Hi all!,

New member here from the other site. Glad to be here! I've got an '02 LW200 and I am going to have the automatic transmission fluid drained and refilled next week. Car is currently at 113,000 miles and this was last done August 2016 at 60,000 so I know I'm a little overdue here on changing out the fluid. Every 45,000 is recommended correct?

When the car & weather is hot, it sometimes will shift hard between gears. While my car is there, would you recommend getting the transmission shift solenoids replaced? There's 2 total right? Or play it safe, see if the new fluid helps and then go back to the shift solenoids if need be. Anyone had this done before and can give me a heads up on the cost of doing this repair?

Thank you

 

Does the wrench light come when it shifts hard? Cycling the key resets the light and hard shifts. If this is what you are experiencing then changing all the shift solenoids and line pressure solenoid should fix the problem. The drain and refill is simple, opening the end of the transmission to access the solenoids is labor intensive. Solenoid replacement is probably several hundred dollar job.

 

The electrical components do cost money but you only want to do this one time since the labor is so expensive.

 

I just did this repair on my LS2. Replaced all 4 solenoids and that plate thingy. It was getting the wrench light before and a power cycle would clear the light but still shift a little rough. Now after the repair it's shifting a little hard but smooth. I don't know if it has a relearn period or something. It's kinda ok and I haven't gotten the light but it's not really smooth shifting. Are the top two solenoids the same? They looked the same, I might have got them switched? For fluid level, I filled it and opened the plug on the passenger side while it was running until it almost quit gurgling out. Is that right?

 

That is how you check the fluid level. I don’t know about the solenoids without looking them up. I would expect the trans to relearn after a few trips. Did you disconnect the battery?