Hi guys. I have quite a bit of rebuild experience on the older tx's (904, 727, 504 etc.), but not a lot on the A604, 40TE and 41TE series.
I have an '04 Neon, with the 40TE. It has about 134,000 miles on it. The tranny died completely last fall, and I'm just now doing a rebuild. Both the front and rear planetaries are toast. Actually the front planets are completely stripped, and the rear inside ring is partially stripped. Metal chunks and bits everywhere. I had put a new solenoid pack and radiator on it about five months prior to this failure, and everything seemed smooth and fine. My wife drove it for about three thousand miles before any problem appeared. The reason for that repair was due to the dreaded radiator to trans cooler hole, and subsequent passthrough. Plus the solenoid pack was causing codes. I had completely flushed the entire system before replacing the parts, but I did not want to remove the tranny, so I didn't do a rebuild then. Just a note, yes I am using ATF+4.
I want do this rebuild properly, so as to prevent any future problems for at least another hundred thousand miles. I really don't know if the planetary failure was caused by debris in the system, the new solenoid pack, a valve body issue or something else. I have seen some rebuild vendors that have what they call a "repeated planetary failure cure kit", but I don't know if that applies here.
So my questions are: What are the most common possible causes of planetary failure? What can be done to prevent it from happening again? What does the above mentioned "cure kit" do, and what parts are included? What other parts would you reccomend I replace besides a rebuild kit, the planetaries, the bypass valve and filters/gaskets etc?
Any help would be appreciated on this. Thanks --Chris--
I have an '04 Neon, with the 40TE. It has about 134,000 miles on it. The tranny died completely last fall, and I'm just now doing a rebuild. Both the front and rear planetaries are toast. Actually the front planets are completely stripped, and the rear inside ring is partially stripped. Metal chunks and bits everywhere. I had put a new solenoid pack and radiator on it about five months prior to this failure, and everything seemed smooth and fine. My wife drove it for about three thousand miles before any problem appeared. The reason for that repair was due to the dreaded radiator to trans cooler hole, and subsequent passthrough. Plus the solenoid pack was causing codes. I had completely flushed the entire system before replacing the parts, but I did not want to remove the tranny, so I didn't do a rebuild then. Just a note, yes I am using ATF+4.
I want do this rebuild properly, so as to prevent any future problems for at least another hundred thousand miles. I really don't know if the planetary failure was caused by debris in the system, the new solenoid pack, a valve body issue or something else. I have seen some rebuild vendors that have what they call a "repeated planetary failure cure kit", but I don't know if that applies here.
So my questions are: What are the most common possible causes of planetary failure? What can be done to prevent it from happening again? What does the above mentioned "cure kit" do, and what parts are included? What other parts would you reccomend I replace besides a rebuild kit, the planetaries, the bypass valve and filters/gaskets etc?
Any help would be appreciated on this. Thanks --Chris--