Tranny toast?

[cjtully]

My 96 RS/auto, all original seems to be having tranny issues. When cold it seems to struggle to change between 2nd and 3rd and is slow to get into overdrive as well. Checked the basics, tranny fluid, etc. and they seem ok.

Is it fairly safe to assume the tranny is on its way out? Any way to know how long it will limp along for?

I am not mechanic but is there anything else to check?

[Tunes67]

Get the tranny filter changed and get the fluid changed. Do NOT get a power flush done. If you have a power flush done... your tranny wont even last 2 weeks beyond that. If its been more than 30k miles since your filter was changed last.. you may need to change the filter & fluid 2-3 times in rapid fashion to get the crappy old fluid out. The majority of your tranny fluid is in your Torque converter. Impossible to drain it without removing the transmission.. which is why most Lube Shops want to do a power flush to force the old fluid out.. but for our trannies.. this does far more harm than good. If its been more than 30k miles.. change the fluid 3 times over the next 3 months. And change the filter twice, once the first time you do the fluid change and the last time you do the fluid change. This will get the majority of the old tranny fluid out as well as most of the contaminents in the fluid.

If you cant do the work yourself.. this will get expensive and it may not even save your tranny if its too far gone. But.. I can tell you my 94 RS tranny was behaving similar to yours and I did the above procedure and she shifts much better now. Then you need to keep up on the maintenance and change the fluid once a year.

For whatever reason.. these transmissions are really expensive to rebuild.. especially if you just take the car to a transmission shop and have them do all the work. You would be looking at a $1000 to $1500 (or even more) repair bill to have the tranny rebuilt. Having a shop change your fluid & filter for you as I described above will probably cost $200-$300 over those 3 months. If you can do the work yourself.. about $100 in tranny fluid and 2 filters.

I did a write up with pics on how to change the fluid & filter.. here is a link to it

http://www.mx-3.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=53360

Best of luck

Tunes67