As the title says, I got in the habit of doing this for whatever reason, maybe because it sounds better that way. Anyways, my tranny started slipping and not going into 4th 12 months after my rebuild, and I was wondering if it was anything that I did.

It's a 4L60E.

 

Excess use of engine braking with the 4L60E usually means less time between rebuilds.

 

I think he means just letting off the throttle before an upshift occurs, so it's not a shift under full load, no?? I often did that with my car too ..... until the tranny smoked out second gear!! BUT to be honest about things, the tranny's death was (IMO) completely due to the fact of road racing the car HARD, with 4.10 gears in the back, doing harsh upshifts and downshifts in and about 2nd gear, and surprise, surprise, 2nd gear started to slip!!

If you're not letting off to actually use "engine braking", I think (well, at least "I think" ) it should be easier on the tranny, given that it's not suffering a shift at full throttle, full power, full load?

 

You are correct, no engine braking was done. And yea, I thought about it being okay because it's not a "full load", as you said, but I don't know much about transmissions, so I thought I'd ask. Doing this did not cause the tranny any confusion, either, it shifts just as it normally would.

And while I do drive hard/spirited, it is my DD, and it is only about 45% of the time where I drive it hard. So I don't think I had anything to do with it's failure.

Thanks. I'll wait for more responses, but I think it was my tranny builder. He was supposed to have a good reputation though, he's even been in magazines, he does Hot Rods, Muscle, and everything in between.

 

my car was bouncing off the rev limiter once and to make it shift sooner i had to let off b4 the 1-2 shift, i was loosing 2 tenths in the 1/4 just from letting off.it would only hit the limiter about half of the time, so i know that the letting off was hurtin my et.

 

The tranny seems back to normal when it is cooler out, but when it gets hot, and after I've done more driving, it starts shifting really hard again. Anyone ever had a problem with their tranny running hot?

 

I thought it was better for a transmission to spend less time shifting, which is why shift kits are actually better for the transmissions to a point.

I've never done what you are describing but my friend frequently does it in his Diamante and it definitely doesn't feel like it's good for it. If anything it feels like it's prolonging the shift.

 

Well, if the trans temp is high, that can lead to a very quick rebuild session.. since heat is what will really kill and auto trans... perhaps you should throw a trans oil cooler n the loop. sometimes the stock one through the radiator just is not enough.

 

Well I just learned moments before reading your post, that the cooler runs through the radiator, and I've been low on coolant lately (unknown until I checked recently) and it's been getting very hot lately. I'm going to have it checked by a transmission shop and maybe opt for an aftermarket cooler. Thanks for the advice.

 

Aftermarket cooler is good no matter what type of driving you're doing. The cooler it runs the longer it'll stay alive. I've put one on every auto car I've ever owned (all two of them ) and have never had an issue, despite some heavy abuse. For the small amount it costs to pick up a second cooler the amount saved will be 10 fold versus a rebuild.

 

That most certainly was not the cause of your problem

 

Can you give me some other possibilities then, Performabuilt? I'm out of ideas here.

 

More than likley just a failure old etc i mean honestly some times things just break