Seven problems related to automatic transmission have been reported for the 2003 Chevrolet Suburban. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
No event leading to failure. Heard clunk - tranmission went out 48,000 miles. Vehicle has never towed anything. Replaced transmission - shop now says rear differntial also bad.
I purchased a new 2003 Chevrolet Suburban in December of 2003. On may 13, 2005, the transmission began to fail rapidly. The automatic transmission will not easily shift into second gear and reverse gear does not function at all. The car came with a 3 year 36,000 mile power train warranty and I have put 48,000 miles on it in the eighteen months that I've owned it. 98% of the miles on the odometer are highway miles. I have towed a boat exactly 4 times. I took the car to a Chevrolet dealer who indicated that the transmission needed to be replaced at a cost of $2452. 00 Chevrolet has offered to pay for the parts & wants me to pay for the labor-$900. 00 there are two technical safety bulletins relating to this problem- #030730028 "drivetrain "clunks" when stopping" and 00822b, "no second & fouth gears and no reverse".
Gear is easily moved from drive to neutral without depressing the button on gear shift. Dealership and manufacturer were called about the problem.
While driving at highway speeds automatic transmission stopped shifting. Vehicle was towed to a dealer, who found a split in a transmission gasket which caused the clutch and piston not to function.
While driving approximately 45 mph and would start to shift between 2nd and 3rd gears vehicle would give a strong jerking motion. Have taken to dealership, and mechanic could not locate cause of problem.
Regular harsh engagement on my 2003 Chevrolet tahoe transmission. 1) had a huge clunk when having to suddently stop on one occasion - sounded like the transmission was going to drop/bam. 2) on an unpredictable basis the transmission harshly engages when going shifting at the slower spds. 3) brought to service dealor and they acknowledge problem during a test drive "that needs to be ck'd out". They said they fixed. 4) problem was worse when car was received back (have no idea if car will ever bam/clunk/wham/drop again as I normally don't suddenly stop but whatever that was it certainly wasn't good for the transmission). I reported the frequency of the harsh engagements actually were more often and they then changed there tune citing a service bulletin saying it's normal ". 5) now 15,000 miles later of harsh engagements I'm sensing some slippage and those harsh engagements are now harsher. I'm very disappointed in the performance of my tahoe and am very concerned of the future of the transmission in that gm & belzers acknowledge the problem then said gm says not to do anything. Car still runs but it very annoying when driving in the cities stop and go traffice. . . A clunk clunk here and a clunk clunk there here a clunk there a clunk. This is absolutely ridiculous!.
While driving at highway speeds, the overdrive gear would not hold and constantly shifted in and out of high gear. Problem has happened occassionally since the first time. In addition, transmission continues to shift at higher rpm than previously.