I bought my car when it had 17k on it. Had not seen any winters and was driven by an older woman (had original papers ect for proof) You could just tell it was still a baby. Anyway, i drove the car home and it shifted perfect ect ect. At about 24k I ended up switching to dexron 6. I had a shop do it so i never did see what was in the pan or anything. its a napa certified service center with ase techs and they are all cool. i assumed that they would clean the pan out. at about 29-31k i changed the fluid and filter with a friend. i changed it after only 5-7k miles because i wanted to get the rest of the old fluid out, plus i realized that the imported autozone filters were cheap as hell compared to the ac delco filters and i dont like putting cheap parts in my car. when we dropped the pan there was a considerable amount of dark gray "metal dust." There werent any "metal chunks" at all, just fine dust covering the whole magnant and a considerable amount in the rest of the pan. anyway, after only about 5-7k miles i thought that was a little much. i plan to change the fluid and filter once again this spring. right now my car has 42k on it so it will have a good 11-12k miles on the fluid.

so is the "metal dust' normal wear? I'm paranoid about transmissions because they suck. the gmpp major guard warranty on my car ends November of this year. If there is a lot of this dust in my pan again is this something i can go to the dealer about and complain that my trans in wearing fast.

the trans today shifts perfect and the operating temps are normal. i've probably only done about 2 off the line 0-60's in the car and never beat on it until the trans gets up to a decent temp.

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04 Comp G. Sport Red. SPO.
SmoothFlow 3.6MPS | PRJ Tune | Powerlog | 3" DP | Wizair | PRJ 10.4mm wires/Autolite 104's

Its normal to have a light amount of metal dust in the transmission. Its just clutch material which is normal. I recommend changing your tranny fluid once a year or every 12-24,000 miles. This way it keeps the fluid clean and the dust to a minimum, The magnet that is on the trans pan is supposed to help catch most of the dust.

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1999 Pontiac Grand Prix
303HP/353TQ
Mods: L67 swap w/3.25" pulley,PRJ LL cam, speed daddy headers
2008 BMW 335i TT-jb4 tune.BMS intake.AA bOV and charge pipe

x2, I change the fluid once a year in the spring before race season. I've had a considerable amount of "dust" on the magnet the 3 times I've changed the fluid and it only last fall started slipping bad on the 1-2 shift after 80K miles and ~150 track passes. It's just clutch material and I've had as much as probably 1/8" on there. You don't have much to worry about in my opinion unless you feel it starting to slip, then rebuild it like I just got done doing.

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99 GT (Stock - DD) & 04 Comp G (A Few Mods)
New 1/4 mi. PB @ Pontiac Nationals 2009: 12.79

Ahhh well lately I have noticed my 1-2 shift to be slow at times. I was at PRJ getting a tune a few weekends ago and what do you know, my 1-2 shift was indeed slow. We timed it at .52 seconds to shift, while stock is .25. At .62 seconds the trans will trip a SES Code. All my other shifts are spot dead on.

My extended warranty goes till August 2010 or 71,200miles. I'm at 45K miles now. So this summer im going to wait till it gets hot out then start taking it into places.

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04 Comp G. Sport Red. SPO.
SmoothFlow 3.6MPS | PRJ Tune | Powerlog | 3" DP | Wizair | PRJ 10.4mm wires/Autolite 104's

That is PROBABLY the PCS. They fail quite often, and result in a slow 1-2 shift.

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One Big Ass Mistake America