Tranny TCC Solenoid Problem

[70Firebird/TTA]

First I will like to thank the posters (esp Bruce) for the insight on these Turbo Cars.

Story: My 89 TTA with 26,000 orig miles was bogging when comming to a stop and it appeared that it would leave in 2nd gear---not fully downshifting to 1st. With the help of this board...I was able to POINT the tranny shop to the problem.

Transmission Shop Experience....Neutral. I am not trying to say that anybody tried to rip me off...but I really feel bad for people who go into shops and get worked around. Already having a good idea of the problem...I told the service manager that I suspected the TCC and he told me that in his opinion it might be something else (governer--this/that whatever...)...seemed that he was almost insistant that the TCC would not solve my problems of the car not downshifting into 1st periodically. I had to practically sign off that the TCC MIGHT NOT be the problem...and if it wasn't...his shop wasn't liable... what ever. Turns out that after getting the TCC replaced...my downshifting problems mysteriously went away
In fact...I drove the car for a freakin hour (hard) trying to get the problem to recurr which it didn't...I do believethe problem is solved.

Nevertheless I was getting the "stories" from the Transmission shop that the TH200R4 is rare and not very durable and the ..."oh look...you have some debri in your pan". They even told me that the 700R4 is rare...but NOT AS rare as the 200 R4...and NOT AS EXPENSIVE TO FIX...whatever that means??? I can see where they try to get into the heads of the customer and plant "IDEAS" that his tranny is going to Sh*t. I don't believe that they went to Defcon 4 with the sales routine...after talking to me...but a woman or older person would probably be ready to fork over the mortgage for a rebuild! Not sure if the service manager knew I was casing him out with my questions...asked how much would it cost for a 700R4 rebuild and he told me $1500-1700 which is a bit on the HIGH side for the part of town I am living.

Oh well. I am glad my TURBO TA tranny problems are solved.

 

[70Firebird/TTA]

These are some of the Red Flags I encountered when conversing with the Service Manager:

1.) 200R4 is a "bad" transmission. Hummm? My wife's car has a 200R4 and her's has over 150,000 original miles and still running strong.
2.) 700R4 would be a "better" tranny for my application. Humm The 700R4 is a tiny bit more durable--true ...but the 1st gear 3:06 ratio is too tall and leads to slow 2/3 shift in any application. 200R4 with it's 2:73 first gear is more efficient for overall performance.
3.) There were small traces of microscopic metal in the pan...BUT the tranny only has 26,000 orig miles and is barely broken in!!! You have to expect Some stuff on the magnet for something that low mileage Duh!
4.) Manager brought my old tranny filter over to me so that he could open it up and show me "metal"...but instead (to his surprise) the filter was virgin clean.
5.) Manager told me "stories" that the 200R4 is a rare bird...duh...what about all those millions of Buick Regals/Monte Carlos and 90s V-6 Camaros/Firebirds on the road still.
6.) Manager told me "Hey buddy, you got problems" and wipped out a tranny chart with displaying the clutches/and internal componants (scare tactics) ...and told me that I am having problems with 1st gear. Only problem is that the car shifts perfectly 1,2,3,4 gear...it's only when downshifting to 1st on occasion (TCC Solenoid). No, I don't think that there is anything wrong with 1st gear!

7.) Manager asked...Did you do research on a tech board on the problem????

8.) After telling him that the problem occurs intermittenly...might take 10 minutes or 30 minutes to show itself...manager told me "I don't have the luxery of assigning one of my techs to test your car for 1/2 hours. Nevertheless his tech tested the car and the problem didn't reproduce itself... What does this mean??? Does this mean that every customer brings in problems that are at 100 % failure so no "extended" test drives are not necessary.. Not likely

9.) Service manager and his assistent were occasionally doing the huddle--probably concerning my ride (since I was the only customer physically present) ...and/or how far they would try to go??? possible??? maybe...maybe not.

10) And finally the CSS also known as the "Conflicting Story Syndrom". I sensed that the Service Manager was hot on blaming the problem on "governor" on the valve body... While waiting for the TCC Solenoid to arrive I called his assistant and was told that the "governor" could be removed and cleaned and that no replacement was necessary. Cool right...well when they dropped the pan...the Manager refused to remove the governor and run any diagnosis....seemed the story was changing like a cheap hollywood script. No worries...the TCC fixed the problem anyway.

PS> By raising all these red flags... shops scare away potential future customers (I have a 700R4 with over 210,000 miles that will eventually require rebuild...and a 70 Firebird that I am thinking of going to a Posi unit). Now I know where NOT to take it.