've driven it a few times and this is how she's running....
No reverse at all
Will not drive forward in D from a dead stop
Will drive forward just fine from a stop if manually put in "3". And can even shift to D at 40+mph and it will shift to 4th /overdrive (not sure what this tranny has).

It's really strange, if I have the lever in 3. You can give it some gas and it won't slip at all in gears 1-3. If you start in 3 and shift it to D after gaining speed and apply anything other then minimal throttle, it will slip instantly in the same gear range.

If all this could be cause a bad ignition switch I'll be jumping up and down.