Tranny can't find gear.
 

Hi everybody, board newbie here with a question.

My SVX has 125k on original tranny, so I figure I've been luckier than many. However with in the last month or so it started really searching for gears in drive . At road-speed(35-40) it constantly jumps between 2 and 3. and at highway-speed(50-65) constantly jumps between 3 and H. by constantly I mean a shift every 2 seconds or so.

Unfortunately I'm not in a financial position to get a tranny fix right now, I'm hoping to drag the car along another three months while saving some cash.

I can also manually undergear the car by putting it in 2 or 3, which forces the lower gear to run, and stops the shifting, but makes it run consistantly over 3500 RPM.

But I'm wondering if the increased RPM speed might be making extra heat, and causing more problems than the shifting does. Is either preferable, is either hurting my engine more(my enigine is perfect still, and I'm hoping it will stay that way until I get the cash to get the tranny fixed). Which is more likely to get me my 3 months driving 25 miles to work every day.

thanks,

welcome to the forum, colo. i'm sorry i can't help you, but your problem sounded a lot like a former forum member's problem. i thought you might have purchased his car, but his had 140k miles when he traded it in to araphaoe hyundai in jan 2004. hopefully someone with more experience has some good news for you.

The tranny slipping causes more heat...im not sure if the extra RPMS causes more heat...i think that its just bad for the engine. Hows your tranny fluid looking? Have you had it replaced latley? The color should be red/pink

Also check if the Throttle Position Sensor (TPS) is dirty and sending mixed signals.

Hi and welcome to the forum.
Does the Power light flash on start up? Showing a code is stored.
Does it only do this when the lever is in D?
If you leave the lever in 3rd, does it start off in 1st, change to 2nd and 3rd OK?

I doubt it is gear box trouble, but need your responce to the above Qs.
Harvey. ;)

The power light has flashed at start-up as well as the check engine light on most of the time. It's been this way since I bought the car and the mechanic said it was an oxygen sensor that didn't like the altitude.

It will also do it in 3 around 30-45, it will flare and switch between 2nd and 3rd.

Ive never tried the 3rd. I start in D then remeber to put in 3 after switching happens. but as I said it will do it from 2nd to 3rd if it's in 3.

thanks, again

Welcome to the site.

If running at a constant 3500 RPM is bad for the engine, I'm in deep do do with my SVX with the 5 MT. I run at an elevated RPM with it because of the lower gears. I would think that it would be much better on the car to run higher RPMs than let the transmission shift back and forth from one gear to another.

If the car is running at a higher RPM, wouldn't the transmission fluid be circulated at a higher rate and be cooled better than at lower RPMs? :confused:

Yeah Earl thats why its suggested that we drive in 3 rather than D around town. :)

You may not be aware of this but you can check any code on your SVX yourself. Check out the codes section on http://svx-iw.com/ for instructions.

I would recheck the engine code(s) as there may be more codes than you may think.

OK do as Earthworm suggests and pull the codes for the ECU and TCU, the answer could be there.
You say "it will flare and switch between 2nd and 3rd".
When this happens, does it flair when going back to 2nd, or when going into 3rd?,,,,,,, Need to know this.

Flaring has to do with the brake band in the box.
The constant shifting could be related to either the Throttle sensor, or a speed sensor.

Harvey. ;)

Okay hopefully I can get a chance to pull the codes this weekend, but what is a brake band? This is the first auto-tranny I've ever owned.

Thanks.

The brake band is in the gear box. It is applied to get 2nd and 4th gear. It holds the front sun gear still. The band wears with time, to produce a flair, as it goes into 3rd gear. (the rpms go up between the gear change). There is an adjustment for it on the side of the box.

See what codes there are. :)

Harvey. ;)

Okay guys, I have a strange new chapter to the story tonightr.

I had no choice but to go down to one of me friend's house's today. It's about 50 miles south, and the car was acting like the same **** switching gears the whole way. After getting off the highway, about a half mile from his house, it acted really funky. Then it made this wierd grinding, whining sound and smelled like ass(a smell somewhere between sheep hair burning, and rubber melting) I limped into his place and said I needed a tow truck. His wife's brother, a mechanic, happened to be there and offered to help. I took him back to the car and started driving with my friend following.

It didn't happen again. What had been happening every 30 seconds, absolute max, didn't happen in 45 minutes of all kinds of driving. So after a while I tried to go back to my home. 50 miles and the car ran good like it used to (and perhaps it's my imagination, but downshifting seemed really slow-to-kick-in and harsh the couple times it should have)

Is there something that is supposed to be self adjusting, that can screw up and get forced into place eventualy or something? And maybe overcorrect? Like I said I know nothing about auto trannies, but all the way home it ran fine, no flaring, no shifting. But now I am more confused and hesitant than ever about my little car.

P.S. And I'll try to pull the codes tomorrow.

Thanks.

Yeah, so what does this mean? When my selector is in "3" everything is fine and when it's in "D" there is flaring.