Cavalier won't move

While driving up a highway ramp I lost all power in my 1996 Chevy Cavalier (2.2; 99,000 miles). The car is an automatic.

When you hit the accelerator inn D, 1, 2, or R, the car will rev but won't move. No respons what-so-ever. And when you go from D to 1, or D to R, the car doesn't budge like it usually did. Usually you could feel the car lunge just a little bit. Not anymore.

Transmission fluid level is fine.

Does sound a little weird under the hood. Kind of like their is a helicopter flying under the engine. Don't want to be too dramatic and blow it out of proportion but the chop-chop-chop is loud enough that it can definately be heard over the normal engine noise.

Is this a classic sign of something?

I can pretty much figure out it has something to do with my transmission? Is this what they're talking about when they refer to the torque convertor (though on the internet, it sounded like a bad torque convertor was related to the car stalling/surging)? Sounds pretty messed up. Anyway, if telltale, is this an expensive venture?

Any insight appreciated.

Thank you.

Reply to
denaman
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Most any time you have to go in to an automatic transmission it is an expensive trip. Could be something easy and simple..maybe a CV joint let loose. Get it to a good independent trans shop and have it checked out.

Steve B.

Reply to
Steve B.

The engine is not coupled to the wheels. The transmission may or may not be coupled to the wheels.

Can you move the car by hand with the car in park?

If you're lucky, you lost a C-V joint and the wheel is no longer connected to the transaxle. If you're unlucky, something is wrong inside the transaxle and you will need a rebuild.

--scott

Reply to
Scott Dorsey

Thanks guys. I'll hope it's a C-V joint, knowing that's it probably a transmission/new car.

Reply to
denaman

Scott, you mentioned moving the car by hand in park. I can not do this. The thing wont budge. But, interestingly, if I throw the car in reverse and push forward, the car does in fact roll forward.

Reply to
denaman

You do not have a bad C-V joint, then. If you had a bad C-V joint, the transmission would be decoupled from the wheels and it would not matter what gear it was in.

However, you MIGHT have a transmission linkage gone bad, so that the transmission is in a different gear than the prindle indicates it's in.

--scott

Reply to
Scott Dorsey

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