I had the same issue. (We also have the same color and year)

I found that if I shifted the car myself it drove fine but if I let it shift on it's own I got that "flare" you're talking about. It seems to be a fairly common issue with our tranny's.

I tried all sorts of thing to avoid a replacement or rebuild. Nothing really worked. TPS check, tranny flush, friction modifyer, resistor mod. The only thing that came close to stopping the flare was the resistor mod. Car shifts awfully ulgy from 1-2 though.

I finally had mine rebuilt. (If I had the $4000 I'd get the manual conversion done) I spent $2700 for rebuild 2 yr 24000 mi warranty, synthetic fluid, tranny cooler.

If you really want to put it off just try the manual shift and see what that does for you. Mine would probably still be going if I didn't just HAVE to have it fixed. I hate broken things on the car.


Randy (Explaining tranny and my bad financial status in one post) ii