Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Transaxle atx 2nd gear "lurch"

for quite some time now (a year maybe?), my '98 2.5L atx has had this annoying condition. shifting into or out of 2nd gear is somewhat abrupt.

the upshift from 1st to 2nd can best be described as smooth, but the car lurches forward somewhat, as if you had gunned the engine briefly (but not real hard).

the downshift from 3rd to 2nd can best be described as mildly abrupt, almost as if you had depressed the brake pedal briefly.

all other aspects of the atx appear to be fine. there are no other symptoms, sounds, etc.

but now for the interesting caveats to this condition:

1. the condition is much more pronounced at idle speeds, as in stop-and-go traffic. the lurch does not seem to occur during aggressive acceleration.

2. any time an 02 sensor has been replaced, the condition temporarily smoothes out, only to return a few days later. the more i think about this one, the more i believe this happens anytime the battery is disconnected and/or the pcm is reset. perhaps the condition is returning once the pcm self-test is complete? i dunno...

these caveats lead me to believe the condition is not mechanical, but more likely sensor-related. but i don't know jack about trannies, so i'm just guessing.

the fluid level is fine, and has been recently drained and filled. the atx range sensor was replaced at the dealership a month or so ago (which had no effect on the lurch condition). no other maintenance has been performed on the atx. the vehicle has 102k miles.

thanks you!

thanks, tony.

in fact, i read this thread before posting, because it sounded close to my problem, but the links appear to be dead, and i couln't glean enough information from the thread to help me.

you say "try" the tss. is this "shotgun" maintenance, or the most likely culprit?

also, i neglected to mention that the range sensor was replaced for an unrelated problem.

cool. i'd really like to read what's at those links.

i used to be a helicopter mechanic in the coast guard. this is a term we used when we weren't positive what the problem was, and we just did things to see if it fixed it. this is akin to shooting at something with a shotgun and hoping the wide spray of shot hits something...

hopefully you're right about the tss. it would be nice to need a cheap part for a change...

Actually, the instructions from the cougar site is basically in the thread posted earlier. It does have the part number and a picture of the location of the TSS on the transaxle. Cheap part? Cheap is 50cent hose clamp to fix a moosing problem for the V6

Helicopter mechanic, eh? I bet there wasn't a lot of cheap parts there.