2 of my friends have 95 z28 A4's, i have a 96 A4. Both of their trannys just went out. Ones went out at 80k miles the other at 92k miles. my car currently has 82k miles. i was just wondering if the 4l60e's are as weak as people say they are. people keep preaching that they are weak. sure i can build it to be bulletproof as far as daily driving is concerned, but im a 20 yr old kid going to college, can you say $$$$$$$$$ for that rebuild???? so i hve been thinking about this tranny issue for some time now and i dont know if i should sell my car for a t56 4th gen.

BTW how do the 4th gen manuals stack up against the 4l60e's as far as reliability??

i am really beginning to worry about my A4, its like im expecting it to fail anyday now. I do not drag regularly , ive only done twice the past year.

i would like to hear some of your experiences and opinions on the 4l60e tranny

 

Well, compared to the M6 its no contest. Stock for stock, the m6 is nearly bulletproof. Now for the auto, it really depends on how you treat it. Does yours show any sign of slipping. If you dont have a tranny cooler then get one, it will really prolong the life of it.

 

The NUMBER ONE ENEMY of an automatic transmission is HEAT.

I would go ahead and switch over completely to a completely synthetic fluid if you haven't already, and add a tranny cooler.

Now, some folks would say that changing the fluid in a high mileage tranny will kill it, especially if you go to a synthetic fluid.

Here's the truth:

It is normal for various seals and such to deteriorate as a tranny ages, especially if the fluid hasn't been changed on a regular basis.. As this happens, sludge will tend to replace the seals and gaskets.

When you change the fluid it can wash the sludge out, exposing a preexisting weak seal that had been plugged by sludge. his is especially true with synthetic, which tends to have a strong detergent effect on anything you run it in.

But here's the thing...

If you change your tranny fluid and the tranny goes bad, it was already on it's way out. Changing fluid will never damage a tranny, it will only hasten the failure of an already damaged one.

If your fluid is already brown and smells burnt, do nothing. Dont even add a cooler. just start saving your money for a re-build.

If your fluid is red or dark red and smells "clean", go ahead and change it now, using synthetic, which tolerates heat better than any non-synthetic fluid ever will.

Personally, I use Amsoil. I began using it in an old 1964 harley sportster I built and I was so happy with the results that I began using it in EVERYTHING I OWN.

 

I disagree. I think the NUMBER ONE enemy of 4L60E transmissions is the force motor table of the PCM, which bases transmission line pressure on throttle position.

Any time you do anything that increases part throttle torque (bigger throttle body especially, blower, whatever) you're now exposing the clutches to much more power than the stock PCM tables are expecting at that throttle position.

The first thing I did with my car was to ramp up the part throttle pressures. I have 40,000 blown miles in a car that runs 11s and the transmission is fine.

- Dave

 

Mine went out at 117K. Those trannies are a POS that costs a fortune to replace. They are not worth it at all. In fact if you dont need the OD then you should def. start saving for a TH swap. A 350 or 400 will work fine and they last a lot longer and are MUCH cheaper to replace. Like our OptiSpark, GM has once again dropped the ball.

 

I don't know why everyone gives the A4 such a bad rap. Mine has 110K on it right now and it is holding up fine. It is all in how you drive it and maintain it. If you are constantly going WOT everywhere then of coarse things are going to wear out quicker than a person that is driving the car like a grocery getter.

 

so the 4l60e's, are they the same ones used from the lt1s on the ls1's?or should i say the same trannys on the lt1's...are they the same on the ls1's? if not how are they different both manual and auto?

and i was thinking of doing a t56 swap, how reliable are the 6 spds in comparison to the A4s?

 

I broked 6 of them. I agree with the throttle / pressure table being a problem, but I turned planetary gears into dust several times as well.
I have a M6 now; it's way slower off the line, but it's more durable

 

Right up until two days ago, my 4L60E ran perfect too. Then one day while going up a slight hill, it felt like I had the parking brake on. I even checked to see if I had knocked it partially out of gear or something. I only ran my car hard a couple of times, but I can only guess as to how it was treated beforehand. They had just did the filter and fluid. That is the LAST time I ever buy a car that a woman has owned. I figure that they pieced up the tranny before I bought it two months ago. Do whatever you like, just make sure that you have money in the bank if you own one of these cars. As to the reliability, just do a search on TH350, TH400, and 4L60E. You'll get the idea about what's going on.

 

If your are really worried, you could keep a good used one on hand. They can usually be had for about 350$, and it just so happens that I have one available.

 

i had my 4l60e rebuilt by chesapeake trans. in baltimore md let me tell you this they did an awesome job rebuild cost me 1300.00 i know it seems high but he backed that with a warranty up to 700 rwhp and a turnaround time of 2 days i thought of going to a turbo400 but did not want to give up overdrive and a gearvendors is to exspensive i even looked at a t56 conversion but didn't want be shifting gears so i stuck with the 4l60e in its stock form it needs work but there are plenty of companys that offer decent rebuild kits for it (hughes,level 10) and trans go has a real nice shift kit for it a bigger tranny cooler will also extend its life as far as synthetic fluid i was told it was a waste of money as long as you keep up with your standard maint.

 

My stocker with a Trans Go shift kit installed at 50k lasted until 125k, I then had a local shop rebuild it with beefed up internals and a new Trans Go kit for 750 bucks.
I did the R&R on the tranny so with the converter and other stuff like a cooler I had about 1200 in it total.
It has almost 6k on it with alot of heavy throttle and its been great.
The 4L60E gets alot of negative attention mainly because most people building them don,t have a clue when it comes to OD trannies, check around and find a good builder and as long as your not throwing LARGE amounts of horsepower and torque at it you should be fine.

 

135k here, original tranny. Heads/cam and converter have been on for almost 10k miles. I was having some issues with a sloppy 2-3 shift when I had mobil 1 atf in there, switched to maxxlife and now have no problems. Mobil 1 seemed to be thinner and perhaps that's what was causing the clutches not to grab as hard as with maxxlife. I'm not really an expert on this stuff, that's just my best guess. Now with the cooler, shift kit and converter the tranny is doing great! The 2-3 shift is still good, everything seems to be in order.

I say if your tranny is in good shape now, plumb in a B&M 24000 lb GVWR cooler(leaving the factory one in line), install a B&M shiftkit, and throw in some Maxxlife ATF.

 

Suprisingly enough, my tranny has decided to start working fine. I put in a tranny cooler to be safe. A guy gave me a long shaft TH350 that needs a rebuild, so that's the way that I am going. I wish that it could be different since I wanted 3:73 gears at some point, but I am not going to worry about my tranny going out for no reason. For curiosity's sake Janny, how many miles is on your tranny and where do you live?

 

I've got about 75K on mine. It has performed flawlessly for as long as I've had it, but that may be because I never drove it winters, changed oil and filter regularly, and I ran an auxillary cooler with it. I honestly think they are a pretty good tranny, but like anything else they need mainentance and they have limitations.

I live just outside Port HURON mi.