Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting 98 contour se tranny probs (at least i think)

Ok i have a 1998 contour in which the transmission for some reason unkown to me has never liked me. The first day i got it i had to go get new front seals in the tranny. after that it drove alrite just kept giving me crap every now and again, so i just kept a close eye on it. well one day it started acting realy bad at first it would take off but barely it wouldnt start moving till it was around 2.5-3rpm and even then it would only go a few feet so i got it pulled home and i checked the transmission fluid in the car i checked it about 6x to be sure that i wasnt tripping the car had to much fluid even after i watched it like a hawk so i decided i would just drain the fluid out and put some new fresh stuff in. (Note: when it comes to cars i am lacking alot of knowledge. a 3 yearold yanking the wheels off of his tonka truck with a pair of pliers makes a better mechanic than me so on the next statement plz try to take it easy on the ridicule and comments b/c trust me iv heard enough of them.) I took out the drain plug and drained it all out and refered to the owners manual to see just how much i needed to put back in it said 9qts i figured this cant be right so i called one of my freinds who's dad was a mechanic.he said that it was right but didnt bother to tell me that it would need 9qts only if i took out the torque converter and i put 9 qts in the tranny. after wards i drove it about a mile to a mile and a half down the road when it started acting up again so i parked it and walked home got it pulled home again and now the engine still runs but it wont go anywhere after looking into it further me and my brother concluded that it was not even shifting into gear i have checked the linkage and its was still working just the car didnt even act like it was shifted into gear. so i left the car parked for a while and drove my nissan 240 which is an even bigger pain in the neck. now the nissan has a blown head gasket and im trying to figure out which one would be cheaper to fix for now. plz help it sux to have to walk to work especially since if you walk through the yard on the way to work and pass directly between 2 vehicles that belong to you. either way plz help me

i'm not sure that it'll help but i'm goin through a tranny mystery myself.i have a 98 SE 2.5,tranny bangs from 1st to 2nd gear but only when i get it all warmed up drivin on the freeway.i did the code reader thing and it says TCC SYLINOID stuck in on/off position.i'm currently trying to figure out how to fix it because from everybody i talk to it's not gonna be a task i want to take on myself but that is yet to be seen.so my suggestion is to take it to an auto part store,they do free code testing at autozone or murry's or pretty much all the big chain stores,find out if you get a code,if you do research it and go from there

mike in cleveland

ill give it a shot but im not sure how im going to get the car there since it will barely move i went and started checking fuses b/c someone said something to me about an electronic shift kit and i found a spot where the fuse was missing so i put one in and started the car and to my surprise when i put the car in gear it took off it backed out of where i had it parked just fine but when i put it into drive and pressed the gas it just reved up but the crazy part was that it was pulling itself up a hill like it was in drive and the gas wasn't being hit but i was reving it up and from there i haven't got any response from it now when i try the only thing that it does is start rolling down the hill even if im trying to get the car to go the other way.

The manual lever position switch might be worth a try, it mounts on top of the trans below the waterpump. Run the car like 15 minutes, put through gears, put in park, check trans fluid, if really overfull, you have to drain it out till the right level is indicated. The 240 SX is rear drive(correct?), it would be easier to fix the 240's head gasket/timing belts than the trans on the Mystique, if you have to pull the trans. You might not have to though. Good luck, it's good you can walk to work, so your job isn't threatened by lack of transportation. You should have 2 good cars if you fix both

If you drain the CD4E trans, the most fluid you should get out of it is 5 qts. Try doing a flush. Jack the front tires off the ground. Turn engine on and put trans into N. As it drains out the bottom keep pouring it in the top with new fluid. This will make the pump circulate the fluid all through the trans.
Check to see if any particles, contaminates etcc.. are spilling into your catch pan.
Also check to make sure the selector lever position sensor in aligned. The TSS sensor is functioning as well as the VSS sensor.

Tony2005 is right, this is risky. Don't let the trans run out of fluid while doing this. If you are not confident in your abilities, do the 3x drain and fill.

ok so here's the latest on my contour i think that the car is going into gear sometimes and not most of the time b/c sometimes the car will take off just fine it did it for me today and i had forgot to take the e-brake off so the car just drug the back tires but after i put it back into park and took it out again the car would not shift back into gear anyone know what could be making this happen? could it be the vacuum lines?

MLPS switch I mentioned above. Try that, cheaper than trans work.