Never heard of this Trans. problem...

[davew833]

I'm looking at a '93 AE (all '93s are AE, aren't they?) that the seller says won't shift out of 2nd gear. Owner says he took it to his mechanic who 'reset the computer' and it shifted correctly for a while, then stopped shifting out of 2nd. again. Mechanic 'reset the computer' a couple of times and each time it would work temporarily. Anybody heard of this? Car has 187k miles and I don't know if the trans. is original.

[oab_au]

Originally Posted by davew833

I'm looking at a '93 AE (all '93s are AE, aren't they?) that the seller says won't shift out of 2nd gear. Owner says he took it to his mechanic who 'reset the computer' and it shifted correctly for a while, then stopped shifting out of 2nd. again. Mechanic 'reset the computer' a couple of times and each time it would work temporarily. Anybody heard of this? Car has 187k miles and I don't know if the trans. is original.

No I haven't, but I'd reckon that at that mileage it may be the high clutch that is not working. Don't know any magic to get it to work.
Have a look,smell at the transmission fluid dipstick, see if it is dark or spells burnt.

Harvey.

[Blacky]

Never heard of "resetting" the comp to fix a trans problem. Occasionally replacing the TCU will fix problems. If it's the original trans most likely it's toast especially in a high temperature area like Utah.

[b3lha]

There is probably a part with an intermittant fault. The transmission will work fine until the part gives trouble and then the TCU will detect the fault and log the error code.

When the error code is set, the TCU may go into a sort of limp-home mode. Resetting the TCU clear the error codes and the transmission will work fine until the next time the part gives trouble.

Rather than resetting the TCU, what he should be doing is checking the stored codes to find out which part is giving trouble so it can be repaired.

A final piece of advice: SVXes can be very expensive to fix, especially the transmission. If there was a cheap and easy fix for this problem, the seller would have fixed it already. Don't buy an SVX with transmission problems. Go and find one in good mechanical condition.

[davew833]

Thanks for the input everyone. I talked to the seller's mechanic today and he said what initially manifested as a computer problem (they pulled the codes) was confirmed by a trans. shop as the tranny needing a complete rebuild. I'm currently SVX-less, but I've owned 3 '92s and a '95 in the past, so I'm pretty familiar with the tranny issues. I've been wanting to get one to put a 4.44 for a while, so this may be the one if I can get it for a reasonable price.

[NiftySVX]

Just get one of the performance transmissions for it. You can pay anywhere from 1000 to 6000 for one and you'll never have to mess with it again, and even if you do some of the higher end places will stand behind it should it ever fail again. Then you have a nice AE to drive around in.