2009 Aura 3.6 6speed tranny clunks on 2-3 shift
 

Hi, new member here. I have a 2009 Aura 3.6 with 6speed auto 110k miles. It's been a good car for several years. It has developed a clunk on the 2 to 3 gear shift. Other gears shift as normal. Also, it shifts fine when cold, but as soon as it's up to temp the 2-3 gear shift clunks.
It has a dipstick, fluid is full and looks really good, fairly clear with a red tint. Does not smell burnt. I've read about this transmission having many failures. Any thoughts? Thanks!!

This car may be one of the wave spring failure models, hopefully Derf will pick up on this thread. He knows about the problematic transmissions.

The 6T70 and 6T75 6 speeds used in the 2008 and up Cues and Outlooks had an issue with the 3 5 r wave plate not being properly heat treated before assembly, leading to waveplate fractures. This would manifest itself as a flare shift from 2nd to 3rd gear. It stays in 2nd, the RPMs increase higher than normal, then it falls hard into 3rd gear

Per Wikipedia, the 2009 aura did in fact use the 6T70.
However, it's unclear when GM determined the root cause and changed manufacturing processes. As a result, I know they offered an extended warranty on the transmission for this particular issue, something like 10 years / 100k miles.

The repair requires a complete teardown of the transmission to get to the aforementioned wave plate. You may also notice the same type of behavior shifting from 4th to 5th. If left unattended long enough, you will lose reverse.

Don't know the value of the vehicle, but you are almost guaranteed to have a good chance of getting a used or rebuilt transmission for less than the cost of rebuilding yours. There probably is not much demand for them this many years later. GM has moved on to the 9T so they are not even made anymore.

I would contact GM with your VIN and ask them if the expired extended warranty for the 35r wave plate issue would have covered the transmission in your vehicle. That will let you know that your particular vehicle was built with a potentially defective wave plate, as opposed to assembled with a properly heat treated one.

02Lw300 and Derf, much appreciation on your replies. I had read of the 3 5 R Wave plate problem but didn't understand it fully. With your expertise it is much clearer now. I will try reaching out to the GM area rep for the wyoming area where i live. It's been a good car, but your right about considering a used vs rebuilt transmission. Yesterday i was quoted 5300 for a rebuilt installed 3yr 100k miles warranty. Thank you !!

If you reuse your torque converter, make sure it is flushed of any metallic debris. I would question how much the vehicle is worth with respect to spending $5,500 for the tranny. Your driving habits seem to indicate you will pass the 3 years long before the 100,000 miles, so keep that in mind.

Hi Derf, Those are great considerations and i appreciate it. I spoke with a GM assistant, they said the VIN of this car didn't show the extended warranty attached. I asked that since it's beyond the 10 year period world any of the affected vehicles show that attached? She didn't know.
So the car has been driven minimally last few days but it broke going 40 mph. No reverse as you mentioned, but it seems to have first. I trailered it home and drained the oil to look for metal, it looks great. So i ordered the Sonnex 35r drum saver kit and going to try pulling out that 35r clutch and see what condition its in. It's an experiment at this point. I will let you know how it goes. Thanks

Woman at GM is probably fos.
Will GM really support anything still having to do with Saturn?
I think they'd rather rewrite history like someone in a very high place right now is doing.

It was not a recall. It was a customer satisfaction campaign. The difference being you only received the work for free if you were within the warranty period or the extended warranty period.
I'm not sure they had a list of VIN s because I can't remember if they actually knew where the improperly created wave plates actually ended up... Which vehicles. So maybe she has not they offered a blanket extended warranty probably because they had no idea which vehicles were going to display the issue.

I was told, but cannot verify, that you must tear down majority of the transmission to get to that wave plate. Which means you will have all types of seals, clutch packs, and other stuff inside transmissions with which I am not familiar, that will need to be removed and reassembled. I recommend you research thoroughly what you're getting into before you start. If you are an experienced mechanic, then obviously disregard this.

And when you put it back together, make sure the transmission mount is oriented correctly. The shop put it in 90°, somehow to the way it was supposed to be, and driving it as such felt like an earthquake at all speeds with foot on the gas.

Well i jacked up the car and dropped the engine tranny cradle on drivers side, removed caliper, disc, lowered strut to get better access. Removed end cover on tranny and tcm cover, removed 35R clutch drum and the wave plate was in the broken in five pieces. Bottom of drum a bit chewed up from wave plate failure which is normal. I installed a Sonnax drum saver kit and cleaned and flushed a much oil and some finely ground aluminum shavings out. No access to filter and this 3 5 R clutch hub is the first one behind the cover and is the one most prone to wave plate failure I've learned. Put all back together and reverse now works, trouble code cleared and it drove well for a few test drives, changed oil twice more trying to get a much metal out as possible. It really never looked like a lot was in there but definatly some ground up pieces. Then it started shifting abnormally and other times driving great. Now has a trouble code again for B performance solenoid stuck closed. We made an appt at a local tranny shop to look at it. Given the cost i am very unsure of having it rebuilt. Possibly a used tranny and sell the car. At least we tried and it did fix the original problem. Thanks for your help !!

Sorry it didn't work out for you. At least you tried. A lot harder than 99% of the owners experiencing the problem. I don't know if a full fluid exchange would include all of the fluid in the torque converter.. if you are seeing the savings and chunks of metal in the transmission not there is bound to be crud in the torque converter so the only way to flush that out would be to do a full exchange of fluid or possibly a power flush. Power flushing is usually a bad idea for transmissions with any mileage on them because sometimes the accumulated stuff in the passageways actually is keeping the transmission shifting properly. However, in this case, you are trying to get material as well as the fluid out of the torque converter. I suppose you could break the two apart to get all the fluid out of the torque converter, but I am not confident that will restore proper operation. Be careful of letting the transmission shop talk you down a path of successively more operations in a failed attempt at fixing this. Just the labor to split the two will not be nice. They're also maybe enough torque converter damage that it doesn't make sense keeping it. The stuck solenoid maybe because there is some metal caught in there. They will likely tell you that you need a full rebuild plus a new torque converter. You've already pretty much decided not to go for that. Not knowing the condition of the charge converter, if you're looking to sell this I would consider replacing it after a qualified person inspects it. I do remember that the standard procedure if the wave plate was found broken and metal shavings or present included replacing the transmission and the torque converter.