OT- Transmission Slipping 2004 GMC

On the way to the other end of town today to punchlist a couple jobs and the automatic in my 2004 3/4 ton gmc with the 6.0 gas starts slipping. I"ve owned mainly manuals most of my life, and this felt like a clutch would if it was shot. Going from a stop, it hesitates then grabs. steady driving, go to accelerate, it winds up a bit before doing anything. I bought it with 45k on it and really haven"t towed with it but maybe twice and that was real light stuff.
Fluid and filter was changed about 6k miles ago. Truck has 90k on it. Tried checking the fluid when I got home - reads "sloppy" on the dipstick - hard to read because it keeps wiping itself up the stick when I pull it, but I would say it looks to be full. No leaks evident. Slight whine sometimes at low speed. Fluid doesn"t smell burnt. Still looks reddish.
Any ideas? I"m really in the dark here as this is only my second automatic ever. First automatic one is in the cherokee and has 275k on it with no problems.
Thanks
Tony

if i was gonna give a educated guess it would be your filter is stopped up...unless you changed the fluid and filter yourself,thats where i'd start.

Hi Tony,

The whine is a normal thing; you're just hearing those little low gear pinions spin up.

Are you getting any codes? Before you do anything else, pull the codes.

From your description, it does sound like it is starving for oil. Are you really, really sure that the filter was changed? Most of these garages anymore just "flush" 'em with a machine and never go inside the pan. Just saying......

Does it do it in reverse cold? That's where a plugged filter will really show up. The downer is that once it’s slipped one or two times, it’s cooked itself by then.

Bad news is that if it's slipping, it's slipping and it's gotta come down outta there for a rebuild.

GM and their damned lip seals. Life expectancy of 7-8 years and a blatant poster child for built in obsolesce.

I sure wouldn’t drive it, as the next time it could leave ya walking.

Allan

I"m about 90% sure the filter was changed (10% is I didn"t do it myself)- good local reputable guy that does all my work. Would have changed it by hand - no machine in his shop for that. He"s a one man shop and been doing my work for years. I do know the pan was dropped - there was evidence of that - I started to drop it originally and didn"t have the tools to get to 2 of the bolts. Thats when I took it to him. Got it back and the bolts looked like they had been off.
It does make sense on the starving for oil... yesterday sometimes it would shift fine then others it would slip.
It started slipping yesterday morning a couple miles from my first site. Probably drove it that way (no choice) about 60 to 80 miles, 50 of those highway. I have a light foot in that truck due to the cost of fuel, but did push it a couple times to see what/how it was acting.
It seems solid in reverse. In the past (and part of what prompted me to change fluid/filter) it has hesitated for about a half second going into reverse after it sat in the drive for a couple weeks, but that was turn it on and put into gear, no warm up.
Just did a cold check on the fluid and it looks high.
No codes - at least no check engine light/warning lights. Don"t have a code reader.
Driving yesterday, transmission temp stayed around 180.
Any other thoughts?
Think it"s cooked?
I really miss my 5 speed....

TCM..transmission control module...on my saturn vue..1300$

one correction - filter/fluid change was in July, about 14k miles ago.

Yes Sir,

Just about bet the farm that it's got a torn outer seal at the forward clutch piston.

That's the bad thing about a 'slip'. There's no curing it other than takin' 'er down.

If it were mine, I'd drop the pan and pull that filter. Take the filter over to the vice and bust it open, unfold the paper and see what is inside and also noting any 'trash' in the bottom of the pan.

This will tell you excactly if we have big problems or not.

Take a picture or two of what you find and I would be able to give you a little more help.

Now, "perhaps" your man installed the wrong filter. If your truck takes a long neck and he happened to install a short neck, the filter has just now fallen down and she's starving for oil.

If you pull the pan and that filter just "falls out" with the pan, this is the case.

Don't drive it tho.....don't wanna burn it anymore than it already has.

Allan

When they changed the fluid, if they did not put in DEX VI, they likely screwed up the transmission.