My transmission blew up

My family and I decided to celebrate my daughter's 8th birthday at Universal Studios in LA. So I loaded up the Suburban (6 people + luggage... lots of it!) and we took off on Friday night from Chandler AZ on our way to Pasadena CA. We stayed at the Saga Motor Hotel and had a great time at the Theme park on Saturday. (Well, at least my daughter did; I was beat at the end of the day and she was just getting started)

On Sunday, we decided to spend the day at the beach, and so we drove to Malibu and enjoyed another great day with my birthday girl. When night came and was time to go back to the hotel, we though of taking one of the canyon roads from the beach to the expressway... as we started to ascend the twisties my wife decided that something didn't feel right about those roads and we turned around. Three miles after we exited the canyon road, I heard a PLUNK! ... CLANK, CLANK, CLANK... WHIIIINNNEEEEEEE!!!!! <insert swearing here>!!! The transmission became mulch...! Reverse, Second and Fourth gears were history (I think that the Sun Gear Reaction Shell must have failed into multiple itty-bitty pieces). The Suburban only had First and Third gears working (with a loud whining noise from the undercarriage) And, so, there I was, with five women talking their heads off, and without transportation.

Anyhow, long-story-short, I was able to drive the ‘burban in third gear to the hotel (about 20 miles; not too bad if the <insert swearing here> road signs were any good: they usually read “your exit was 1/4 mile back”). On Monday I took it to the nearest dealer in Pasadena for service. Then I had to rent an Excursion (forgive me, for I have sinned) to drive back home. Now, two and a half days later, the dealer has not even gotten around to looking at it yet!!! Is that normal service timing in California? I am used to get a diagnostic in about half a day, for Chris’ sake!!!

Is there any history of this type of catastrophic transmission failures with this vehicle? The Suburban is a 2002 LT (Autoride) 2WD with a 5.3L engine and a 4L60E transmission.

Oh man--I hate that for you!! I had to replace my 4L60E in June as we were coming off of vacation too! I consider myself lucky after reading your post. I at least got mine home--without a tow truck! Mine went out at 60,000 miles. You can read my vent on ChevyTalk.org under the "I Really Hate my 4L60E" post that some poor guy started--I added my tale of woe too. I had mine repaired at a Chevy dealer close to work. He offered me a couple of options--rebuild what I had 1500.00 to 3500.00 and I would get a 12 month/12,000 mile warranty on the "repaired components" or I could buy an "off the shelf" Goodwrench transmission that would have a 3 year/100,000 mile warranty. I went with the Goodwrench transmission-$2650.00 I am on my way. This is a 99 Suburban--that has been well maintained and never pulled anything. It is an LT model with the factory towing package. I just hit 62,000 miles on the clock! I am still smarting from this!

As an aside, I have an 88 Silverado with 200,500 hard miles with the original transmission and engine. It is a 3/4 ton so it does have the 4L80 transmission.

Good luck,

Mitch

Sounds more and more familiar as I start to research this wonderful 4L60E transmission. Mine just fried. 50K miles. Honestly I'm more inclined to give the $3,000 (GM wants to repair it) to a good LAWYER.
Good Luck to you,
Johnny Mac

PS- Ran into an old friend recently. He had bought the same model/year truck (2000 Z-71) a couple months after I bought mine. "How's the truck running?" I asked. GUESS WHAT... Yep... trans. fried at 60K. He's driving his girlfriend's car to his jobsites now. Chevy help? Yea... right.

You need to find a good mechanic that you know who will fix the tranny right and put the SHIFT KIT in will make it last alot longer and shift better

2 and a half days? Thats pretty long, although when I had the dealer work on my 95 rear A/C it took them 1.5 days just to replace the compressor, and charge it. And it still didn't work, all in all it took 3 weeks to get the problems resolved. So maybe you actually got lucky that it was only 2.5 days.

As for your Transmission problems, that really sux. I know how it feels to be stuck in a car full of ladies talking and all in the middle of the night. I have a 4L60E in my 95 with 250,000 miles so far no problems, maybe i'm just one of the few lucky ones.