Hi all, just a quick question regarding something funny my auto.trans did last night.
I went to Mexico for the day on Saturday to do some charity work with an organization I volunteer with and drove my 'T (it's mainly a driveway queen at this point, only got driven about 5,000 miles last year, so a 265 mile day is probably just what it's been wanting). As some of you probably know due to ID requirements which recently changed the wait time at the border seems to have gone-up a lot. Last night it took me about 45 minutes of hard driving (I was following a local who was driving like she was in a go-kart!) got to the Otay Mesa border crossing (after they closed the road to San Ysidro due to heavy traffic) and spent the next 90 minutes idling, probably didn't raise the RPM's up much over 1,200 that whole time, just sat there being thankful for satellite radio, the snacks my wife had packed for me and the fact that most of the vendors and beggars won't give a grubby looking guy in a 14 y/o P/U a second look.
Finally got to the front, showed my documents and got the go-ahead to proceed. Here's my question, as soon as I left the booth I gassed it pretty hard to get out ahead of another car, then slowed to go through a small barricade maze then gassed it again to get up to about 50 MPH or so. At that time it felt like my trans was slipping and it didn't seem to shift until I had gotten-up to the speed I wanted and backed-off the gas.
I don't have a trans temp gauge installed (though there's one in a box in my garage so I'll have it in soon) feeling the carpet on top of the trans tunnel it felt quite warm. Stayed on the highway all the way home (~2 Hrs) maintaining 70 the whole way, seemed to be okay, the trans tunnel seemed to cool-off, it seemed to drop into third at the right times, and in the short jaunt from the freeway exit to my house I hit two red lights, I couldn't tell if it was shifting okay or not but I didn't feel anymore slippage. I haven't driven the truck yet today or checked the fluid (it's been raining and I came home with a cold) but before I left on the trip the trans fluid looked and smelled good.
My thought was that maybe idling for 90 minutes in traffic something overheated (the engine water temp never went past the middle) which caused what felt like slippage to me.
Some background on the truck: 128K original auto. trans, never any trans work except for regular servicing. Has about two years and 10K on current trans fluid/filter. Just changed engine oil & filter, brand-new battery. Has an aftermarket trans cooler installed (been on there about five years or so) factory cooler in radiator is still hooked-up.
Sorry for the long post, any ideas? Or is this normal? TIA for any replies
--Kevin
