Item 2 L - R Inner and Outer Seals

Leaking L - R inner and outer seals cause DTC 36 with a 50 or 51 along with initial symptoms of stop bump for the vintage of vehicles listed in the table. Typically, the vehicle will be brought in for the bump complaint. Stop bump will be the first symptom seen before experiencing delayed engagements. When overhauling the transaxle, make certain to replace the L - R inner and outer seals along with the piston retainer.

Background: The original L - R inner and outer seals were made from an AEM (Vamac) material and were of a lip seal design. The AEM lip seals would take a compression set due to high operating temperatures. The L - R seals were changed to an AEM D-ring design, but had the same characteristics as the original seal. It was found that FKM (Viton) seals had better characteristics than AEM. The L - R inner and outer seals were changed to an FKM D-seal. This L - R FKM D-seal was implemented in transaxles with a build date of XXXX-2529-XXXX and greater. FKM D-seals are currently being used and are the seals of choice.