Transmission

Time for a rebuild. Sounds like the valve body is clogged. You could try a can of "reconditioner/seal expander" but that will be a temporary fix.

Boy Paul all your suggestions are the most expensive routes one can take. It cost 800 U.S. bucks just to get a transmission in the door of a "good" transmission shop. I'm not sure by what he means by "unlock the torue converter". The lock- up clutch on a modern car can be engaged by the ecm at any speed in any gear on modern cars. Transmissions can be the hardest part of the car to diagnose. Some of this behaviour might be related to the solenoids. My best questions would be... When was the last time the fluid and filter has been changed. If I've read any of that right the fluid may be slow in getting to and pressurising the clutches and bands it needs to hold when going into first.

It was change about 5000km's ago, oh i am Canadian, try 3000 dollars

Bon=B7ne=B7ville is right. There are other things to try first, like changing fluid and filter. 5000 km is not very long though. Go here and you can see some of the possibilities:

I would try finding a shop that can run some test using something like a=20 tranx2000. That shouldnt put much hurt on ones wallet. One test is worth=20

1000 technician opinions...

Your description of the problem is not all that clear. For instance, you say it shifts into first gear when stopped. That's good, right? I'm sure you meant this was a problem, but why?

If you "really feel first" gear when rolling to a stop in OD, I think that would be an indication you have an overrunning clutch that has locked up (mechanical damage). First gear should freewheel when you're in OD. If I'm wrong I hope some real transmission tech will correct me.

I'll just add I've had many GM transmissions that, when they were old and worn out, seemed to go "out of gear" during hard stops or hard cornering, but only for a second or two. Keeping the fluid level higher helped, but not totally. They were just never able to keep it together with the fluid sloshing around.

1992 ? How many miles?

As this newsgroups joker I'll say the problem is old age.

========= Harryface =========

1991 Pontiac Bonneville LE, 3800 V6 _~_~_~_~274,329 miles_~_~_ ~_~_

I'm not sure, can TCs with hydraulic trannies lock-up by command from the ECM?

Hmmm, I don't know what you mean by that... But... Afaik, all modern tranmissions that have torque converters are hydraulic. Afaik, all modern tranmissions that have lock up TC's (clutches) are locked up by command of the ecm/ecu.

My pontiac is a 1992, with 150,000, now today i almost got into an accident. Now i was going along in drive about 80 km say 55 mph and when i reached 90km/h or 55 mph, the car shifted into O/D like normal. Okay here's the thing when coming to a stop, a full stop , there was no first gear, rpms went up, went no where, now it sometimes does this sometimes not it may go into gear, whats the difference between O/D and Drive and why am i only experiencing this only in O/D???? ]and i dunno if i am parinoid, but parking up a high there is kinda a grinding and i find maybe, i dunno the engine seems to getting hot sometimes weridly, never seen it before or maybe i haven't noticed it before. Thanks

I shifted the car into O/D while driving, oh ya coming to another stop decided to put it in drive again it went no where, went all the way up to park and back to drive, the car then was able to move

Is the trans fluid level where it should be?

Fluid is okay

Without looking and testing, my _guess_ would be low fluid pressure, bad 1-2 servo, or sticky valve body.

Whats a bad servo?, true low fluid pressure sounds right .Took it out for a crusie tonight worked great, it was all there in drive of course, but i dunno sometimes it doesn't wanna downshift, i dunno if thats just me or the car

A servo is a mechanism that actuates something else.

trans problems could be due to hundreds of things.

Just to make sure you know...The fluid should be check with the car running, hot (88-99deg C / 190-200deg F) and on level ground. Try running the selector through all the gears and back into park as well. Does it behave worse or only act up when its hot? If so I say its a solenoid.

It seems the transmission experts dont hang out in the pontiac forum. Your best bet for finding help is a transmission oriented group. Looking at a small chart in the manual for my 92 bonneville I found the following. Between 3rd and 4th (4th being overdrive) Shift solenoid A is ON in 4th but OFF in 3rd. Thats as much as I'm going to type on the subject because transmission diagnosing isnt really possible over the web. Go find a local that is good at what they do and if they can do a simple solenoid test have them do it. If your lucky they may only have to replace a shift solenoid. If not then...be ready to spend some cash. Btw "servo's" dont do much other than cushion the shifts.

This is starting to sound like problems I've had with the same transmission. When they get worn out, if you come to a hard stop they are not in gear. Then, in a while, the fluid pressure comes back and they go into gear. If this is the case it might happen on hard cornering.

Everybody in the group will tell you it's about to break down completely, or your filter's clogged, or you broke an o-ring on your filter, blah blah blah. I have not found anything wrong with mine, nor was I able to actually wear the transmission out in any reasonable time. I have to guess that the problem was transmission clearances, particularly in the pump. But that's just a guess.

So do an experiment. Drive real easy and see if it's really just a problem with fluid sloshing around. If it is, I predict you will find no easy fix, but you can increase the fluid level a little and see if that helps. You might also change your driving and fix it for free.