Vigo wrote:I saw exactly ~three~ 4L30's fail under Isuzu warranty (the 10/120 powertrain), all three were wiring harness and solenoid related, the internal damage was done by the owners continuing to drive them with the 'SERVICE TRANS' light on; the line pressure dropped because of the wiring harness and solenoid failure, this roasted clutches. The only other thing we DID see was corrosion in the 'wnter/power' switch harness, about $125 parts and labor. It would stick it in 'winter' mode. I NEVER saw one at the AAMCO.Interesting. I wonder if our summer temps down here had a hand in their relative lack of reliability. I r&r'd enough of them back in the mid 00's that I learned to dislike them. 4wd auto Isuzus are not the easiest thing to get a trans out of. Torsion bar Pathfinders were still worse, though.The 4cyl Xterra is the only one I've ever really liked, but I think that is because I prefer to own the easiest version to work on regardless of how slow it is when stock. Same reason I like 4cyl Escapes and 4cyl Dakotas. But, like those others I don't think the 4cyl Xterra was available with 4wd.
It regularly hits high 90's to low 100's around here, I towed a right fair amount in those temps. Like anything, most of it is in maintenance.
But I tell ya whut: Mopar and Ford transmissions kept my AAMCO afloat. 
I LOVED seeing those F150's with that HUGE 5 speed automatic that was made of spun sugar, I could not believe anything that big could fail that bad. GM was third, imports just not common at all although I did see two Maxima transmissions taken out by sloppy shifters at well over 150k miles. The shifters got sloppy, the lever on the trans didn't go all the way into D, the line pressure went down.... sizzle.
In fact, the only import slushboxes I saw a bunch of over the years were the 4 cyl 626 Mazda (CD4E Ford) and the early KIA Sephia (till about 2002 or so) unit, which was a Korean copy of the Protege ECAT, which we despaired of ever having to fix. The Mazda version just would not die.
GM 4T60's and 4T60E's were exploding like cherrybombs back in the 1990's, as is typical GM fashion they got them where they would live but man oh man is that ever a sloppy feeling transmission even when it's 'right'. The newer stuff, to me, feels about the same; it works but is not confidence inspiring.
Then there is the 62TE in the Grand Caravans... 
On second thought, maybe I better not bite the hand that feeds... 
