Tranny basics

[Eric]

Isuzu automatics since the early 90's have mostly been GM's 4L30-E. They are built in Strasbourg, France, and are shared with the Cadillac Catera, Opel Omega, Vauxhall Omega, Opel Monterey, Vauxhall Monterey, Holden Jackaroo, BMW Z3, and others.

Personally, I think the transmission could be better. It shifts in goofy spots, and seems to make more noise than it should, even with plenty of fluid. But, I really like the Power and Winter switches. Power just raises the shift points in the RPMs, and Winter starts you in second gear to avoid spinning out. Pretty cool, especially when the ol' lady drives.

Supposedly, the 4L30-E is pretty good durability-wise, and I guess it's not supposed to need anything maintenance-wise until it hits 100k miles. I think that's crap. Fluid breaks down. I'm flushing mine this winter at a little over 60k, just to be safe.

[ZuZu4by]

I bought my Trooper with 78k miles on it and about a year later and at 112k the tranny gave up the ghost. no noise, no rough shifts, nothin' just going down the road and all of a sudden nothing but 1st gear. Made for a long trip to the shop.
The guys at the shop were a bit stumped as to why the tranny went out, it was full of fluid and they said it looked like it had been flushed at the proper time. So, $2,700 later the thing is running great.......so far.

Please, if your transmission ever breaks down and for some strange reason you find yourself in or around Tupelo, Mississippi, NEVER EVER take your truck to Quality Transmission. They will screw you over and take a month to fix it and then the thing probably wont be done right. THey put the wrong seals in mine and it bled to death the first night I brought it home. ( Which was excatly a month after I carried it to them.)
A month to fix it wrong and two days to fix it right.
Go figure.

[Eric]

It just occurred to me that people having input from other on where to take their Trooper, and where NOT to, would be helpful, so I've created two boards, one for good mechanics, and
one for bad, from the main page.

Bad Mechanics

Good Mechanics

[brad84]

GM Sucks my troopers had 4 trans's that i know of lol i bought it with a bad trans even though the trans was rebuilt recently then another one was put in sgifted great fgor about a year until we did a trans flush then something happened and it slipped like crazy we think possibly because we used genneric atf instead of isuzu and we used detergants and stuff now since about 3 weeks ago i have a new trans hopefully this one will last it was built and installed in two days for zero dollars beat that lol

[Zaphod]

Good God, man! Use punctuation!

[datrupr]

I used to manage a transmission shop and can tell you that, in most cases, the 4L30E in BMW & Isuzu form are actually very solid transmissions. In my years at the transmission shop we had only one Isuzu come in needing a new transmission, a 96 rodeo 3.2 with 275,000 miles on it. the transmission does seem to shift at some pretty strange points, and it can shift fairly hard sometimes, mostly when cold. The biggest downside to the 4L30E is that it is a seale dunit so you can not check the level and condition of the fluid with out dropping the pan. I would never buy that don't need service for 100K crap either, you should have the transmission serviced every 18 months or 25K and alternate between a fluid & filter change & a flush. I am sorry to hear about the problems you have had with your transmissions, but as they say, there is a lemon in every bunch. A lot of transmission problems happen because of how the vehicle is being used. If you tow anything with your trooper I would reccommend a Sonnex shift kit for your transmission, you trande off smoothness of your shifts for more durability and more power for towing. I think I have rambled on enough here.

[BigSwede]

I heard from Isuzu mechanics that it is a pretty reliable unit if fluid is changed every 30K...