I have a 2001 Chevrolet Impala LS, I bought the car used is 2011. When the car was purchased I was advised it had a new motor and transmission. Less than 1 year later I started hearing noises from my transmission, later the car stopped shifting. Finally the transmission completely went out. I came outside to go to work and there was fluid all over my driveway. The car is now parked because I decided to buy another Impala (#3) only to find out this one has transmission problems also. I love Impalas but I think its time for me to try a different car. I do not want to try this a fourth time. I also have a 2004 that is on its 3rd transmission, and the 2007 has not had to be replaced (yet) it is just having minor problems shifting.

Stopped at a stop sign and never left it! Car stalled and made a terrible clacking type noise, like something was loose flapping around in the cooling fan or like the belt was spinning something around in it, and the brakes wouldn't work in park. Tried to reverse and nothing, brakes would only work in neutral. LUCKILY, I only made it to the stop sign right outside of my house and could push it back to my yard which was 200 ft. away. I did have 305,000 miles on this car but the last owner did all hwy mileage and I've never had any warning about the transmission going out. No stalls or anything.. I'm not a mechanic but shouldn't I have gotten a warning or something?

2001 Chevy impala tranny is garbage. The first transmission went at 72000 the second went at 140000. The car has been very well maintained also but still failed. COMPLAINED TO GM WHEN FIRST TRANNY WENT AND THEY JUST PLAYED DUMB . THEY ACTED LIKE THEY HAVEN'T HAD ANY TRANNY COMPLAINTS . THEY DID NOT OFFER ANY HELP. WHAT A SHAME. GM DOES NOT BACK UP THEIR PRODUCT. I WANT TO BUY A NEW GM VEHICLE BUT IT IS A DIFFICULT DECISION BECAUSE GM DOES NOT SEEM TO CARE ABOUT ITS CUSTOMERS. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY GM CONTINUES TO NOT BACKI UP THEIR CARS LIKE THEY SHOULD. IF THEY DID THEY WOULDN'T BE OR HAVE BEEN BANKRUPT. SHAME ON GENERAL MOTORS AND ITS CEOS FOR RUNNING AN AMERICAN ICON INTO THE GROUND,

I'm a sales rep. Drive 400 miles a week. Minimum. So my choice of vehicles I thought was good. 3.8 V6 Impala. Early in it's years great. Not so much til late. I was getting 17-18 miles per gallon. And this is 70% highway. Turns out the transmission was shot. The Torque converter was shot, and the 4th gear wasn't working at all.

This is why my mileage was so poor. I had the transmission rebuilt. Don't buy a OEM. Not worth it. My guy gave me 36K and 3 years warranty. And only $1000.00 to take it out and put it back in. Rebuilt with stronger gears.

I now get 24 miles per gallon. Saving me lots of money.

this problem can be checked at a local GM dealer on their code reader. Have them do a diagnostic analysis on the car performance. Tell them you have MPG issues.

Don't have them change it though. You can find a private shop or transmission shop willing to change and rebuild it for less.

Great engine. Wish they still offered it. the Transmission is bad. the ECM and BCM are bad. Good luck.

Adam

I bought my 2001 Chevy Impala from my manager at work. In good faith I trusted his words that everything was ok with the car. I bought the car and everything was ok. I drove it with no problems for maybe 3 weeks. Then all of a sudden one day I started to hear the transmission making some weird noises. But the car was still moving, then the next day it did a little kick thing, but it went back into gear, then after that in the middle of traffic the car just stalled like crazy. After pressing on the gas for a few times the car finally kicked backed into gear. This has been happening everyday, every time since then. I depend on my car to get me to work, school, and events. Now i don't even feel confident in getting in my vehicle and driving anywhere.

We purchased 2001 Chevy impala with a 3.8 liter engine from my father in law. The car has 26000 miles.The transmission was slipping in the low gear when we started out in the mornings.We went to the transmission shop for a diagnosis the fix would cost $1200. When they started the repair they found bearing parts in the filter there was extensive damage to the transmission. Needless to say the tranny had to be rebuilt for $2788.The repair shop has never experienced this type of damage to a transmission with only 26000 miles. I called GM they could do nothing unless I had it to a certified GM dealer I also had a 2003 chevy Impala with 88000 miles and it required the $1200 fix. The Chevy transmissions on these autos are JUNK. GM KNOWS OF THIS PROBLEM BUT THE NEVER CORRECTED IT. All being said the rest of the auto is good. like the car . .

another crap GM transmission in impala. Started after getting fluid flush getting hard shift from 2-3. got codes of shift control valves.. talking with aamco repair friend and he was telling me this is common problem with this transmission. also there are part inside transmission that are not strong enough to handle everyday normal driving so he recommend rebuilding to get the upgrade of valves, gears and other parts that are substandard in the transmission. took about 3 day to complete and runs like a top.. if you do the rebuild or have a new car put a bottle of LubeGard in to help the fluid and the transmission as well..

I've had my Impala since 2002 ( i bought it used from my parents). They had a transmission problem within 6 months of owning it and they decided to buy something else. I bought the car and had the transmission fixed under warranty. I paid the deductible. About 1 year after that, the same problem (transmission failure). I put the car in drive/reverse NOTHING!!. I had that fixed under warranty. About 6 months after, AGAIN!! Transmission failure. This time, the dealer replaced the whole transmission. Just recently, my transmission started slipping again and shuddering . This again, is the tell tale sign that I'm about to get another failure. This time, my warranty is no longer paying for it. Any suggestions (high performance parts vs. standard parts??)

I was driving to work and the car acted as if it did not want to drive but 5 seconds later it went into gear. But, each time I stopped I had to go through the same situation. I had an appointment and the car was doing the same thing so I canceled the appointment. I pulled over to turn in the alley to go directly to the auto shop and the car stopped. Here is the funny story, the car was on with the radio but would not go into drive or reverse. I was able to shift gears but there was no movement with the car. I had no warning that the transmission was going out. I kept up all the maintenance on the car but now the transmission is dead. The next car I buy will be foreign.

Since I bought this car I have had nothing but problems. All have been fairly major. The car has been serviced regularly and has not been abused. At 66,000 miles the tranny started to shift slowly and within a few weeks it would not go into gear unless you shifted it into 1st gear. I took it into a transmission repair shop for a rebuild and the next day they called me and let me know I needed a new transmission because this one had just got to hot. I asked them if this was unusual and they told me that it was normal for Impala's. Thanks general Motors for a great piece of _ _ _ _.

The 2001 Impala has been great, I faithfully performed all of the services oil changes, transmission fluid etc. Then at roughly 70,000 miles the car decides to not shift into lower gears uphills and loses power. The check engine light came on and I immediately took to autozone and had them run a diagnostics check FOR FREE (Nice Service). The codes stated that it was the Shift Solenoid and they suggested I take it to a dealer.

The dealer said the shift solenoid was stuck causing too much pressure and burning the fluid. They suggested I replace the Solenoid and the Torque Converter. Major blow to the wallet... It sucks that no matter how good you take care of a car, the damn thing can't make it more that 100K without major problems. It looks like I will go with a Honda or Toyota next time.

I bought this car in 2005 from my neighbor who purchased it new in 2001. She only had 6000 miles on it, as she was retired and didn't drive much. I didn't have any problems with it really until this happened. I was driving to work and the tranny made really strange revving noise and the car did this shimmy-shake thing but I made it to work. Called the local shop that works on our company vehicles and arranged to drop it off the next morning to have them look at it. Went to leave work that evening and it made this horrible thumping-grinding noise then would not move at all - no forward, no reverse no nothing. Called AAA and had it towed to shop mentioned above. They looked at it next morning and said something broke in the tranny and would have to be rebuilt, cost of $1600-1700. I just can't believe a transmission would die after less than 20K miles!!! I'm going to call a dealer before I have the repair done, but not very hopeful that they will be any help since the car is 6 years old, even with the low miles......thoughts anyone?