Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Tranny problem? Stupid mechanics!

All,
I have a Malibu (yeah flame on :p )
Friday morning took it in for Transmission service, I bought the car 8 months ago and have put 32k miles on it. I went with the flush, filter, fluid service.
Had to go about 30 miles after they were done to pickup my g/f. It would shift when it wanted to....specifically it was not shifting at normal points for an ATX. It would shift anywhere from 5-6k rpms and would shift hard. Took it back, the mechanic said that the car did not have a transmission dipstick, but a level and they were not sure how full the reservoir was of fluid
So, they put one quart in and it runs fine......BUT, on a left hand turn or u-turn only it shifts HARD into 2nd at about 5700rpm's. Maybe its still not full enough?
WTF did they do? Why did they do it? And how the F*ck can I fix it? The tranny was running very smooth and shifted excellently before the service, I just wanted to do some preventive maintenance, I will do it myself from now on.
I WOULD LOVE FOR ANY COMMENTS OR SUGGESTIONS!

Take it back there.

First of all, they said that your car didn't have a tranny dipstick? That's kind of hard to believe. Even if it did, they should have been able to tell if it was full or not. If a mechanic told me he couldn't be sure how full the tranny was, I'd tell him to drain it out, and if there wasn't enough in there, he was giving me a new tranny (Or at least checking for damage). If they couldn't, that's their fault; they shouldn't run a business doing transmission work if they can't tell if it's full of fluid!

Bottom line, take it back, be demanding but keep a cool head as well. Your car isn't shifting right after their service; it's up to them to make right any damage they may have caused.

It's true, the new GM ATX's don't have a dipstick. Wonder how much that saves them ???

TB

What does the handbook say re trans level etc..???????

"Fill to Spill"

Nah...MTX is 'fill to spill' (or kill!)...this sounds like 'fill & pray!!!'

Don't know if it's the same problem or not, but my wife's Montana did the "shift-kit" shift when it wanted to. There was no rhyme or reason; it seemed completely random. When it shifted hard, it shifted hard.

Anyway, we took it in for some other stuff and mentioned this. Somehow they were able to duplicate it and turned out to be a bad PC solenoid (whatever that is). Anyway, they're both GM products and the problems sound similar. Might wanna keep this in mind.

The shop that serviced the tranny should have the specs on how much fluid to put in. If they don't know, they shuoldn't be selling their services because they dont know what they are doing, I'd inform them that you need to take your now-not-working car in to get the tranny re-serviced somewhere else cause they don't know what they are doing and you can't risk damaging your car with unknown fluid levels. (get your money back!) If they didn't know how much fluid to add, did they know what type to use? I would get it re-serviced or re-do it myself so you can get it done right.

Was this a Chebby dealer that did this to you?

TB

Yep, no ATX dip stick. I have a 2000 model.
There is one plug-hole on top to pour in fluid and there is another plug-hole on the side for spilling out. The car needs to be cool and level when doing this.