Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Transmission Question

I have a 97 Contour Sport (2.0 4 cyl, AT), and lately, when shifting from first to second gear, it's doing what I can only describe as surging forward. I've read about the bang shift, and as far as I can tell, I've always had that problem. From what I understand, this occurs when the engine winds up and I pull my foot off the gas. Just recently, though, no matter how easy or hard I take off or whether I keep on the gas or not, the car kicks into second hard. I actually took it to a shop a few weeks back, and for whatever reason, the problem went away when they took it for a test drive, but they did say that the torque converter code popped up when they did a diagnostic. The car was driven only once for about 10 miles during the last three weeks, and that time, it was fine. Today, it started out fine, but on a 60 mile trip, the problem began to happen again when I reached stop and go traffic. Also, when I finally reached my destination, the overdrive light was blinking. Since then, the problem has persisted. Unfortunaly, I'm at school and don't have the tools to fix anything here. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

My late fixer-upper had this kind of trouble... a deeper diagnostic revealed that some kind of internal valve was sticking, and causing the hydraulic pressure to spike really high. It's thermally related -- if your car gets hot the problem is more likely. Sounds like it might be a similar thing with you. In my case, there was no cheap fix -- even overhauling the valve body failed to fix it, it needed the whole thing torn open.

here is what you need to know about fixing the Torque converter code and the bang shift.

http://www.contour.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=tranny&Number=356786&page=&view=&sb=5&o=&fpart=1&vc=1

jeff

The smoking gun

Originally posted by mameneau:

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but they did say that the torque converter code popped up when they did a diagnostic.

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more clues

Originally posted by mameneau:

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Today, it started out fine, but on a 60 mile trip, the problem began to happen again when I reached stop and go traffic. Also, when I finally reached my destination, the overdrive light was blinking. Since then, the problem has persisted.

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more tests would help but it looks like the TC.

jeff

I had a similar problem, and it acted up more on longer drives. When I didn't drive the car for a few days, it would shift okay for a day or so. The first extended drive, though, and it would act up. My transmission range selector was bad. I also had the same TC code, so don't just run out and have the TC replaced without further diagnostics. I replaced the range selector and have not had a problem in several thousand miles since.

Well, I broke down and took it to the shop to have the problem diagnosed. It turns out that I will soon be the proud owner of a rebuilt transmission. They told me that an internal seal went bad and there was no pressure to the TC.