Interesting transmission Occurence

[SnowSurfLax]

So, all transmission jokes aside, I want some input on my little "occurence" with my transmission. It's freakin odd.

So back in Nov '06, wife and I took a trip up north to Bay Area. Come around the grapevine (a steep, windy area N of LA for you non-Cali ppls), I'm doing 70-80 through there and notice that I start leaking transmission fluid. First I freak out, check my levels every hour or so, but they're fine, no real noticeable dip in fluid. Even after driving back with leak still didn't need any fluid, dipstick read full.

Got it to my mechanic and they replaced the seal on the pan and flushed the transmission. No biggy.

Did shift rough for a while after that, (still does when cold) but things were fine and I was ripping along.

About 4 weeks ago, I'm heading up to LA with 3 other people in my QX4. I'm taking it kind of easy as I know I need the 120K and timing belt replaced since it was time. It's windy and I'm heading uphill in North SD County, and my transmission starts to slip. So badly, it won't stay in the O/D gear and even 3rd after a while as I'm heading back home.

So I limp home and take it to my mechanic and they check it out. By this time, it doesn't even like staying in 3rd gear and kicks down to 1st and 2nd. Could barely drive it down a city road at 45mph w/o running 4-5K rpms.

I'm thinking I'm goign to have to slap down $2500 for a new transmission. They take it out for a test drive, bring it back, stick some additive in it and the damn thing is FINE. No more slipping and even shifts smoother than it had in a while. So I drive home and its fine and I take it in a week later and get the timing belt, 120K, and a full on transmission flush.

Sucker's still fine, though the shifting from 1st to 2nd is still a little rough. Didn't have them put anymore additive in as I know they mostly swell the seals and that can be bad for a transmission.

So what I'm thinking is this: I scorched a little bit of my fluid going through the grapevine and had some gunk. Wind and weight stressed it a little and dislodged some of that gunk and it got caught or something. Figure this last flush should have gotten most of it out.

Caveat: bought it used and no trailer hitch has ever been on it, so my QX4 has never done any towing.

So, what does everyon think?

Would it be worth getting a transmission service? I'd rather spend a $1K and get it fixed than $2500-3000 for new transmission.

Or maybe it's all good now and it'll just shift rough until the transmission craps out?

[nissandoms47]

meh.. Mine did that after rocking the transmission for about an hour stuck in some mud . It would shift from 1st to 2nd just find but wouldnt go into 3rd or 4th. Then a couple hours later it just started working again as if nothing happened. That was about a year ago. I had to take out my transmission about a month ago to replace the input shaft seal and the transmission looked fine. So who knows. Maybe a clog in your transmission cooler?