I bought my 2000 Saturn SL1 about a year ago from the used car division of a new car dealer (not a Saturn dealer). For the past 4 or
5 months it has been making noises, which I'm sure are coming from the transmission. I'll try to be as detailed as possible here, as I hope someone can help. The local Saturn dealer sure didn't help; they just told me it was nothing.The registration record showed (if I remember correctly) this vehicle as having one owner before the dealer and myself, with no other potentially detrimental entries in the record. Also, note that I changed the transmission fluid and filter about 2 months ago (home job, not a transmission flush). One thing I thought odd while changing the fluid and filter was that the vehicle's manual (the crappy one they give you when you buy the car) mentions a magnet to be cleaned when the fluid is changed. I saw no such magnet, nor anything that might have been removed to reveal a magnet. Perhaps my model's magnet is inside somewhere, if it has one at all.
Remember, this is an automatic transmission. The first set of noises I'll describe occur when shifting into 2nd gear from 1st, and when shifting from 2nd into 3rd. Each noise is reliably accompanied by a slight lurch forward. Note though that I do not always hear these noises in the above conditions, though they may vary in loudness enough to be heard at some times and not heard at others.
Shifting into 2nd from 1st, many times I hear a sound like an almost dry meshing of gears. It also sounds as if these gears turn slightly slower as the noise is being made. The sound lasts one second or less. As mentioned above, this noise is accompanied by a slight lurch forward.
Shifting from 2nd into 3rd there is a different sound. My impression of this sound is that of a gear jerking away from another gear it was meshed with. There is a similar almost dry mesh sound to the 2nd from
1st noise, but much shorter. Right after that, or maybe at the same time, it sounds as if a piece of metal hits something else inside the transmission (think of a submerged metal rod tapping the inside of the case once). This too of course is accompanied by a slight lurch forward.More recently, a while after the above mentioned fluid change, another noise has begun. This noise too is not something I hear all the time when driving. I think it only happens after the transmission has gotten above a certain temperature. When I've been driving and I come to a stop, for instance at a stop light, as long as the transmission is in gear (only in a forward gear, not reverse) and I either have my foot on the brakes or if the parking brake is applied, I hear a tapping sound coming from the direction of the transmission. This sound is always a constant frequency (number of taps per minute). The sound tapers off in loudness after I begin to accelerate and quickly fades to nothing. I fear this noise is becoming louder, but I'm not sure if it is.
I hope so much that one of you reading this will be able to help me. I don't know anyone who can say for sure what might be wrong, and I'm afraid to take it to a mechanic until I have a leg to stand on with this (tired of getting pushed around at the shop when I don't know what else to say but "ok fix it"). Anyway, thanks for reading this. Even if you don't know what might be wrong, if anything, maybe you know someone who would. I would be grateful if I could get an answer in any way.