160k miles

all original

1997

2.2L

the trans fluid was around 3 quarts low when i checked it today

the trans is sluggish, as if the engine has no power to move the car

yet the engine is not the cause, it runs well and strong by itself
i unplugged the TCC but have not tried it after letting the trans cool off
because the fluid was so low and it is a medium maroon, no black or burn smell, but it is really old fluid

what do you recommend ?

i was thinking a good seal/rubber conditioner has to be a good thing for a high mileage trans such as this

it is parked right now until monday when i am going to drop the pan and do the filter and refill it with new fluid

how many quarts are needed for a pan drop on a 3 speed auto ?


i figured around 5-6 ?

what model transaxles were the 3 speed auto


i know that the 4 speed were 4T60E and such and we have replaced many for friends and such over the years, always with pretyt high mileage, closer to or over 200k in alot of cases


thanks for anything

-96 cavalier 2.2 auto 143k miles

in the j, the 4 speed was the 4t40e. the three speed is the th125c/3t40 (no e, its non electronic).i would drop the pan, change the filter, add a quart of lucas stops slip, and fill the rest of the way with dex3. let it run to operating temp, reconnect the tcc, shift through all the gears slowly with your foot on the brake, and recheck the fluid level. if it was that low, the torque converter might not be completely full. recheck and refill until it no longer needs it.



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hi there thanks

yeah i know these 3 speed are the 125c slash 3t40 yep

i dropped the pan this morning and replaced the filter

it took 5 quarts of new fluidand could maybe use a little more yet by now,

the trans is still VERY sluggish and no idle creep in gear

i did some research on these symptoms and came up with bad torque converter

makes sense to me since it is definitely not applying engine torque,

or engine torque is not making it through the trans to the output/cv shafts
yet it runs shifts excellent

so hmm
i wish that he had at least checked the fluid to see that it was severely low and really old before he bid on the car at the auction he bought it from

hmm

i hate to break bad news to him that he spent about 1100 bucks on a car with a bad trans

im not sure what to say or how

thanks for any further info/ideas/help

-96 cavalier 2.2 auto 143k miles

back on the auction it goes?


watch for flying sparks!!!

boostNbags wrote:back on the auction it goes?

haha yeah

i just dont know why he wasnt able to check the fluid and other things before bidding on it

i dont want to tell/ask him though because well he surely realizes such now and its too late of course

however, after driving the car around quite a bit lately after this trans pan drop it has actualyl gotten alot better

its no where near as sluggish taking off from a stop as it was previously, and its actually almost normal now, i am comparing it to my 92 bonneville 3800 4T60E in which is 170k miles and runs perfectly shifts perfectly and no resistance at all but does need a trans fluid pan drop because its fluid is looking really old too even though i found a receipt in the car for a trans flish at 165 or 169k miles in 2001

so the car sat for a LONG time apparently hmm

it had a rattling noisy harmonic dampner when i got it in which i just replaced

so maybe thats why it was parked



anyways the thumping in the front end of this cavvy still occurs regardless of the tires i swap on or off of it from the other cavvy

and it actually seems worse at lower speeds than higher speeds

the steering wheel is still cocked to one side

im just gonna tell him it needs to go to an alignment shop and inspected because it is beyond my scope here

i cannot find a loose worn TRE or balljoint anywhere

and the struts have yellow junkyard paint marker writing on them

soimething is fishy about this cars front end

maybe its been wrecked in the past

probably

otherwise the thing runs drives great, other than a little bit of a roughness in the idle, and a little too low of an idle speed, and a hard check engine code stored that will not go away




thanks for any further

-96 cavalier 2.2 auto 143k miles