5 Star Av
Full Member
Hello all, hope everyone is healthy and has a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Six years ago tomorrow I purchased a white 2011 LTZ 4x4 w/32k miles on it. Over the last 71.5 months I've put 107k miles on my Av and couldn't have been much happier with it! I've done really well with my required/recommended maintenance with exception of one fluid. I didn't change the fluid in my 6L80 Transmission at 100k like I was supposed to. My truck currently has 139k on the odometer.
On 11-9-20 I purchased 4 gallons of Valvoline Full Syn Dex VI ATF online from Advance Auto(or so I thought) in order to do a trans flush. When you purchase online they ask that you show up and call and they bring your items out. I followed their anti-virus protocol and opened my tailgate and they set four blue gallons in the bed along with the rest of my items. About two days later while just starting up a slight incline after a long (for WV) straight stretch at about 45mph with the truck in 6th gear I felt a vibration that I'm fairly positive is torque converter shudder, very similar to hitting the rumble strips on the side of the interstate at the same speed. This continued almost every time those conditions were re-created for the next 10-12 days. That was the first chance I had to change the fluid. It took me several days to figure out what was happening and I only drove a few hundred miles after the problem surfaced.
On 11-23-20 I did the trans fluid flush by disconnecting the line at the exit of trans cooler, attaching a clear hose that ran to a bucket and starting engine until I saw the first air bubble, which drained about 2.5qts and allowed me to get the pan off w/o drowning myself in fluid. The fluid was black, but there was nothing larger than shavings of metal on my magnet and not even an excessive amount. After re-torquing the valve body bolts, cleaning up pan, changing seal/filter, and putting pan back on I added 1 gallon of fluid through the fill tube and started engine. I kept adding new fluid as the old came out until it was running out clean. At that point I topped off fluid to hot level and went for a short drive. The TCC shudder was still there, although less violent than before.
Over the last 2 weeks Ive only driven it about 50 miles and Ive read about 55 miles of print about torque converters going out, transmission failing, TCC shudder fixes, etc.. Yesterday I drove it about 3 miles to get to temps and two torque converter tests I read about online. The test was to see if TC is still working correctly. It consisted of two throttle punches while in Park and an immediate step on the brake and shift into D while the RPM's are falling, which should send the TC into hyperdrive if it's working or send me through the back wall of my garage if not. It worked perfectly. I then checked fluid level again and it was just a little high, so I put a small diameter hose in the fill tube and drew a water bottle of fluid out to lower the level. It was black again already, or close to it. That made me think the fluid that was in the TC and whatever the new fluid had dislodged must've been really bad? so I decided to do another full flush and to add 4oz of LubeGard shudder fix at the end this time. Back to Advance Auto.com again for 4 more gallons, brake cleaner, and LubeGard.... and $156 later I was opening tailgate(of my buddies truck) and standing back like a good anti-virus customer should. Once home I started the tedious task of raising and leveling truck again. While aligning 6x6's as a backup to my jackstands I noticed the different labels on the blue jugs. One of them was Dex/Merc containing Dexron III, the cursing began. During my tirade it hit me "what if that happened last time? I don't think I even checked!" I went to the back of my garage where the jugs from the last flush were and sure enough 1 of the 4 was Dex/Merc Dexron III.... I'm not sure which order I put them in either, if it was the first obviously it's not as bad, however I'm going to guess based on the order they were sitting in that it was second to last.
Sorry for being so long winded, but I wanted to give a good backstory and snapshot of where I'm at... Thank you to whoever can offer some guidance in advance, Sincerely Dan
My questions are:
1. How bad is it that I ran approx 55mi with some percentage of Dex III in a 6L80?
2. Will another flush, which will be 5 gal this time get it out? or am I cooked?
3. Will the LubeGard Shudder fix potentilally help the TCC shudder?
4. How do I handle Advance Auto? Receipts both have qty: 4 Dexron VI 1gal, I should've caught it but I didn't. They have a "no liability" policy against employee negligence regarding products, but twice to me is more Gross Negligence? Should I only ask for the two gallons of Dex VI and a new filter?
I'm worried I've lost my transmission two weeks before making my last payment
Six years ago tomorrow I purchased a white 2011 LTZ 4x4 w/32k miles on it. Over the last 71.5 months I've put 107k miles on my Av and couldn't have been much happier with it! I've done really well with my required/recommended maintenance with exception of one fluid. I didn't change the fluid in my 6L80 Transmission at 100k like I was supposed to. My truck currently has 139k on the odometer.
On 11-9-20 I purchased 4 gallons of Valvoline Full Syn Dex VI ATF online from Advance Auto(or so I thought) in order to do a trans flush. When you purchase online they ask that you show up and call and they bring your items out. I followed their anti-virus protocol and opened my tailgate and they set four blue gallons in the bed along with the rest of my items. About two days later while just starting up a slight incline after a long (for WV) straight stretch at about 45mph with the truck in 6th gear I felt a vibration that I'm fairly positive is torque converter shudder, very similar to hitting the rumble strips on the side of the interstate at the same speed. This continued almost every time those conditions were re-created for the next 10-12 days. That was the first chance I had to change the fluid. It took me several days to figure out what was happening and I only drove a few hundred miles after the problem surfaced.
On 11-23-20 I did the trans fluid flush by disconnecting the line at the exit of trans cooler, attaching a clear hose that ran to a bucket and starting engine until I saw the first air bubble, which drained about 2.5qts and allowed me to get the pan off w/o drowning myself in fluid. The fluid was black, but there was nothing larger than shavings of metal on my magnet and not even an excessive amount. After re-torquing the valve body bolts, cleaning up pan, changing seal/filter, and putting pan back on I added 1 gallon of fluid through the fill tube and started engine. I kept adding new fluid as the old came out until it was running out clean. At that point I topped off fluid to hot level and went for a short drive. The TCC shudder was still there, although less violent than before.
Over the last 2 weeks Ive only driven it about 50 miles and Ive read about 55 miles of print about torque converters going out, transmission failing, TCC shudder fixes, etc.. Yesterday I drove it about 3 miles to get to temps and two torque converter tests I read about online. The test was to see if TC is still working correctly. It consisted of two throttle punches while in Park and an immediate step on the brake and shift into D while the RPM's are falling, which should send the TC into hyperdrive if it's working or send me through the back wall of my garage if not. It worked perfectly. I then checked fluid level again and it was just a little high, so I put a small diameter hose in the fill tube and drew a water bottle of fluid out to lower the level. It was black again already, or close to it. That made me think the fluid that was in the TC and whatever the new fluid had dislodged must've been really bad? so I decided to do another full flush and to add 4oz of LubeGard shudder fix at the end this time. Back to Advance Auto.com again for 4 more gallons, brake cleaner, and LubeGard.... and $156 later I was opening tailgate(of my buddies truck) and standing back like a good anti-virus customer should. Once home I started the tedious task of raising and leveling truck again. While aligning 6x6's as a backup to my jackstands I noticed the different labels on the blue jugs. One of them was Dex/Merc containing Dexron III, the cursing began. During my tirade it hit me "what if that happened last time? I don't think I even checked!" I went to the back of my garage where the jugs from the last flush were and sure enough 1 of the 4 was Dex/Merc Dexron III.... I'm not sure which order I put them in either, if it was the first obviously it's not as bad, however I'm going to guess based on the order they were sitting in that it was second to last.
Sorry for being so long winded, but I wanted to give a good backstory and snapshot of where I'm at... Thank you to whoever can offer some guidance in advance, Sincerely Dan
My questions are:
1. How bad is it that I ran approx 55mi with some percentage of Dex III in a 6L80?
2. Will another flush, which will be 5 gal this time get it out? or am I cooked?
3. Will the LubeGard Shudder fix potentilally help the TCC shudder?
4. How do I handle Advance Auto? Receipts both have qty: 4 Dexron VI 1gal, I should've caught it but I didn't. They have a "no liability" policy against employee negligence regarding products, but twice to me is more Gross Negligence? Should I only ask for the two gallons of Dex VI and a new filter?
I'm worried I've lost my transmission two weeks before making my last payment