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Tahoe & SuburbanThe power, space, and brutal towing ability make the Tahoe and its longer sibling, the Suburban, arguably the best full size SUV's on the market today.
I'm in an odd predicament. The suburban had this issue ~200 miles ago, where it will shift into gear and work for about 1-2 minutes of driving and then stops engaging the gears acting like it is stuck in neutral. Engine revs and no movement. Turn off vehicle for 1-2 minutes, start back up and it will start engaging.
Dropped the transmission pan, changed the filter and filled in new fluid.
Drove 200 miles roughly without issues and it shifted strong and never had a hard shift or slippage. But now it started occurring again where I start picking up speed and then it acts like it is in neutral. I started to drain the fluid and it was quite dirty, brownish looking in the parking lot. Had to leave the truck there over night. Will try to get it back tomorrow...
So, does anyone have any similar issues. I've searched the web for something like this and only thing I can think of is possibly the torque converter? Is the dirty transmission fluid causing this issue? Possibly electronics related as turning off and back on makes it work for a bit? Or maybe it just allows the fluid to settle and then gets pumped back into the trans.
230k miles, just picked up a few weeks ago so unfortunately not sure how the maintenance has been.
Thank you much in advance!
Last edited by ducati_848; October 18th, 2020 at 10:31 PM.
Without the maintenance history and 230k miles and the condition of the fluid, I think it is safe to say the transmission has not been taken care of and the 4L60E trans in there, I am assuming that is the trans since you did not supply that info, is due for replacement. They are known to get anywhere between 150k to 200k miles out of them, even if taken care of, before replacement. Have a trained trans tech check it. Brown fluid means burned clutches. Likely have some clogged valving in there as well.
Well, got the burb back and did a drain and fill. Shifting fine again, fluid was quite dark. Maybe just need to cycle through 2-3 more drain and fills to get clean fluid in for the torque converter.
PNW, thank you. Yes it is the 4L60E. It's the AWD model with the BorgWarner. That's unfortunate, other than that issue when it starts and goes, it goes. Shifts nicely and without hesitation.
Last edited by ducati_848; October 19th, 2020 at 11:10 AM.
Thanks for the welcome! I hope to stick around, but your prognosis of the transmission is most likely right. Dropped the pan out of curiosity and noticed quite a bit of metal shavings.
Now comes the part of debating whether to get it repaired or what... just put new tires on it too
October 18th, 2020, 10:29 PM
2004 Chevy Suburban shifting issue
