Hello all:

I have a 91 EB edition 351w with the E4OD with 155 thou original miles on the transmission.

I am not having any shifting problems or drive problems. In fact, from what I can tell, it shifts rather nicely at highway and city speeds.

My question is this: Is it worth it to invest $1300 in a rebuild with a 1 yr warranty right now, or should I wait until it starts slipping and something starts to go wrong?

If I wait until something does go wrong and she decides to loose it at the wrong time, can I cause any irrepairable damage necessitating a new transmission instead of the rebuild?

What is the worst that can happen?

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

If hard parts start to fail they can cause others to follow along due to debris, overheating etc, been there done that, didn't like it. So a cheap rebuild could turn into an expensive one.

Check fluid color and smell first. If it is nice and red, good. Pink is questionable, brown of black is bad. Smells chemically, good. Smokey is bad.

You need to know the history of the tranny. Did it have regular fluid changes? If it has then what I would do is drop the pan, inspect for debris, put in a new filter and change the fluid and keep going. If you see more than a couple pieces of metal larger than rice, I would strat wondering. If you a bunch of fuzz on the magnet(some is normal) I would wonder. If you see tons of pepper flakes(more than say a teaspoon) your clutches may be thin. If there is a lot of sludge then maybe the tranny wasn't serviced as much as it should have been. If everything looked normal, chances are your tranny is fine. 155K miles is a bit beyond average tho.

If you don't know the history, then changing fluid is a gamble. Sludge and varnish may be what keeps your tranny running. I have never had this problem, but plenty of the guys on this list have. So if it has been forever since you changed, then I would just ride it into the ground or gor for an early rebuild.

Good Luck, I am not a tranny expert so take my advice with a grain of salt.

Jim Henderson

 

I agree with Jim. If you are really concerned you could have someone like AAMCO do an analysis for it. They'll do it for less than one hundred bucks. I think $1300 isn't a bad deal at all.

 

Thanks for the responses guys.

I have no idea what the tranny record is, I am the third owner of the vehicle.

The guys at the service station said the fluid looks like it may have been changed before b/c there was still some color to it and it wasn't totally gone, pretty darn close to it though.

I am probably going to put some money aside a little at a time and go for a rebuild sometime next year. Right now I am recovering from a cracked head replacement. Ouch!

I'm just the better safe than sorry type of guy and I trust the transmission guy areound here, he comes highly recommended from my mechanic.

Thanks Guys.

 

if it aint broke dont fix it. it is very important to change filter and fluid on an e4od. but you must change it all torque converter also.