Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Automatic tranny problems!

Hi everyone I'm new here and was wondering if maybe someone might be able to help me. I have a 2000 contour sport with the duratec v-6 engine and an automatic transmission. I bought the car and it had 58,000 miles on it and now it has 78,000 on it. It was very well maintained and taken care of by the previous owner. My problem is one day while driving the car it started jerking and the rpms would go up and down so I stopped and looked and could see nothing wrong and started it back up and it drove just fine. From that point it has started jerking and the rpms would be erratic while shifting but it seemed like it always took about 15 to 20 mins after driving the car before it would do this. I took it to my local transmission shop and they said they could find nothing wrong with it but I know there is something wrong with it. It seems like it is slipping like a manual transmission with a bad clutch would do. The transmission shop said it the transmission has sensors that would tell you if it was actually slipping and other problems that would cause the transmissison to fail and would light the check engine light, however the light has never lit up. They also told me it could be a bad seal inside the transmission and they would have to take the transmission out which would cost $600 just to take it out and put it back in without any diagnosing. Im wondering if anyone has ever heard of this problem or had it before and what I should do about it. Thanks

If you never had a tranny flush, thats one thing I would try for sure. While your at it add a couple bottles of transmission conditioner...I use LUCAS it works good and helps soften the seals that tend to give alot of problems. Try that as a first step and see how it goes.

I agree with Phil completely. I was one of the people who had ATX issues recently that were cured by new wires. I was having an issue where the shift from 1 to 2 could be very harsh at times, among other subtle problems. A few years ago when I first got the car I did a tune up and used cheap plugs and wires. The plugs failed within 6 months, but the wires lasted until this past fall. I had Bosch wires that I purchased from AutoZone, and ended up replacing them with some used Motorcraft wires that I bought of a CEGer just to troubleshoot. Thankfully they cured the problem and have been running well since.