Had to replace transmission at 39,000 miles. Then again at 131,000 miles. Now it is back in the shop with transmission problems yet to be determined at 149,000 miles. Judging from the complaints on the internet, this seems to be a defect that is costing the consumer a bundle of money. So far I have spent over $3000 to repair the transmission. I am now waiting to hear how much more I will have to spend. This needs to be investigated.
GMC Safari transmission failure problems
13 of the 1,091 owner complaints about the GMC Safari describe complete transmission failure, most of them for the 1997 model year.
- owner complaints
- 13
- worst model year
- 1997
- typical mileage
- 70,500
Is there a fix? No recall or service bulletin covers this area of the car yet.
By model year
- 20031
- 20021
- 20001
- 19992
- 19981
- 19974
- 19961
- 19941
- 19931
Often reported together
What owners say
Dt: the contact stated the transmission failed . He contacted the dealership, and had repair work done in may 2005. In september 2005 the transmission failed completely. He contacted the manufacturer, they contacted the dealership. The dealership offered to refund the money for service toward a new transmission, but this repair has not currently been made.
1999 gmc safari transmission failure. See gm tsb #00-07-30-002 dated 11/2000. 1st-2nd late shift, reverse, 2nd, & 4th gear caused immediate failure. All required transmission service performed by dealer on this vehicle. Root cause is the known sun gear shell failure in the gm 4l60e automatic transmission. Vehicle has 70,511 miles. Filed gmc customer complaint #1-366073225.
1997 gmc safari transmission failure. Sun gear shell failure caused no reverse, second or overdrive on this vehicle.
Valve body was replaced, the fan motor was replaced, and all of these parts were defective again. Dealer stated that vehicle needed a new transmission. The manufacturer stated warranty expired.
We purchased this vehicle 2 years ago. Shortly thereafter, we had a problem in a mall parking lot wherein the electrical system (dash board, power windows, A/C, radio) failed at the very same time as the transmission, which would not shift out of 1st gear. The problem went away after we turned the car off and waited a few minutes. It happened only two other times. Recently, it happened again, but is not fixed by turning the car off and restarting. It has been suggested that it is a wiring problem, but to date, we have not found anyone familiar with the problem and they all want to replace our transmission. It seems odd that the transmission and electrical problems happen at the same time, so electrical sounds more likely to us. The van has been sitting idle for almost 2 months now, as we are hesitant to spend a lot of money to fix it and even more hesitant to take it to someone who is not familiar with the problem and just wants to replace the transmission without guarantee that this will fix the problem. Please let me know if you have heard of this before and, if so, what the problem is.
While driving at 45mph transmission went out.this vehicle was not any longer under warranty.
Additionally, upon repair of failed powertrain transmission and after spekaing to another safari owner who had similair faiure, it is also apparnet that the heat sensor to the transmission failed to evoke the check engine light etc.. But the failure code was stored into the onboard computer system. This potentially hazardous situation may be occurring more frequently. I do not have any way of obtaining any "failure" data so that I can run some regression analysis. But if I can just pick up the phone and call another owner who is selling the same year safari and within 5minutes share with me the same problems.well, just do the math! Let me know what I can do. Thank you.
Transmission was slipping in 1st gear and clunking when shifting. After unsuccessfully attempting to rebuild the transmission, gmc told dealer to install a new transmission.
The transmission failed and required replacement.
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
Questions about the GMC Safari transmission failure
Which GMC Safari years have complete transmission failure problems?
The model years with the most reports are 1997 (4 complaints), 1999 (2 complaints) and 1993 (1 complaints).
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