Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Transaxle Am I screwed?

I already posted this in the troubleshooting section, but I figured maybed this should be in the transmission section too, so I just pasted a copy of what I put there.

On my way to the CEG meet at Joe's house, I was fooling around on the highway with Steve and Hector. Anyways, while I was showing them two what a duratec can do against the zetecs, my o/d light started flashing. It was a hot day today, and it was a long way to Joe's house, so we suspected it was my transmission being overheated. Not to mention the burning plastic/rubber smell that was getting into car. When we got off of the highway, I noticed that my transmission is upshifting very hard. It was never this rough before. They told me I should just let my car cool off and we will see what happens later on. So about 4 hours later I went back into my car to drive it, and the o/d light stopped flashing. BUT it still has a rough upshift. Is my transmission fried? They suggested I flush my transaxle fluid, should I do that and is it hard to do? Is it maybe a sensor? Am I going to have to take the bus to work now?

By the way, this is an automatic transmission with almost 76,000 miles on it. The rest of the info is
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I wouldn't power flush it since it has higher mileage. I would change it though. I used mobil1 ATF ($60 worth) you need atleast 12 quarts doing it the following way:1. drain fluid. 2.fill with 4qts. 3. start car run through gears a few times. 4.repeat number 1-3. 5.repeat 1-3.
or you can remove the correct lines off the radiator and put one in clean bucket of new fluid and one into old bucket, turn on the car and the fluid will change itself.

thanks, that doesnt sound too hard to do. atleast you were a help in this copy of my post. lol

can anybody answer the rest of my questions though. does this look like an expensive repair coming up?

i have work in the morning, should i just get a ride there, or is this not as big of a deal as i think?

well if it's going out, u mite as well drive it, well maybe after you change the fluid. you may get another year outta it before it completely goes out, but you'd have to baby it and the driving would suck. but maybe it'll be ok once you change the fluid... you never can tell.

do you think it could be the sensor? maybe thats what the burning smell was coming from. from the troubleshooting section, they say that the o/d light flashing means its an electrical problem with the trans. trouble with upshifting only could maybe be the sensor from what i read. ill replace my sensor and my fluid this week and ill take it from there.

maybe but i doubt you'd smell the sensor burning. i hate to say this, but it sounds like the tranny overheated (reason way we should all have coolers). hopefully that's not the case though. prove me wrong please.

ill try my best

Heres an update on whats going down with my transmission...


Long story, but I still got problems after fluid change.

I went to 5 dealerships today to see if they had the TSS sensor. Theres one dealership that is kind of far from me, that supposedly has it in stock. Im going to go over there tomorrow after work. Anyways, heres what I did today.

I drove the car to murray's for some tranny fluid, and I noticed that it was starting to drive a little smoother, but I was very careful and didnt go over 2,500 rpms. I got 11 quarts of Quaker State Dexron-III Mercon ATF Automatic Transmission Fluid. I unscrewed the drain plug (i think that was what it was, it opened up using a socket wrench without a socket, wierd) and emptied all of the fluid out. It was brown, and seemed like there was some VERY fine shiny particles in there (like metallic dust?), and it wasnt very noticeable, but I saw it because I was looking for shavings under bright light (i guess thats from normal tranny wear). I put in about half a quart of new fluid and let it flush out of the bottom. I didnt want to flush too much because of all the stories I hear about flushing old trannys. I plugged it back up, and put in the rest of the 11 quarts I had. So basically I did it the way I figured it had to be done.

When I started the car (as i prayed to god), I shifted through all my gears 5 times, like i read somewhere in the forum archives, and left. As I drove off, I noticed a SLIGHT smoother shift between gears. Not too much, because like I said, it has gotten smoother as the day went on. Things looked good, and I felt that it was still a LITTLE notchy. Nothing to be noticed, dont even think it was a big deal. I thought my problem was solved. I still planned to go tomorrow and buy a new TSS. I went on the highway to shift through the rest of my gears to see if it will be ok at higher speeds. It was ok at first, moving along with regular traffic. Downshifting was ok. As I went down, I saw an opening and decided to break out of the 65 mph barrier. I got to about 80, and it was ok. I decided to turn around and get on the other side of the highway so I can go back home. When I went on, things were ok and when I hit around 70, I noticed that it was acting a little wierd. It wasnt downshifting like it was supposed to when I hit the gas. The rpms were only rising. I slowed down, and tried again. Same damn thing. I slowly hit 75, and noticed that when i let off of the gas, the engine was slowing my down a bit. Thats when the Over drive light started flashing again. GOD DAMMIT

I got off of the highway, and it was the same thing like yesterday right after the problem first came. It was upshifting very hard. Could this still be the sensor? After replacing the sensor tomorrow, should I take it on the highway again? In the morning, should I use my car to go to work? PLEASE HELP!!

please please please tell me you didn't put in 11 quarts of fluid after only draining 4. it only drains ~4 quarts at a time. go pop your hood, there is probably fluid everywhere (has overflow valve). dude. you gotta drain 4 put in 4.

uh oh. you gotta be kidding me.

im gonna go check my car now, it seems fine when i parked it after driving. oh [censored].