Anyone out there who has swapped out or repaired automatic transmission valve body on the car without removing the trans? Want to dive into mine but would like to know if it's possible or if there are any things to be careful about?

Thanks!

 

Yes you can do it, it's pretty easy as well. What do you want to know? What's going on? If you're wanting to change out the shift solenoids you can do it without removing the valve body, let me know and I'll try to walk you through it.

 

I don't have any 5th gear. It shifts fine from 1st to 4th and tries to shift into 5th but after about a second it stays in fourth and the gearbox fault illuminates and it sets P0735 5th gear fault. Shut the engine off and the code resets and it tries it all over again.

Took all the resistance checks per the manual on the 3 speed sensors and 9 solenoids and they are all within factory specs so I think it might possibly be a valve sticking or worn out in the valve body or maybe some trash in one of the solenoids since there isn't a separate 5th gear in the trans.

Don't want to swap transmissions if not absolutely necessary as it looks like a pretty involved job.

 

Yes,
That sounds like something to do with the valve body (VB). So, to pull the vb you need to drain the transmission, pull the battery, pull the battery holder, then you will have access to the transmission pan. Pull the transmission pan, I believe there are 20 10mm bolts, some are difficult to get to, but you can do it, (I used a double universal joint setup to get to a few of them), once you get it loose you can take a small scraper and mallet and pop it off. Now you'll have access to the valve body.
Unplug all the electrical connections, pull the valve body off, (the bolts you need to pull are silver, not gold) make sure you do not loose the seals on the back side of the VB.
Send it away to have it rebuilt.

Let us know who is rebuilding it, or what you do yourself to get it working. I know I need to get mine done.

James

 

Thanks, I plan to pull the valve body and back cover apart next week and I'll let you all know how it goes.

 

Pulled the valve body yesterday, everything looked good and all solenoids measured good and checked out fine, didn't find any gummed up passages or dirt so I guess I'm going to have to dig deeper into the trans. It was pretty straightforward except for lining up the manual valve on reassembly.