What did they do!!!

[Primetime]

So I posted that I was having my truck in for a transmission service because I have a low sounding whine somewhere and the truck has 99,000 miles. The guy told me that the fluid didn’t look good and that there was a lot of debris on the pan magnets. He showed me the old pan and sure enough there was a decent amount of “sludge” on them, but I didn’t really see any large chunks (actually looked very much like the drain plugs of the diffs on my d2 when I had it). Anyway, as I’m driving home just now, there is a thud in the gears right as I come to a stop... at about mph. You can feel it in you butt like a hard shift. In addition there is a little bit of a whirl from the tranny changing from 2nd to third. Neither of these happened before l did the service. He did reset the adaptations so is that what I’m dealing with? Will it go back to normal? What should I do I’m really fired up at the moment.


Oh and there weren’t any codes of any sort before or when he did the service. There aren’t any codes showing (at least on the dash) now either.

 

[ryanjl]

What did thy do? Sounds like they ****** your **** up.

Did you have this done at a LR dealer?

 

[ktm525]

The shift clunk has always been an issue. I believe there were updates for it. Perhaps they wiped the updates clean during the service. The whirring? No idea?

 

[Primetime]

It wasn’t a dealer, just a reputable tranny shop in my area. Had it in to change the pan/filter/fluid because I didn’t want to be on my back, in the cold, in my driveway doing it. To give a backstory, in late August I towed my boat on a 7 hour journey. Toward the tail end of the trip I was experiencing hard shifts if I was going uphill. Once I got up there (NH and I live in NJ... the sunshine state as I call it) and the weight was off the truck she was fine, shifting like usual. I didn’t get any codes or anything so I chalked it up to it “getting a little hot” going up large hills and I was planning on doing the service soon so just let it be. Since then it’s been perfectly fine. I was just doing this as preventative maintenance. I don’t want to go in there chewing the guys head off until I know for sure it’s him. I’ve heard of transmission fluid changes messing up a tranny, but I thought that was dedicated to a flush not a change. It’s also how immediate it is... I bring it in and everything is fine, drive it home and I have problems.

Also,the shifting patterns are all completely different. I expected a little bit of change with the reset but it’s drastically different. Man, preventative maintainence I guess is like the adage “no good deed goes unpunished”

 

[ryanjl]

Well, I'd start by taking it back to that shop without driving it any more. They screwed something up.

 

[Primetime]

I’m going to go back on Monday and have it looked at. As you probably know, I didn’t get very much sleep last night. I did a lot of research on in bed on my phone like a kid reading a Harry Potter book, including analyzing my invoice. I specified before the work to use “lifeguard” fluid because I knew that was what ZF called theirs and that’s what came in the Atlantic British kit. However, My invoice says ATF Life Guard 9006 for $10.95 a qt. I looked it up and that is the Rowe product, not the ZF one. Has anyone use this in the past? Obviously the wrong ATF can cause problems. Also, my research lead me to find that in a bad transmission to begin with, changing the fluid can cause slipping because there are suspended particles in the dirty fluid that can help the clutches engage. A new fluid won’t have these particles and therefore can cause slipping. There are of course numerous conflicting ideas, reasons, thoughts on this and it’s usually because the tranny shows signs of problems then you go and change the fluid. More often than not the opposite is true where you have a problem, change the fluid, and then things improve. It’s just my luck. This is the first time I have had a car at a mechanic in 15 years (outside of tires/alignments) because I was just too lazy and this happens. The auto gods are punishing me.

 

[ryanjl]

They are going to try to claim it was your transmission the whole time, but I wouldn't buy it. That's on them to prove.

The simple fact is that you took it to them to perform a service, they "performed" a service, and when you picked your car up from their stewardship, it ran like ****. Don't back down; it's on them.

These transmissions are very particular. if the incorrect fluid was used, that could really mess things up.

 

[f1racer328]

Out of the IID Tool Manual

The clear adaption routine may cause the transmission to behave erratically over a period of time. It will need a few drive cycles to get back to normal. Drive the vehicle normally and make sure that the transmission shifts all gears.​

Hopefully it's just the transmission re-adapting, but who knows if the correct fluid is in or not..

 

[djkaosone]

I've ran the IID Tool clear adaption plenty of times, and every single time it'll try to relearn the shifting points. Your transmission should not clunk or make any sounds. It sounds like the shop F'd it up. My transmission had a crack on one of the pipes going to an oil cooler, I wanted to just have someone weld it back together instead of opting to get a new transmission. I didn't try to weld it since there are a ton of electronics inside your transmission and ended up getting a new transmission from the dealership. FYI, it's roughly $8000 for the transmission and $2500 for labor.

I agree with the others, you brought it in "for all you know" a "perfectly working" SUV to simply do preventative maintenance and you shouldn't let them off the hook. Unless you really feel like coughing up $10k for a new transmission. Do yourself a favor and don't let this one go. You brought in a functioning SUV and came out worst than it went in, that should tell you that it's not your fault. Are you sure they filled it up properly? Are you sure they drove it around and then topped it off again?

 

[armozo]

Hey man did they use ZF Lifeguard 6 transmission fluid? It is absolute must.
How many quarts did they drain? How much did they put back?!
You’re supposed to put the pan back on, refill till it drains. Turn the car on, cycle through the gears and once the fluid hits 40c you fill it back up till you get a slow drip.

In my experience clearing adaptation points had to be done twice, the second time I also reset engine adaptations as they both work in concert with each other.

Hope this helps.