Finally gearbox gave up the ghost in my '97 2.5l. Torque converter was locking up and progressively became worse.

Complete rebuild with separate oil cooler and warranty for $4,500. Hurt the wallet quite a bit but feel good about taking it on a long trip now. Very good service from transmission shop here in Canberra and will recomend if someone needs some work done.

Apparenty there is a guy in Sydney who imports reman'd units from Hong Kong and have heard good things about them. Similar price all up I believe.

I'll be servicing my transmission every 20,000k from here on...