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4L60e making whining/humming noises

HAWG WILD

Full Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2016
Messages
31
Location
Austin, TX
My 07 Avalanche started acting up a few days ago...I have 237K on the original tranny, I average 110 highway miles per day and I've never towed anything behind it.  The other night when accelerating from a light I started noticing a very slight slip between 1st & 2nd then when I pulled into the driveway and put it in park I heard whining/humming noises from the tranny.  I had a neighbor get under the truck and he heard it coming from the tranny also.  I immediately put it into reverse and the noises went away but they started up again when I shifted into neutral.  So i shifted back into park and when i did i noticed the speedo flicker to 15-20 mph then back to 0.  I shut the engine off and cranked it up again and the exact same things happened again.  The following morning i checked the tranny fluid and it was a little low... the dipstick registered in the cold area but the engine/tranny were hot.  I had no other option but to drive it to work which is 55 miles away from home.  I seemed to shift fine, maybe slipped once but it ran normal to and from work.  I haven't had the tranny fluid serviced per GM recommended intervals but it has had the fluid changed numerous times.  The fluid was iridescent red when I checked it and had no burning smells. 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
 
When was the last time you have the tranny filter changed? If it is slipping it's awful hard to get it to stop
 
I had the tranny fluid changed with filter around 6-8 months ago.  I dropped my truck off at the local Chevy dealer, hoping they can be honest enough in diagnosing the problem...I was going to go to a tranny shop but after explaining the problem to them it seemed like they just want to either replace with a rebuilt tranny or just rebuild mine.  The tranny shop did say it sounded like the front pump going out but I wanted to check here to see if anyone else has had the same thing going on with their truck.
 
I'm guessing you'll be back at the tranny shop taking them up on what they wanted to do after the dealer prices out what they want to do.  At that many miles it's due for a rebuild.
 
Well I made a visit to the dealer only to be greeted with a list of possible repairs to the tune of $4,000.00!!  And this did NOT include any work to the tranny.  Somehow the tech said he didn't hear the tranny making noises (he must be losing hearing in both ears) so I started it up and immediately got the truck to replicate the tranny noise....he said they will drop the tranny pan in the morning and see what's going on and that it may be the torque converter.  I did find one of the issues on the list rather surprising...the air intake tube that connects to the throttle body (by the way I have an after market Airaid cold air intake thanks to the previous owner) had partially come off which was due to bad motor mounts.  The engine would flex/move so much under major loads that it actually pulled the air intake off the throttle body.  The dealer quoted me $900 parts and labor for new motor mounts...seems quite expensive to me...what do you think?  Also the brake booster has half filled with brake fluid due to the master cylinder seal leaking.  They want $995 for a new brake booster and master cylinder including labor...which also seems way too much $.  I'll find out more in the morning LOL  Any input would be greatly appreciated. 
 
Did they are a gun in their hand and a mask over their face when they handed you the estimate?  Holy crap.
 
Yep that's how I felt also!  Does anyone happen to know what a reasonable amount would be for the motor mounts?  What about brake booster and master cylinder?
 
My guess is half that...

Ask them to break their quote down into PARTS & Labor etc. as you think it is kind of high.

In mean time start pricing the parts on ROck AUto or some GM online parts store... to compare to theirs.
 
Well after $2,550.00 later I have a rebuilt tranny in my Avalanche.  I also had them put a new rear main seal in before they installed the new tranny.  I had my local Chevy dealer install it, it comes with a 3 yr/100K warranty which I thought was pretty good.
 
Smart move on the rear main seal.

(y)
 
Now that price sounds like a normal price for a rebuilt tranny.
 
My 06 tranny  (4l60 E) was exhibiting similar symptoms, slippage mostly no funny noises; so i asked around and found a tranny shop that was considered VERY good and VERY honest, my co-workers had used the shop with good results...anyway... He quoted me $2,300.00 for a rebuild on my tranny, OR an upgrade to the 4l65 E for another $500.00. So for $2,800.00 I got the SS tranny that comes in the Camaro, also the Caddy version of the Avalanche uses this tranny. It has more clutches and other more heavy duty parts. My Tranny still clunks, the guy that rebuilt it told me his did the same thing and he took it apart and found no issues, it's jusr a "thing" of that tranny. It's a shame really, GM has built millions of trannys and never had a clunk to my knowledge and now we have this...
 
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