Car is my friend's 1998 Daytona GTP Pace Car with 90k mi. The fluid was about 40k mi old, and the car was experiencing light shudder in third and OD (as explained in the thread transmission shudder thread )

Well we cut the return line from the cooler to the transmission, and attached a hose to it, and pumped out about 7 qts of fluid. Then we dropped the pan and drained out another quart. We cleaned the pan and gasket, replaced the filter, and patched the cooler line. We added 4 qts of fresh ATF (Valvoline Dura Blend) then started the car, and added another 4 qts while it was running.

The old fluid was black, but didn't smell burnt. The pan had a good bit of friction material in it, but no metal. Magnet was pretty clean. Test drive saw fully functional transmission, and fluid was full after test drive, checked idling in Park on a level surface.

On the way home from my house to his, my friend said he felt one instance of shudder. On his way to work yesterday, he said the tranny seemed to have a hard time finding third gear. By the end of his drive in, he said the car would just flat not shift into third gear at all. WTF?!?

I tend to believe we must have loosened or knocked a connection off a shift solenoid or something. I can't believe a fluid change would cause a gear to fail so suddenly without some other mitigating circumstance. Any suggestions? Do these cars have any way to indicate the transmission is throwing a code (my Ford uses a flashing OD cancel light for example)?

Any advice appreciated...

Regarding the fluid being black, it HAD to be badly burned. Onliest two possibilities I can think of is 1) the fresh fluid loosened some built up varnish which is jamming one of the little pistons in the transmission, or 2) you cut the tube using a saw instead of a tube cutter and got a metal filing stuck in one of the little pistons (this actually happened to a 67 Pontiac with a 400 CI engine I once owned). Would like to hear what the problem turned out to be.

Regards, Gary in Sandy Eggo

Well we cut the rubber part of the tube, so no metal burr was created. I think we loosened something up on the third gear clutch made it fail as a result. I think the heat is from the glazed clutch slipping. We'll know for sure when we pull it and inspect.

Thanks for the reply.