Why did Buick decide togo with the weak tranny in the 95/95s

I forget the model numbers... 4t60e in 95/96? 4t65e after? (I could be wrong

I ask because it seems like every other car w/ similar weight and hp ratings recieved the better tranny for those years like: Regal GS, Aurora 4.0, Bonneville SSEi, GP GTP.

Why did they leave the Riv out for so long?

In Gollum voice: "Because the precious hatses us."

Other than that, I don't know.

Ha, yeah, pretty much. I can't explain it either.

No all the Gm 3800 cars in 95-96 had the 4T60 97 was the first year of the 4t65. we weren't left out

the Aurora got a 4T80e in 1995, the others were 4T60e's.

I'm thinking the 4T80 would probably be the better tranny for our cars.

i didnt think the 95 aurora had the 3800? i thought they had a 3.4L or something like that and an option 4.0 v8(northstar?)

That's what i thought also.

All '95 through '99 Auroras came equipped with the 4.0 L L47 Aurora V8 mated with the 4T-80E transmission.
A friend of mine has a '96. He told me after researching the 4t-80E transmission, that it was GM's most expensive transaxle ever installed in one of their vehicles. I can't remember what the torque input, and rev. ratings were on it. Oh, OK, here's Wikipedia's link on it. It has some info. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_4T80_transmission

Yeah, the aurora came with a northstar, but are any of you familar with the 4T80e and whether it would mate to a series 1 or 2? lol
............
Nevermind it will only fit on a northstar v8.

somewhere around page 13 of this thread there is some discussion about the transmission - 4T80e and a bit about the programming involved to change it. My guess is that the computer changes were too drastic to offer it as an interchangable option.

https://rivperformance.editboard.com/showroom-f3/eric-s-calling-you-out-alexheheh-t1426-150.htm

the 4T60E was adequate and an improvement over the 4T60, which engineering-wise promised to make it OK for use in the SC Riviera. But I suspect that in actual use the repeated stress and strain fatigued the transmission parts in unanticipated ways. Hence the 4T65E - with some simple engineering and part changes, became one of GMs best transmissions.

Albertj

I too have been wondering about the 4t80e's interchangability with the 3800 series 1. I was looking at the aforementioned thread, but couldn't really derive much of a conclusion.

I'm having trouble with my second 4t60e in just as many months.

Lost first and fourth gear, have an non-responsive shift silenoid B and another error code for the TCC. Before I go ahead with the third transmission, I'd like to find some other options.

I'm even open to the idea of an old 5 speed fiero transmission if it can hold up against the weight of the rivi's fat ass. lol.

I'd think about a 4t65 and maybe letting Intense program you a PCM to run it.

Albertj

albertj wrote:

I'd think about a 4t65 and maybe letting Intense program you a PCM to run it.

Albertj

Going to look into that right now.

Also from what I've read the 95's got a weaker version of the 4T60E than the 96's did. The official name of the 96 tranny was 4T60E-HD, and carried a few heavy duty parts over the 95. I'm not sure if the 95's transmission name contained the "HD" designation.

The 4T60 had a few revisions, however during each year of it's production, just like the 4T65 there is a regular and HD version. I am not intimately familiar with the 4T60 like I am with the 4T65, however the differences from regular to HD in the 65 are gear ratio, output shaft, differential, diff cover and passenger axle length. All are interchangable into the regular transmission.

The swap from 4T60 to 4T65 has been done. I assume a few times, I assisted Oldsman105 with doing the swap on his 96 Riv SC. Buickman104 should be contacted wtih any questions regarding the technical side of it as he hs all the notes/paperwork for safekeeping. Overall though we swapped the trans, axles, pcm and transmission connector plus adding 5 wires to it. Was an easy swap.

The 4T80 has been put into a Bonneville with a twin charged motor. This is about a 50 page thread on Bonnevilleforum.com and was done by a guy with the username pontiacjeff.

L67 wrote:

Also from what I've read the 95's got a weaker version of the 4T60E than the 96's did. The official name of the 96 tranny was 4T60E-HD, and carried a few heavy duty parts over the 95. I'm not sure if the 95's transmission name contained the "HD" designation.

Hollander interchange does show them to be two different transmisions. I would tag "NFG" on the end of the 95's 4t60e... no fuckin good.

BillBoost37 wrote:

The 4T60 had a few revisions, however during each year of it's production, just like the 4T65 there is a regular and HD version. I am not intimately familiar with the 4T60 like I am with the 4T65, however the differences from regular to HD in the 65 are gear ratio, output shaft, differential, diff cover and passenger axle length. All are interchangable into the regular transmission.

The swap from 4T60 to 4T65 has been done. I assume a few times, I assisted Oldsman105 with doing the swap on his 96 Riv SC. Buickman104 should be contacted wtih any questions regarding the technical side of it as he hs all the notes/paperwork for safekeeping. Overall though we swapped the trans, axles, pcm and transmission connector plus adding 5 wires to it. Was an easy swap.

The 4T80 has been put into a Bonneville with a twin charged motor. This is about a 50 page thread on Bonnevilleforum.com and was done by a guy with the username pontiacjeff.

I've been reading about the 4t60e revisions and it appears that there is nearly 20 different 4t60e's availible around 1995

K, N, A, L, W, G, U, C and H body cars all had 4t60e's availible, each with varying differential, sprocket and overall ratios, vss reluctor differences and varying stall speeds.

I just had my tranny rebuilt at the end of April this year in my 95 Riv. Then a week later my motor went. Had my series 1 rebuilt which took 3 months to have done. Finally got my car back at the end of July and have since put a total of about 2,000 miles on the rebuilt transmission and i lost overdrive last night, but before I lost 4th, it was shifting hard into 3rd and 4th. Bringing it back to aamco in the morning. The same day I got the Riv back from the tranny rebuild which was $3,100 my water pump went. That was another 700 bucks. 1 week later my engine went while on the highway. The engine rebuild was another 4 grand. So i'm basically 8K in the hole on my Riv over the last few months and now my tranny has no overdrive. While I love my car, it is turning out to be the worst car I have ever owned.

how many miles on your Riv?

Albertj

In miles, mine would now have just shy of 150 000

My tranny, waterpump and then finally my engine all went between 109-110K. Since the rebuild on both the tranny and engine, I'm now just shy of 111K and have no overdrive.

$700 2 change a waterpump! the water pump cost like $50 and i did it myself in a couple of hours!

well the waterpump went on me quite a ways from home first off, actually at a gas station and I decided to leave the car there rather than pay to have it towed to my house because I wasn't expecting it to be 700 bucks to begin with. When my motor went I had it towed 14 miles to a gas station near a friend's house so he could give me a ride home and the tow cost me 90 bucks with using his AAA service. So I wasn't about to spend a couple hundred towing it the 60 miles or so back to where I live. But yeah I got ripped off, and it appears the 3100 I spent for the tranny at Aamco was a rip off too considering my car has no overdrive after not even 2K miles.

SC95Riv wrote:

well the waterpump went on me quite a ways from home first off, actually at a gas station and I decided to leave the car there rather than pay to have it towed to my house because I wasn't expecting it to be 700 bucks to begin with. When my motor went I had it towed 14 miles to a gas station near a friend's house so he could give me a ride home and the tow cost me 90 bucks with using his AAA service. So I wasn't about to spend a couple hundred towing it the 60 miles or so back to where I live. But yeah I got ripped off, and it appears the 3100 I spent for the tranny at Aamco was a rip off too considering my car has no overdrive after not even 2K miles.

You must be pretty frustrated.

Seems that the tranny rebuild warranty (you did say AAMCO) ought to fix it if you are still in teh warranty period. I'd start there. You have a contract (the warranty for the repair); law enforcement will help you enforce the terms of the contract; go get 'er done. If you are out of the warranty period, here is what I think your problem is. If your tranny was properly rebuilt, what you are calling 'lack of overdrive' is probably the torque converter clutch is stuck off. It is a simple but tedious repair because in order to fix it you have to pull the tranny and disassemble it - the TCC is burned in there. If your TCC is stuck off, the MIL light will be on and when you pull the trouble code that's the code you'll get.

If what you are talking about is that you lost 4th gear, that's a very different problem. I'd wonder very much about the quality of the rebuild and I'd want to understand your driving and maintenance better.

So please explain. Does "I have no overdrive" mean you shift thru 4 gears but don't get 'lockup' or that you have no 4th gear?

Albertj


Albertj