Hello everyone. I have read blazer forum since I purchaced my Blazer in sept of '08. And thank all of you for your help. Now for my first post I have a question about the Transmission on my 2000 blazer 4x4. I deliver the local news paper, and i do alot of stop and go, and reverse driving. A month ago my transmission "went out". I was told it was the "sun shell", i think.I was left driving my old prizm, which by the way is the best car i have ever owned, it is just too small for me. Well here i am a month later and i am having my transmission rebuilt. I stop the car and get out about a hundred times a day, and i was wandering what causes less stress on the transmission, using the parking brake when i get out, or putting it in park. My grandpa said that i should put it in park, because when the parking brake is on my transmission is still spinning. I am totally clueless when it comes to transmissions, and would appreciate any and all input you might have on the subject. i just want to be able to get the most life out of this rebuild that i can. Thanks all of you for any help you can give

 

i know the sun-shell's are are weak point on our trannies, sometimes they can last forever and other times they can fail for no reason and as long as your getting a quality rebuild and you keep up on ur tranny maintanence you shouldnt have anything to worry about.

 

Put it in park. If on an incline (any slight incline, even), put the parking brake on as well.

If you do a lot of stop and go, be gentle with your foot on take-offs. Change the tranny fluid and filter every 15,000 miles instead of every 30,000 miles.

Heat is the enemy of a transmission, so make sure your cooling system is working properly. Do a flush & fill on your radiator and make sure you use distilled water, not tap water. Once refilled, bleed the air out of the radiator.

 

Yeah, it is not the stopping that is hurting anything. If your engine is running, the transmission is spinning, but there is absolutely no reason not to use Park. You should never leave a vehicle running in gear parking brake or otherwise. This will cause it to slip on the torque converter and heat up the fluid. As pointed out above, heat is the #1 enemy of transmissions.

 

Thanks for the help. That clears things up a bit. I knew when i started the job that it would be hard on my car, but i hoped that nothing like a blown tansmission would ever happen. but i also knew that blazers have a history of tansmission problems so i had expected it. Thank you again