please forgive me if this issue has been addressed before and also if i am posting this incorrectly or in the wrong forum as im not real savvy when it comes to the internet .

PROBLEM: my car was purchased at an auto auction, and i found out that the title had a lien, but upon receiving the paper work was a mechanics lien in the amount of $9000 for rebuilt engine.

At any rate the mileage showed 192,00 at the time of my purchase, but i have never been able to find the person who filed the lien, so im not certain that the engine has been rebuilt or if this was just some sort of scam. so with that being said , not sure how many actual miles are on the engine or transmission.

I just drive this car a few miles a week, never on the interstate. the transmission shifts out very smoothly but when it is in high gear and needs to shift to lower gear for extra power, it will shift to lower gear, the gearbox fault light appears, and it will not shift back to the higher gear until i restart the car.

At that point it shifts out smoothly but then it will do it again. now i have driven the car on short runs on a parkway where i can maintain the speed when it shifts to the high gear and it will remain there until i am back on secondary street driving.

I have had the solenoid pack replaced but it did not correct the problem. my mechanic is not a transmission expert so he is unable to provide any further solutions but as common sense tells me , it seems to me it would have to be a computer issue , since it resets itself when you turn off the ignition.

My mechanic did show me that i have an oil leak into one of the plugs and that i need to get a complete tune up. I read on here that if there are mechanical issues going on it can cause a false reading on the transmission.

Now im not in the financial position to put to much money into this car, and i know that even if i get the complete tune up done, it may not fix the transmission issue, so im only putting more money into the car that maybe i need to just sell as is and take my losses.

This vehicle is absolutely an beautiful and classy car and i love to drive it, even though its just short distances.

Can anyone offer me any advise or help here. I'm stuck as to what to do next.

Because the car has the issue and because the odometer has such high mileage, i am sure i will have to take a loss on the car if i were to sell it but im retired and don't have a lot of extra money to be spending on major repairs.

 

Hang in there superpup...........the DIY tech gurus and knowledgable members will be by shortly to help.

 

1st thing I'd do is check the battery, lots if issues caused by a failing battery including gearbox issues.

Once you have the battery sorted you then need to get the engine running right before you can try to determine the gearbox issue.

Have you checked for codes?

 

If you've got oil getting to a coil you can expect damage and that in turn will cause grief. So it's the leak you'd like to fix. If you don't know when the plugs were changed, do them if you can afford it.

+1 on battery

Oh - 4.0 or 3.0? Important on the 4.0 to change the (chain) tensioners to the metal-bodied ones.

 

thank you, yes I have already replaced the battery. the codes have been run and based on the read out , it was indicated that the solenoid pack may have been the problem but that did not fix it. the only other codes that appeared were the cats , that I will have to replace once I get the transmission issue resolved. I plan to get the tune up job done next and if that don't resolve the transmission issue, then go from there. thanks so much for your reply.

 

We really need the actual code. Too many people give wrong or only minimal descriptions of the problem.

Remember the code is only the starting point and just because the code points to one thing does not mean you need to replace that item.

Always get the code numbers then clear them off the car. Drive some more and see what comes back. We need to see the code or codes repeat before spending money!

And finally it is most likely NOT a computer problem. It is very rare for one to fail. We did have one recently where the car was hit by lightning so unless your car has suffered a lightning strike I would forget about the PCM needing to be replaced.

Please give us complete car details as was suggested above.
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tbird6, thank you for your reply. Here are the codes prior to replacing the solenoid . PO795 PRESSURE CONTROL SOLENOID "C"
PO420 CATALYST SYSEMM EFFICIENCY BELOW THRESHOLD
BANK 1
PO430 CATALYST SYSTEM EFFICIENCIY BELOW THRESHOLD
BANK 2
PO153 02 SENSOR CIRCUIT SLOW RESPONSE BANK 2
SENSOR 1
PO133 02 SENSOR CIRCUT SLOW RESPONSE BANK 1
SENSOR 1

I don't have the read out after my mechanic changed out the pressure control solenoid. he did run one but could not provide the hard copy. The solenoid was replace a few months back, so I don't know if there are any changes in the reading now.

 

You say some of the codes related to the cats? Was this because of misfires? Cos that will cause gearbox issues

 

superpup - Hang on. No decent mechanic goes into a gearbox if there are any engine faults unfixed like you posted! Were they fixed first?

 

How much did all that cost?




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With the age and miles on your car it looks like you will need some cat's and O2 sensors replaced. At least Bank one.

 

The thread I quoted points out a big problem. No pictures!!

This is because the pictures were hosted somewhere and that has now died. If you are going to post picture to the list upload them directly to this site. Then they will always be visible until this forum shuts down.
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thanks everyone for your advise and comments. I did go by today and had another read out done and now all i am showing is the 02 sensors and cats codes. the transmission code is no longer there. I wish i had come on line here a long time ago, as it could have saved me a lot of headache and frustration. So it seems that what i need to do now is replace the 02 sensors and maybe the cats.
should I replace the 02 sensors first then see if that corrects the cat 430 problem, if not then replace the cats? Or should i replace the 02 and cats at the same time.??

 

It could be wiring or sensor. You 100% need working O2 readings or your cats are at risk and as has been posted can upset gearbox such that although fine it reports codes.