Out of the blue, the transmission in our 2000 Chevy Van started slipping when accelerating from a dead stop. Very strange feeling; one that I’ve had before but couldn’t put my finger on. Two choices: take the van to a shop or remove the pan on the 4L60E to see if there were any indicators. Pull the pan was the option I chose.

Before doing so, I played captain obvious and checked the dipstick where I found not so clean fluid but full to capacity. So, off comes the exhaust followed by the pan. Pretty easy job actually and what I found made perfect sense… The filter had fallen into the pan! That’s right, the filter was not inserted into the transmission like it should be which explains everything. This had happened to me once before in a classic car but it was something I never would have expected. So, if your car, truck or van slips on initial acceleration, but seems to recover, this may be your problem.

What it all boiled down to was the fact that I paid someone to replace the tranny filter and fluid a few years back and he didn’t replace the little bushing that slides into the transmission holding the shaft of the filter snugly. I see why too! That thing is pressed in and pretty much a pain to extract. But, there would be no repeat of this one, so I removed it with a very sharp screwdriver and a small hammer by prying under the lip- without damaging the machined area that it slides into.

Clean fluid, new filter and off we went! No more slipping. Going to wait a few days, then siphon out the fluid and replace which will give the old fluid a chance to run through the filter and remove any sediments or particles.