Average life on A4 tranny's on LT1's everyone w/experience post inside!
#1
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Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Atlantic City, New Jersey (south jersey)
Posts: 418
Average life on A4 tranny's on LT1's everyone w/experience post inside!
Well picking up a 94 Z A4 on Sunday. I have had a couple LT1 Camaros but the only one that needed to be rebuilt the car had 162,000 miles on. I know some go faster than others but i would like to know the average life on the tranny's btw this car im getting already has a tranny cooler so i know that helps cause i got one put on my previous Z. Thanks CZ28
#4
Re: Average life on A4 tranny's on LT1's everyone w/experience post inside!
My car was owned by an old lady who did not beat the car, and took it to the dealer regular for service. 60K miles and it started slipping at 1-2@WOT, and was generally mushy.
FLP LVL 4 now, all smiles!
FLP LVL 4 now, all smiles!
#5
Re: Average life on A4 tranny's on LT1's everyone w/experience post inside!
105,000 and my original tranny still shifts like a mother at WOT. I think mine was taken care of for the first 82,700 miles or so. Then I got a hold of it.. heh. Might not last much longer.
#6
Re: Average life on A4 tranny's on LT1's everyone w/experience post inside!
I put a shift kit in at 50k and lost 2nd gear at about 125k.
I was not easy on it though.
Manual upshifts, drop it into second and mash the pedal, I was pretty hard on it.
I was not easy on it though.
Manual upshifts, drop it into second and mash the pedal, I was pretty hard on it.
#7
Re: Average life on A4 tranny's on LT1's everyone w/experience post inside!
I have 148,879 miles on mine.............only 5,000 with new set up. I have beat the crap outta mine from day one (shame on me ). It still shifts good for me. I bought the car with almost 75,000 miles on it.
#8
Re: Average life on A4 tranny's on LT1's everyone w/experience post inside!
My T/A which hasnt been driven hard and had regular fluid and filter changes is still working great at 110,000 miles. Hopefully the trans will last a long time since Iam planning on selling my Z soon and the T/A will become my only car.
#9
Re: Average life on A4 tranny's on LT1's everyone w/experience post inside!
66K on mine with a Vigi 3200, got a B&M trans cooler well before the converter though. Most the time I drove it was babied as I use to comute a ton in the car. Only thing that needed to be changed was the seal for the pump, changed that at the time of the converter. Chris@Speed Demon looked at the trans, he said the fluid was fine and not burnt at all.
#10
Re: Average life on A4 tranny's on LT1's everyone w/experience post inside!
It really does depend on how the car was treated. My car has 117k miles, but only ~95k miles on the auto (the M6 was in there for a touch under 23k miles before it blew up). Still feels as good as new. There are two members on this board that i'm aware of that have over 200k miles on the original 4L60Es... but both were stock or near stock and strickly road cars with little racing.
The more you beat on it, the shorter it's life. Once a part has some material worn from it, you can't put it back. I'll subject a hypothesis that every WOT shift subjects as much wear on that gear's respective components as 100 or more part throttle shifts of the same gear. The 4L60Es in f-bodies are notorious for going out between 100-120k miles.... well i know of a TON of 4L60Es in the full size trucks that go over 150k miles without a problem. My dad has 3 tahoes (all 96-97 models) in his land surveying business with over 150k miles and not one peep from the trannies. And those trucks weigh at least 1500-2000lb more than an f-body. He also has a 93? suburban with the most miles of the bunch with ~180k miles, stock trans is still going strong (i'm pretty sure it's a '60). Another friend of mine just traded his 95 Z71 with 185k miles and no problems from day one... in fact, the tranny is in better shape than the engine. There are a bunch more that i know of. It's those WOT up/downshifts and high rpm they see in these cars that kills them so quickly.
The more you beat on it, the shorter it's life. Once a part has some material worn from it, you can't put it back. I'll subject a hypothesis that every WOT shift subjects as much wear on that gear's respective components as 100 or more part throttle shifts of the same gear. The 4L60Es in f-bodies are notorious for going out between 100-120k miles.... well i know of a TON of 4L60Es in the full size trucks that go over 150k miles without a problem. My dad has 3 tahoes (all 96-97 models) in his land surveying business with over 150k miles and not one peep from the trannies. And those trucks weigh at least 1500-2000lb more than an f-body. He also has a 93? suburban with the most miles of the bunch with ~180k miles, stock trans is still going strong (i'm pretty sure it's a '60). Another friend of mine just traded his 95 Z71 with 185k miles and no problems from day one... in fact, the tranny is in better shape than the engine. There are a bunch more that i know of. It's those WOT up/downshifts and high rpm they see in these cars that kills them so quickly.
#11
Re: Average life on A4 tranny's on LT1's everyone w/experience post inside!
About 20k on my GM rebuild with ~400hp/tq, 4.11s and plenty of track time. 3000 stall, big cooler, no worries yet, though I'm definetly pushing the trans' limits for sure.
#12
Re: Average life on A4 tranny's on LT1's everyone w/experience post inside!
Mines hanging in there right now 56k. But I hope to be doing what Spinner is this summer, please live lil 4L60E.
-Dustin-
-Dustin-
#13
Re: Average life on A4 tranny's on LT1's everyone w/experience post inside!
My '95 has 110,400 miles on it right now and that is all with the original 4L60E...And it still seems to shift very firm/hard at part throttle or WOT without any feel of slipping (knock on wood!). Not bad since I'm pretty sure it had been beat on quite a bit before I got it...
But this is all kinda irrelevant since I plan on a nice tranny rebuild sometime this upcoming spring/summer due to having big plans for the car...
Mike
But this is all kinda irrelevant since I plan on a nice tranny rebuild sometime this upcoming spring/summer due to having big plans for the car...
Mike
#14
Re: Average life on A4 tranny's on LT1's everyone w/experience post inside!
A WOT shift has more line pressure reducing cluch slip so that is not as bad as one might think, there is another line of thought that suggest street time is actually as rough as track time because of that. Really it is tough too say when the tranny will go, some guys with L99 Caprices have lost trannies by 30K and others needed heads/cam/boost at 180K before it let loose. I had my first rebuilt around 100K no track time before that and the car had an L99, I had it done as preventative because I had plans for a cammed LT1 and would need more tranny, had the shop do some extras and a couple months later did the LT1 swap with stock cam and that tranny only lasted 16months and 32K miles the cam was put in a couple thousand miles before it dumped, little track time and I hadn't gotten too the power level I had them build it for yet, now I am running a pro-built.net tranny put about 25K on it in 11months with many track passes before hitting a deer but sofar I could not be happier, once the car is put back together I expect this tranny to continue to serve me well.
#15
Re: Average life on A4 tranny's on LT1's everyone w/experience post inside!
CHANGE TRANNY FLUID EVERY 30K MILES. Nobody ever changes it. Had a friend that though his tranny went out ... but we changed the fluid and put a new filter in and it lasted 6k more.