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High Trans Temp on DIC, now no reverse?

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Old Mar 12, 2016 | 04:37 PM
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Default High Trans Temp on DIC, now no reverse?

Today I was driving home, and honestly haven't driven the car hard in the slightest for the last couple of weeks as I recently had the valvesprings changed, and when I was cruising at about 65 in 6th all of a sudden i felt a strange vibration with an accompanying squeal sound, which occurred to me as weird.

About 5 minutes later I got a High Trans Temp message on the DIC, with the smell of burning tranny fluid following it.

After letting the car cool and checking for fluid drips, I went to drive the car a few hours later, only to find that the car would engage reverse. I can put it into reverse and give it gas/come off the clutch, but literally nothing happens.

Thoughts?

Thanks!
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Old Mar 12, 2016 | 04:43 PM
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did you look under the car to see if any physical damage has been done to the trans or any of the sensors/wiring?... any leaks?
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Old Mar 14, 2016 | 10:10 AM
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No leaks, no visible damage.

I apparently also forgot to mention that it's an 04z...

I do however, have an update:

Drove it Sat/Sun without reverse with the plan to take it to the shop on Monday and get a rental car, but while driving to my gf's house on Sunday I got the warning again, got off the highway and was at a stoplight, only to find that I no longer had any forward gears (and the trans fluid was def. cooking, based on smell).

Not only that, but when the shifter was in neutral the car would not move, and coming off the clutch in that situation would make the car jump/kill it. I had to have my girlfriend hold the clutch in while I pushed it (with the help of some very kind strangers who also had vehicles with LS's lol) and had a flatbed take it to the nearest dealership as Geico only provides for like an 8 mile tow or something, so I couldn't get it to my indy shop that was like 35 miles away.

Really hoping this isn't a toasted transmission and is something a little simpler like a master/slave cylinder gone bad? Anyone have any ideas?
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Old Mar 14, 2016 | 11:30 AM
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Sorry for your misfortune.

Do you suppose you had a fluid leak and you are almost out of fluid now? I can't reasonably think of anything else that would cause such overheating in your situation.


Mr. Sam
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Old Mar 14, 2016 | 12:04 PM
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Originally Posted by dadaroo
Sorry for your misfortune.

Do you suppose you had a fluid leak and you are almost out of fluid now? I can't reasonably think of anything else that would cause such overheating in your situation.


Mr. Sam
Exactly what I was thinking. The noise was something popping out, all fluid is gone...
I guess you'll find out today?
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Old Mar 14, 2016 | 12:15 PM
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Yeah I figure I'll hear something today, assuming they get to it.

After I noticed that reverse was gone, I checked the clutch fluid and all was well, but there were definitely no signs of leaks on the garage floor, which was perplexing to me...

Hopefully the news isn't *too* terrible...
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Old Mar 14, 2016 | 12:19 PM
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Originally Posted by NotLawReview
Yeah I figure I'll hear something today, assuming they get to it.

After I noticed that reverse was gone, I checked the clutch fluid and all was well, but there were definitely no signs of leaks on the garage floor, which was perplexing to me...

Hopefully the news isn't *too* terrible...
There would be no apparent leak if there was no fluid left to leak out.
My 5 year old daughter is on my lap, wants me to add FROZEN (from movie) to this post. LOL
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Old Mar 14, 2016 | 12:34 PM
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hahaha, well thank you for not adding that movie to this post.

Would the car have continued to run for roughly 100 miles (maybe 5 total trips) without any fluid in the transmission (assuming it dumped out when i originally heard the sound/shudder)?

In the "ultimate" trip, it went about 25 miles/30 minutes until the high trans temp message showed up, if that provides any more useful context.
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Old Mar 14, 2016 | 12:42 PM
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And assuming it drained itself of fluid, how bad would this be?

New transmission bad?
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Old Mar 14, 2016 | 12:47 PM
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if it had no fluid and was ran for an extended period of time like it was I wouldn't expect there to be much left of it besides the case... there might be some salvageable parts but the cost to rebuild would not be very cheap, especially if it's a z06... I recently did a tr6060 swap in my car and I traded my old z06 trans to the guy to use for parts and knock some down on my bill, he said that the gears are hard to find and really expensive... unless you want to do some upgrades to the one you have you would probably be better off finding a used trans on here, and then add whatever labor they are going to charge you to replace it... it won't be cheap, I would guess around $1500-2k for a used trans with labor

Last edited by StingrayRebel; Mar 14, 2016 at 12:49 PM.
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Old Mar 14, 2016 | 02:14 PM
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Originally Posted by neutron82
if it had no fluid and was ran for an extended period of time like it was I wouldn't expect there to be much left of it besides the case... there might be some salvageable parts but the cost to rebuild would not be very cheap, especially if it's a z06... I recently did a tr6060 swap in my car and I traded my old z06 trans to the guy to use for parts and knock some down on my bill, he said that the gears are hard to find and really expensive... unless you want to do some upgrades to the one you have you would probably be better off finding a used trans on here, and then add whatever labor they are going to charge you to replace it... it won't be cheap, I would guess around $1500-2k for a used trans with labor
From a quick search, it looks like 1500-2k for the trans, and then the cost of labor?

How different is the car with the tr6060 as compared to the m12?
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Old Mar 14, 2016 | 02:19 PM
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Just got a call, and have a bit of an update:

The service manager was able to drive the car into the shop, and it was back to the original issue of not having reverse. They did not see any issues with the clutch master/slave, and think it's an issue with the transmission internally, but they did not see any leaks in/on/around the transmission.

They also will not perform the work as the car has headers and they don't want to remove anything, which seems a little odd to me. So now I need to get it to another shop that can/will do the work...
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Old Mar 14, 2016 | 02:26 PM
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what a pu**y shop!... well you can usually find m12 z06 transmissions used for $1000-1500 so if you get one on the low end it's possible you could be out the door for around $2k, maybe less if you find an mn6 trans... well I can't really compare apples to apples between my 6060 and old t56 because the 6060 is built and has different ratios than the t56 but I like the 6060 a lot better so far
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Old Mar 14, 2016 | 02:46 PM
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Originally Posted by neutron82
what a pu**y shop!... well you can usually find m12 z06 transmissions used for $1000-1500 so if you get one on the low end it's possible you could be out the door for around $2k, maybe less if you find an mn6 trans... well I can't really compare apples to apples between my 6060 and old t56 because the 6060 is built and has different ratios than the t56 but I like the 6060 a lot better so far
and it's a dealership too haha

i'm hoping that if it's not leaking, and was able to move under its own power once cool it is fixable and doesn't require a complete transmission; but i don't know enough about the inner workings of transmissions to know what could cause symptoms like this...
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Old Mar 16, 2016 | 01:37 AM
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Had the same exact problem with my 04 Z06. The problem was the trans tailshaft bearing disintergraded and broke a synchro, among other things. Don't drive it! Mine had bearing rollers rolling around in the moving parts.
I got a good used one from Marc at vettenuts at a good price.

Larry
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Old Mar 16, 2016 | 10:00 AM
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Yeah it got flatbedded to my indy shop yesterday, so there was definitely no additional driving of it.

So it sounds like you needed a new transmission? Or are you saying you were able to replace the parts that failed? And if you don't mind, what did it cost you?
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Old Mar 16, 2016 | 01:21 PM
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Your best bet is to get a good second hand MN12 and install it.

You can call the expert Rick Kim @ RKT Performance and see what he says. He's seen about every T-56 failure that there is.

Give him a call and see what he says.




http://www.rkt56.com/

Keep us up to date on what you find and how you remedy it.

Bill
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Old Mar 16, 2016 | 06:27 PM
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Originally Posted by NotLawReview
Yeah it got flatbedded to my indy shop yesterday, so there was definitely no additional driving of it.

So it sounds like you needed a new transmission? Or are you saying you were able to replace the parts that failed? And if you don't mind, what did it cost you?
Yes, I replaced it with a used one from Marc at vettenuts. It was a low mileage one from a 03 Z06 and I got it for $850.00 (in 2010).
I drove up to Murfreesboro, TN and picked it up.

Larry
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Old Mar 17, 2016 | 04:10 PM
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Glad you got it fixed but did you ever find out what the original problem was?
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Old Mar 17, 2016 | 05:14 PM
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I haven't had mine fixed yet, if you're asking me.

Initial diagnosis from my mechanic is that it's going to need a rebuild, and he'll beef it up to the equivalent of an RPM stage IV for 2k installed. I'll know in the next day or two when his tranny guy gets it whether this is the case.
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