Hey Scotty,
I'm the original owner of 2004 GMC Sierra 1500, 5.3 Vortec with 160,000 miles. Its the Z71 w/ 4 wheel drive, automatic. Never pulled much with it or done any offroading/hard driving, oil changes every 3k miles. Its still a great running pickup. One mistake I did make is I should have done transmission fluid changes, but I didn't know any better in my younger years, and it got to the the point where I believe you'd recommend NOT to do so given the mileage was so high. The fluid is still red/pink, does not smell.
Shifting from 1st to 2nd isn't the smoothest anymore. I want to keep this pickup as long as I can (until the transmission goes as likely the point of failure for a GM). If it's going to be okay for a few more years, I want to do some things on it myself to improve the ride/appearance/functionality (ie. put on new shocks, buy a used topper, some minor body/rust work, etc.) Is it worth it to have a professional run a scan on the transmission to get an "estimate" of how its working / lifespan left on it? Ie. see the numbers as it shifts to see if there is an imminent problem in the near future. Is there somewhere I can compare the numbers they get to give me an idea of how "Far Gone" the transmission is?
Thanks!
Yes you will definitely want to see how long the transmission has left because rebuilding or replacing can be very costly, however, those are great trucks and they can run a long time.
nah, just be glad it works. Change the fluid + filter and it might still make it to 200k
Well, when the fluid gets old it carries grit and junk from the clutches and things inside that give it more friction. You change it you lose all that and it may slip because that gritty stuff is gone.
You could then go to maybe Ford type fluid which has more grit stuff in it already and save it.
I think I would let sleeping dogs lay other than maybe having it analyzed.
You can browse sites like Copart and find examples of vehicles with this transmission with two, three, four times the miles on them. Of course that could be with two, three, or four transmissions, but they will generally go a lot longer than yours has.
if it starts to slip, then the transmission is done for anyway