04 Venture Transmission service

[emaxxster]

I took my venture to a transmission shop for service and the guy checked for codes and then pulled out the dipstick and the fluid was a little brown and had bubbles in it.
Can someone give me an idea if it is to late to service the transmission, I did push the service to 50K. The shop owner said " the pump is starting to go and drive it till it starts slipping from a stop, but get it rebuilt quick when it does start slipping or it will cost more if I burn final drive unit ". Thank for any advice anyone can give me. Mark

[merc81]

It will cost more??? Heh, my experience with tranny service is they all want a fortune regardless of what's wrong. If you think about it, the effort is pretty much the same -- you need to pull the engine, separate the engine/transmission, then service the transmission.
About the only thing adding to the cost here is the amount of parts and they sell total rebuild kits for these things anyway. If your question is when to get it fixed, I'd have to say go until it quits or until you can plan to be without the van for the repair time.
Always nice to plan the down time, but who has that luxury?

Rebuilt trannys cost about $1800 fyi and come with a warranty.

[ricebike]

disheartened that after only 50K, the trans is on its way out...

did you have the fluid/filter changed anyways? and add an additive to see how long your existing trans will last until it goes BOOM?

[paprius4030]

I'm really surprised with only 50k mi. your having transmission trouble. The "bubbles" is interesting? My routine with our old 99 Venture was as soon as I got dirt specks on a paper towel (usually 40-50K mi.) I would take it to our Chevy dealer and they would do tranny fluid service on their machine). Can't argue with the results never had trayy problems with that car and we sold it a little over 200k. mi last year and I still see it running around town. Now we have a 04 Venture and they chevy dealer did the service just before we got it, had 47k. on it then when it got it's first tranny service.

[ricebike]

yea, w/ any vehicle that i aquire, and if the pan/filter is easy to get at, I will do a trans filter/oil change at least every 2 years since it's easy to do...

['97ventureowner]

Originally Posted by paprius4030

I'm really surprised with only 50k mi. your having transmission trouble. The "bubbles" is interesting?

Bubbles in the tranny fluid usually indicate a condition of too low of a fluid level, or too high of a level. Given the circumstance in the original post, it sounds like a low level condition. What happens is the pump ends up sucking air with the fluid. The bubbles also can appear as foam on the dipstick.

[emaxxster]

Sorry, I should have let ya'll know that it got serviced at 93,500 miles and now it has 145,500 miles.
Can someone give me the best way to check the fluid, I know drive till hot. Should I let it sit for a few min. and them check level?
When I take it to the oil change place they always pull out dipstick and I've never seen bubbles on it before.
Thanks again. Mark

[paprius4030]

You should check it with the engine warm. I was always thought to cycle it thru all the gears then check it in park with the engine running.