Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Possible Tranny Problems?

Hello to everyone.

I just noticed recently that when driving up a steep hill at slow speeds that the car seems to "slip" at around 2500-3000 rpm. By "slip", I mean that the engine will drop RPMs briefly while I am holding the gas pedal steady. For example, if I start to go up a steep hill from a standstill and apply gas so that the car is slowly gaining speed (and RPMs), when the car reaches ~ 30 mph and 3000 RPM, the RPM will briefly drop down to 2500 and then back to 3000. This happens within a second or so. It feels like a gear switch, except that it might do this a few times in a row.

It seems that either the tranny is slipping, or it doesn't know what gear to be in.

I checked the tranny fluid and it looks good (color was bright red and it didn't smell burned). The fluid level was a little high, but I'm not sure if this would cause any problems. I removed some of the ATX tranny fluid and added a bottle of Lucas Transmission Fix just in case. The symptoms are still there as of this morning.

So here are my questions:

1. Would a high tranny fluid level cause problems?

2. The "slipping" has happened a few dozen times in the past week, and I have not received a CEL. Would I get a CEL if it were a tranny problem?

3. I have read a few posts that have mentioned a TSS. What problems does a bad TSS create?