96 XLT Automatic Transmission Problems

My 96 XLT has about 130k miles, everything was working perfectly. I took the car in for reg. maint. One of the items I had done was the transmission fluid / filter changed. Since then, when I first start the car to pull out of my driveway, I put the car in reverse and then back out. Once in the street I put the car in drive, but it acts like it is in neutral and just rolls (backward since I live on a hill). It feels like the transmission clutch is not engaging. After a few seconds it will engage and get going. It is such a long time, I know that this never happened prior to having the fluid changed this most recent time. I searched, but didnt really find anything like this. Does anybody know what could be wrong, or how to tell the mechanic what the problem is?

thanks

Reply to
kabo
Loading thread data ...

First thing is to check the fluid level in the trans.... level ground, engine warm is better, idling in park. Level should at least touch the bottom of the crosshatched area (or the "cold" mark if it has it). Do this before you drive anymore...... running low on fluid is not a cheap thing to do.

If that's not the problem, describe it to your mechanic just the same way as you did here.

HTH

Jim Warman snipped-for-privacy@telusplanet.net

Reply to
Jim Warman

Ditto on the fluid level check. I found being low on fluid (from a leak) caused the same symptom in my '94.

Mike

Reply to
Mike

Here is an update on what I have done/seen this week.

Ok, I checked the fluid with the car warm after idling. Then I drove about 20 miles to my office, ran through the gears and checked the fluid. I repeated this method when I got home in the evening. This was the method suggested in the manual. What I found is that the fluid level is about 1" above the top of the hatched area. I thought it should not be this high at all. I checked the receipt from my service 2wks ago and they put in 6qts of fluid and a new filter. I am not an expert in this area, but the manual says something about 3.5 quarts.

Now it is sometimes taking a little extra push of the accelerator to get it to move after I shift it into drive from reverse. One last item, I may not have noticed this before, but when I cycled through the gears, the transmission shifting seemed rather loud. It may have always done this, but I dont ever remember hearing it. Could overfilling be causing the problem with it going from reverse->drive?

thanks

Reply to
Kabo

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.