I'm thinking about trading my M6 for an A4. how durble are the Automatics, i don't drive hard or run the track and i would plan on changing the fluidandfilter every 30,000 miles. has everyone had god luck with the A4? I'm just looking for opinions here and maybe some mileage numbers.

thanks!

 

A4 is very durable. Go find "bayouboy" on LS1.com. His A4 has 100,000 or so on it and he has been running cam, headers, 3200 stall and god knows what else and is STILL driving on the first tranny!! Oh and he frequents the 1/4 track often!! Hope that helps you out. Why you going from M6 to A4?

 

thanks for your response, i've had myTA for 8 months, and first i like the camaro interior much better and i'm tired of hearing clunks and jerks every time i shift below 2500 rpm. I'm looking at a 2001 z28 now and it worth less than my TA so it won't cost me very much to switch.

 

Heheh, that's funny that you want to switch M6--->A4........most guys want to go the other way!

While some people have had bad luck with the 4L60E, others (as stated above) have run them for a long time with no problems at all. I've gotten the impression that they don't take the same amount of abuse that the older TH350's & TH400's took, but if your plan is basically to have a nice car to drive and nothing else, you should be OK. My friend has a '96 T/A with over 85,000miles, and it's still the original tranny (he bought it with ~65,000miles and has added a CAI, Borla cat-back, under-drive pullies, and a programmer --- not Hypertech, but same thing --- and has raced it at the track, and it's still holding up fine).

I wonder if a shift kit, or maybe just programming (ie: HPP3) to clean up / stiffen the shifts would be beneficial to the tranny for a longer life?? I've heard that a lot of slippage between shifts is actually bad for them, but again, for normal driving, they should last a long time.

 

thanks fo your post, it was very helpful to me, all i really ever wanted is a nice car to cruise and rip down the street once in a while and one that looked goodand had a warrenty . the M6 is nice and usally smooth but driving it seems tedious to me. also my clutch slips a little in first on hard lanuches and that's annoying. I think the transmission is an over all great, it's just occasionally you mess up with the clutch and starting on hills and stuff is always a major pain. I not crazy about the leather interior, i thought i would like it just because it looked nice. plus the camaro stereo has some nice features that TA does not. also i thought i would like the TA more in the long run because i liked the exteior styling better and i still do from most angles, those are the main reasons i'm considering trading the car. I wish i could have both cars, I'll have to think a while to choose a course of action. They're both such nice cars both with pros and cons.

 

I increased the shift firmness on my A4. While at a dyno tune event our club had they suggested to do this to help the transmission run cooler. The decrease in slipping of the band makes it run cooler and last longer. This was suggested by a guy that works for GM and rebuilds these transmissions. Now when you stand on it it will break the tires loose when it hits second and I've had it chirp third also.

 

When I sold my V6, it had 47,000 miles on it. I hadn't replaced the tranny fluid/filter at all the entire life of the car, as I didn't want to spend too much money on the car since I knew I wanted a V8 eventually. But when I told it, the tranny was still working perfect, and let me tell you, I drove the hell out of that car! (taking better care of my LS1 of course, still having fun though ), but yeah, it's a very reliable tranny IMO. When I bought my V8, I stayed with the A4 instead of going to an M6. With a shift kit and tc, who cares about M6! (or even w/out them!)

 

The reason I went from A4 to M6 was because of my previous 4L60E.

I went through 6 trannies in 3 years.

I never had one that lasted me more than 13K miles.

I found that hardly anyone local to me was a specialist on the 4L60E. They said they were, but after having the tranny break within 5K miles I would have to get another.
What rips me the most is that they werent behind a mega motor.. I was putting down 270/296 on the dyno.. thats not mega power... I had gears and a shift kit and a tranny cooler.. Nothing helped. The car was hella quick but not worth the hassle of having your car down that often.

What I did find is that the t-56 tranny is fairly easy to work on and many people here know how to work with it.. that makes me think that it was a better choice even if it does go south.

 

Hey psychocabbage, I remember you've talked about that before (6 trannies in 3 years) but each time you had it replaced, was it a new transmission each time?? or did they just keep rebuilding the same one?? The reason I ask is because my dad's truck ('89 Chev fullsize) has gone through 2, or maybe 3 transmissions (700-R4 / 4L60, not 4L60E) since it was new, but the first time or two that it blew, it was just rebuilt. Finally, the last time it blew (lost 3rd and 4th gear) my dad got a different transmission housing, had it rebuilt, and it's worked perfect ever since. What we've heard is that sometimes you can actually get a bad casting/housing that has something just not right inside, and it will never work consistently for a long time..................sort of like how there are some cars that are factory "freaks", there are some transmissions that are factory "lemons". I don't know if this was your case or not, but maybe that's why you had the transmission blow up within ~5,000miles. I mean, I've got over 11,000miles on my car so far, and it's working perfectly (same as the day I picked it up), yet I honestly drive the $h!t out of my car (I drive it harder than a brand new car deserves to be driven..........but it's fun ).

This may or may not be true, but it's something to keep in mind. If a transmission fails prematurely, maybe instead of rebuilding it, seeking a new transmission might be the better thing to do?? Just food for thought.

 

I bought a new 2002 Z and at 10,000 the tranny went out.They replaced the bands and some other critical parts that I can not think of right off the top of my head.I have 11,500 on it now and it is ok I hope, but sometime when I let off the gas to coast it jerks like it is shifting down and I was wondering if any one else has had this problem. It doesn,t do it all the time.It is a A4 also.