Has anyone noticed a rash of failed 6L80 and 6L90 transmission? I was under the impression they were pretty solid units but now I’m not so sure.
I changed a 6L90 at my regular job (fleet of mostly Express 3500 vans) in a 2016 Express with just under 130,000 miles on it.
The same week, in my side job (soon to be full time job!) I changed a 6L80 in a 2017 Suburban that had just 101,000 miles on it.
There wasn’t much to diagnose really. They would go into limp mode and have 2nd gear only. I pulled the dipstick on both and used a nice, clean white rag to wipe the dipstick and there was metal in both.
Pulled the pan on both and they had all kinds of metal in them so it was pretty easy to say they’d had a failure.
I’ve done a little checking and it seems that the torque converter clutches have been failing and sending trash through the system. It kind of makes me wonder if one should change the converter on these preventatively or just accept that the trans will fail.
These aren’t isolated to just me. I was quite fortunate that I was able to get the transmissions within a couple days. I’ve heard stories of people in my town waiting a month to get a transmission. I bought both from the local Chevy dealer as they were the same price as all the other remans and come with a 3 year 100,000 mile warranty.
It might also be worth noting that if you get another transmission that it will have to be programmed with a j2534 device.
I changed a 6L90 at my regular job (fleet of mostly Express 3500 vans) in a 2016 Express with just under 130,000 miles on it.
The same week, in my side job (soon to be full time job!) I changed a 6L80 in a 2017 Suburban that had just 101,000 miles on it.
There wasn’t much to diagnose really. They would go into limp mode and have 2nd gear only. I pulled the dipstick on both and used a nice, clean white rag to wipe the dipstick and there was metal in both.
Pulled the pan on both and they had all kinds of metal in them so it was pretty easy to say they’d had a failure.
I’ve done a little checking and it seems that the torque converter clutches have been failing and sending trash through the system. It kind of makes me wonder if one should change the converter on these preventatively or just accept that the trans will fail.
These aren’t isolated to just me. I was quite fortunate that I was able to get the transmissions within a couple days. I’ve heard stories of people in my town waiting a month to get a transmission. I bought both from the local Chevy dealer as they were the same price as all the other remans and come with a 3 year 100,000 mile warranty.
It might also be worth noting that if you get another transmission that it will have to be programmed with a j2534 device.
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