I'm in Ohio... the bottoms of both front fenders are starting to bubble. I got a quote of $1700-$2000 to rebuild the tranny, they do all the labor...

Are the VCT's something that can cause catastrophic failure, or will they just keep making a racket with maybe just a little loss of power?

 

Got that you put a new filter in. Did you remove the old orange o-ring that was likely still in the bore on the valve body that the filter fits into and was likely causing the issue of the filter falling out?

D

 

yes.

 

That's weird. I have never seen a filter fall out if it was properly seated and the old o-ring wasn't still in there. Darn things fit so tight in that bore that I always have to use a screwdriver to pry that old o-ring out after I wrestle the filter off of it. I wonder if someone didn't get it seated properly or used some sort of goofy lube on the o-ring.

D

 

The o-ring was in the valve body, I removed it prior to installing the new filter.

 

Who changed the fluid last time?

 

The dealer where I bought it.

 

Sounds like they are responsible for ruining your transmission.

 

that was at ~75K miles and they are no longer around...

 

Find a local shop that works the cheapest and get the trans working and trade that sucka!

 

These make noise due to gummed up seals preventing the actuators from holding pressure. You can try a motor flush, or kerosene and 1 quart of 10w oil to clean engine internally. A slightly heavier oil may reduce the noise, as for catastrophic failure, I'll say no, unless you regularly hammer on this truck. Fix the trans, and run it a while, new ones are so expensive, unless you really are set on a new truck, I'd hang on to it a while longer, 139000 isn't really used up yet.

 

The only safe motor flush is AutoRX, used as per directions.