:haha: Have a 95 960 sedan auto with 2.9 six. Have been seeing the coolant level slowly drop last few months but asumed it was a small coolant leak. I was wrong. after long trips in the car the tranny started slipping. Engine was revving 4500 rpm to maintain 55mph in drive. After slowing down all gears are doing it. Shut the car down and restarted 3 minutes later all is fine for the rest of the trip. Same problem on the way home. Checked the tranny fluid level and it was a little high and color was weird. drained the pan and saw a TON of water come out. long story shorter, replaced the defective radiator and flushed (with filter) the tranny three times. Drove locally for one week with no prob after. Two days ago on a roadtrip the slipping happened again and stopped for a couple minutes and the car was fine again. WHAT THE HECH?
I know that coolant will play havoc on a tranny especially since i had to slip and rev the engine so much to get of the freeway but it seems intermittant. Yesterday it happened again and on a side road and I know the tranny was not HOT yet. there has got to be some sensor that the coolant corroded or somthing? Has anybody heard of this? Once it starts slipping it will do it in every gear and after 5 min of slipping the car is totaly dead (just revvs). Tell me I dont have intermittant tranny dammage. I am reluctant to change it because I hear that the trannys are bulletproof and used in many vehicles. What do you think???

Anyone.............? Anyone.................? Bueler...........?

This happened to me a while back. Unfortunately the transmission gets killed by moisture. The internal bands have a friction coating on them and the glue that binds it to the steel is water soluable. The friction coating is falling off and collecting in the oil pan where it gets sucked up to the filter, so much is in there the filter will clog. Shutting it down, the material falls off the filter and re-settles to the bottom of the oil pan. Eventually getting sucked back up. The slipping is caused by bare steel bands without the friction material to limit slippage.

Since this transmission is rather robust in design get one from a bone yard, it should run about $250-300. That is what I did, replaced it myself too.

DanR '94 964 339,000 miles (105,000 on the new engine)

well Dan, what you say makes perfect sense and as of yesterday i have already designated a new clean spot on my garage floor to stain with this trans replacement. cheapest i could find was 400 bucks with a 90day warranty. Not too bad. I've had all but two (including this 960) cars that were manual gearbox and this really makes me understand why... Thanks for your post.

danr960,

My 1996 960 transmission started slipping - revving high - and I pulled over immediately and got a tow to a reputable transmission mechanic. He said my trans was toast (I have 147,000 miles on it). Everything else runs great, is in good condition, all fluids changed regularly and no other apparent mechanical problems.

Your suggestion is to go-for-it and get a salvage yard replacement, drop it in and get some more good miles out of the car? You are seeming to imply that the odds are in my favor that this replacement will last awhile?

Thanks for your input.

Dont be confused, my trany prematurely failes at 130K due to a bad radiator and subsequent water ingestion. Most of these transmissions last atleast 250K no prob. The one I am replacing it with has 170K and with fresh fluid/filter it should still outlast the cars life in my driveway. Good luck with the swap.

cyrushassibi,

Thanks for the encouragement! I am going ahead on the process and now making arrangements to put in a "new" transmission. When it is pulled out, I am going to take the opportunity to replace all of the seals and mounts while I am at it.

Wish me luck! :)