Hey guys!

Just picked up our 98 C5 in Pewter yesterday. Automatic unfortunately, but a great price (So I thought). Aftermarket rims on Nitto tires, Pypes exhaust system, and a K&N intake. Gorgeous car and I love it. Compliments my 76 Toyota Celica GT quite well, albeit the Corvette is significantly faster.

I had a POS 92 C4 for a while as a project that I sold before I spent too much money on it (Actually made about $500 on it, so not a bad way to go out on a C4).

Anyways, back to my new 98...

Was running and driving AWESOME. But, after putting about 70 miles on it, I took off under normal acceleration from a stop sign about 8 miles from home, and the car lost 2nd gear, and the information display said that the trans temp was too high. I could manually shift it and it would do third gear. Didn't try to go past that in case I were to fry something else.

So I just stopped and had it towed to a shop here in town.

That was last night. Got a call saying they believe its the trans kicking the bucket, and not a solenoid/valve body but they'd have to take it all apart to find out.

I called a trans specialty shop in the area and they said about $2,200 rebuilt with a warranty, installed.

Before I haul it to a transmission specialty shop to have that done, is there anything else I should consider? The only issue with the car before yesterday was that the coolant level sensor was bad, causing the display to say that the level was low, and a belt was kinda squeaky.

Pretty bummed out, and of course the guy we got it from had no knowledge of it, but such is life. Too nice a car to take a big loss on it by selling it.

All help is appreciated

Looking forward to getting her back and on the road for cruising.

 

Forgot to attach the pic of my Celica.

 

I had this exact thing happen to my '98 after taking it out of winter storage about 3 weeks ago. I had it taken to a specialty transmission shop and I was told I needed a new transmission. Got a rebuilt tranny and a 3 year, 100,000 mile warranty for $3500.

 

Absolutely there is something else. If the trans temp fluid was too hot, check a couple of things that won't hardly cost anything. Not doing this might be a $2200 mistake. First thought is why is the trans fluid temp too high? Could be a variety of reasons. I'd check these things before spending the $$$.
1. Fluid level. Do you know for a fact that the transmission is full? Checking transmission fluid on a Vette is WAY different than other cars. You must have it up to full operating temperature then you have to either rack it or get it up off the ground (must be level) and then you unscrew the fill plug on the side of the trans and add fluid til it spills out (NOTE- doing ALL of this while the car is running!!) Put the plug back in, then run the car through the gears and repeat. If you could drive it briefly, even better. Rinse and repeat. Continue until you can't put any more fluid in.
2. The A4 uses the radiator for cooling the trans fluid and its a well known fact about the radiators getting clogged up/blocked by sucking stuff up from the bottom. Make sure its good and clean and the air can flow through freely.
3. It's very possible that you might be able to drive the car a little right now since it's cooled down. When the tranny temps get too high, it causes strange things to happen. But make sure it's full of fluid first.
4. If it's still failing, then yep, you'll probably have to take it to the trans shop, but at least you tried.

I'm pretty familiar with the 4L60e used in our cars. It is NOT the greatest transmission but can be built up. Yours very well might be toast. On the other hand, if you're not a guy that hammers his car all the time, you might be surprised what the above things will do for your transmission. Might just last a long while yet... Just think... If you were 1 or 2 qts low on fluid, you'd get it hot, it would act funny and the trans shop wants your $$$. That's ok but I'd sure check that out first. GL with your car and please let us know what you find.

 

Good advise. Make sure any trans shop you take it to has experience with the C5. It is WAY different from most cars on the road.

 

Hey thanks guys, I appreciate it.

As for the radiator, I have a receipt from a few years back for the radiator, water pump, and AC compressor from the PO.

The shop we took it to, albeit a Ford dealer, has serviced most of our cars for things we didn't have time or space to do, however, I felt like they were trying to screw me.

On top of the trans issue, they wanted $900 to fix a slight oil pan leak, $400 to change the serpentine belts, $600 for a wheel bearing, etc etc. $3800 for the trans.

There is a Corvette shop about 20 minutes from me that said to try the trans fluid change first, but if the trans is shot, they could do a new one with an update kit for all the parts for $2,400 with a one year warranty. They've been around for a long time. So, I'm leaning on going that route if I have to have the trans replaced.

I'll try the trans fluid check on Sunday. What kind of fluid does it take?

Thanks

 

You'll want to use Dextron III ATF. Mobil 1 is a good brand but there's lots of choices. Stick with a name brand. Here's another tip. Clear your DIC and then hit the Gages button several times until you see Trans Fluid temp. That'll help you monitor everything. Here's another thread on this same subject.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...uid-level.html

 

Off to the shop she goes.

Trans was three qts low on fluid but after having the Chevy dealer put the fluid in, its still doing the same thing.

Found a local shop that has a bunch LS# 4L60E gurus (Used to be called Mann's Corvette shop in Mishawaka, IN).

They're doing upgraded everything and adding a shift kit.

Next issue to tackle is figuring out the key fob losing its programming grrr

 

Glad you got it sorted ...as for the belt sequel ? Did you happen to check if you had the dreaded Harmonic balancer wobble ?

 

Hey thanks for the heads up on the remote. One of my fobs was cracked up, but i soldered the joints on the two remotes I have here at the house. The plastic on the broken one I threw out and stuck the circuit board and rubber buttons inside an old hard drive plastic bag.

The other one is totally clean and resoldered. Can't test it until I get the car home.


As for the harmonic balancer, no. What are we looking at for doing this. I hate the word "Dreaded" haha

 

I would stay away from this dealership at all costs. You can purchase a quality replacement serpentine belt for under $25 and replace it yourself within 15 minutes. I want to say OEM belt is less than a hundred. You're telling me it's going to take them 2-3hrs to replace a belt? I think not! Even if you have to replace the AC belt that's only like $12. It's a little more of a pain but I did both my belts on jack stands and in under an hour. Regardless your dealership is screwing you and I would find a new one.

 

Oh yeah. I realized they were trying to screw us when I was at the auto parts store and they told me they called asking for a price on a transmission for the C5. Parts store was $1,300. Dealer wanted $1000 in labor. However, their estimate was for $3,800 out the door, so either they were buying some gold filled trans fluid, or they were marking up the price on the transmission.

As for the belts, I can already tell its an easy job. Once I get it back, I'll get some Continental belts off Rock Auto, or the AC Delco ones. We'll see. I think the ACD serpentine belt was $50 ish and the V belt for the AC comp was around $15? Obviously, I could probably get some cheaper ones for probably $30 combined, but that's just a price difference. I've never heard of a $100 belt in my life.

Once we get it back, I'll make a thread dedicated to the car where I can post some pics and run down some info so I can keep track of everything I've done on it.

Thanks a lot guys for the help!

 

Welp.

Got the news. Trans is rebuilt and installed. Some upgraded goodies, so hopefully I'll get another lifetime out of it. Can't wait to see what the shift kit does for the car.

I'll start the new thread for progress when I get it back tomorrow.