Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Possible transmission problems

Ok I have a SE ATX. I recently had the transmission rebuilt about a year ago. It had been running fine until about a week ago when I got the follow symptoms.

Low Idle-It used to stay between 750-1000...now its about 500-750 all the time. It even cut off on me once at a stop light.

Hard Shifts- I'm noticing harder stift after I let the car warm up and then shift from park down to drive...it seems like I can feel the car jerking.

Idle- At Idle I hear this strange clicking sound like when you put a pen in your fan...it just clicks as long as I'm in park and idle.

Random Downshifts- Just yesterday on my way from work I was on I-35 doing about 70MPH at about 3000 RPMs...then I felt the car lose all power, and the RPM's just dropped to 0 even though I could hear the engine still going...then it just kicked back in and I got this huge jerk of the car and it proceeded to drive normal.(I'm sure that did some damage though)

This morning- I'm showing my dad whats up and we drove around the block...as we coasted to a stop in my drive way, the car just cut off while I was in drive...then it cut itself back on. I don't know whats up with that.

I've been getting regularly scheduled oil changes, and I haven't put anywhere near 6000 miles on my car in the past year to have my transmission flushed so I'm just confused as to what the problem could be. Also I think I broke a motor mount from the hard shifting that my transmission is doing...its the mount that sits right at the top of the engine. I dunno...any help would be appreciated.

~darp~

Sounds like engine control/electrical problems, possible crank sensor problem. Key in on the tach dropping to zero and the engine losing power (this is ignition related). Fix this first. A bad range switch can cause random shifts, but from your description it doesn�t sound like that is what is you have. Also the VSS and TSS sensors can cause erratic shifting, but again, fix the tach problem first as this can also cause bad shifting.

jeff

Ok as a further diagnosis, I started the car up today and drove around the block...The speedometer flew all the way around to 130 and the car shut off...I dunno what that about..but I think it confirms that it could be a faulty VSS...any opinions.

~darp~

That�s a good place to start. Check the wiring first.

jeff

When my VSS went, I had weird random down shifts and the speedometer going all over and then stopped at 0. The engine did not shut down though. And the OD light came on almost immediately. I can't remember about the tachometer though.