[Chinny]

Sigh, ive been having a streak of bad luck with my car lately. Been dealing with a misfire (maybe) issue lately which you can read more about here if ya like

http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums/cadillac-sts-forum-2005-through-2012/652234-rough-ride-low-rmp-range-help.html

Long story short car has been hesitant and riding rough, kinda like a misfire/shake in lower rpms, especially noticeable when it shifts up in gear and is under load. After 2500rpms it smooths out.

Well I changed the ignition coils as recommended by a mechanic and was out for a test drive today. I was at a red light and when it changed to green I gave it gas and the car stood still. I shifted to park and through R, N, and D a few times and finally it went into gear and I was able to get it out of the busy intersection to the nearest lot. Had it towed home shortly thereafter. When I did pull it into the lot it was making a kind of grinding/whirring/scraping sound but very subtley. It shifts into drive and half the time it will engage while the other half it will not move at all.

I checked underneath right when I got into the lot and did not see any fluid leak. No check engine lights or anything. Gonna take it to a mechanic on monday and see what they find, I am preparing myself and bringing a bottle of anal lube :crybaby::crying2: bc I feel this will not be an easy, cheap fix.....thoughts?

 

[dkozloski]

It sounds like your tranny sh!t the bed.

 

[Chinny]

Yea dkozloski im afraid so. Im just curious as to what part of the tranny system exactly. The car shifts into D half the time and engages. I have not observed any tranny fluid leaks and I have been monitoring my driveway/underside of the car as I do have a power steering fluid leak...ill be reporting back after the mechanic checks it out which might be on monday.

 

[dkozloski]

My guess is that a whole lot of ground up metal has been circulating around in it for some time now.

 

[Chinny]

Well you are right. Mechanic told me metal bits n shavings were found in the fluid. They're changing that and filter and will see how it goes. It was 2qts low on fluid and manual says it takes 7.9 or 8 I believe.

What pisses me off is that the GM engineers went and designed a car that essentially has a transmission that only a mechanic with specialized equipment can even check the damn fluid with. Then they don't think to add a tranny fluid sensor? I've been having issues for over a month (I did not know it was tranny related til recently and neither did two mechanics til after it failed). The car managed to get down 2 qts and a check engine code isnt thrown? Is this planned tranny failure by GM or what? Car has 84k only and wasn't used or abused or towed anything so regular service says it should have lasted til 100k. What gives? Would it be that hard for the engineers to add a frickin sensor that let's you know the tranny fluid is low?
/rant

 

[Boat]

You're the original owner then?

If not, don't assume that the fluid wasn't changed before just because the car hasn't hit 100k. A previous owner who probably didn't know what they were doing could have changed it. GM doesn't sabatoge their cars.

Sorry about your luck.

 

[dkozloski]

These problems are sometimes hard to fathom. My life experience tells me that one guys normal driving can be another guys ragging hell out of it. Sometime it takes a casual bystander's observations to sort out the story. One brief exhuberant blast can undo years of conservative babying. Oft times with an out of the blue catastrophic failure can be seen a teenage son skulking in the background.

 

[1BadCadSTS]

Before you write it off check the level at the fill plug. If its not topped of do so... If it is and not pulling 1st thing to do is drop the pan and inspect the mess on the filters.

Ive NEVER seen a trans on these just drop completely at random without some indication of an ongoing problem.

 

[Chinny]

Previous owner had service done by GM, the tag on the windshield where they write the mileage of service was literally about 1000 miles before I got the vehicle.
I have since put almost 20,000 miles on it so a previous owner messing with the tranny is not likely.
Even if I run the car like the advertised sport sedan that it is that doesnt change the fact that this is a horrible design flaw in this car.
I always warmed the car up before almost every ride, except in summer or when it was running recently. I did everything according to service manual. I would only push the car after I had been driving for a while so it was "warmed up" and even then it was only a couple stints of 100mph, nothing crazy tranny related.
Any service or fix that I could not do I would take to a garage, as was the case this time around. Two garages (with multiple mechanics) could not find out the issue because the symptoms were vague and this nice, luxurious, sophisticated car could not detect that it was low on tranny fluid.
GM may not sabotage their cars but they sure as hell did not make it easy to maintain this one in my honest opinion.

Ultimately I do blame myself and I shouldve guessed that the slight shudder I had between 1500-2500rpms was an imminent tranny failure, but hey if the mechanics couldnt guess that then maybe I shouldnt be too hard on myself.
The only thing is that I should not have waited til the 100k mile tranny service and done it instead when I got the car at 67k. I know the manual recommends a 50k tranny service (which may or may not have been done, I do not know) but it is only in heavy city traffic with temps 90f or higher, in mountainous terrain, trailer towing, limo service, or when used in high performance operation. I do not believe I qualify for any of these except maybe mountainous terrain if Northeast PA could be considered that.
Even if it is I am upset that they do not make it simple enough to check the fluid and do not have an early warning system.

 

[1BadCadSTS]

So instead of looking at it like I told you to do you'd rather come back and continue to complain about it...? Doesn't make sense to me...

 

[Chinny]

Earlier in the thread I said I had a mechanic check the fluid, drop the pan, found out it was low 2 qts and had metal in it, and change the fluid and filter.

I did just pick it up and it is riding rough, I am sure the tranny will fail again sooner or later.

 

[1BadCadSTS]

Earlier in the thread I said I had a mechanic check the fluid, drop the pan, found out it was low 2 qts and had metal in it, and change the fluid and filter. I did just pick it up and it is riding rough, I am sure the tranny will fail again sooner or later.

How did he drop the pan and determine it was 2 qrts low. There is no fill stick to determine it. You should NEVER go by a set level. You run it and check by how much fluid it takes before it pours out of the fill. Also a flush wouldn't magically make it work. Your trans is either failed or not.

As for the surging sound a lot like your TORQUE converter not your trans.

 

[Chinny]

He either ran it and it added fluid until it was at the full level or he drained the whole system and measured I guess....He did do it the proper way, ran the car until the fluid was at about 80-90 degrees, etc. And when he dropped the pan he drained the fluid he found a lot of metal bits in it. Im not too familiar with the internals and components of a trans but this sounds like the trans is bad.