Last week my Transmission started to slip a bit during 1st to 2nd gear shift. The problem seemed to go away after turning the engine off for a minute and turning it back on. I thought It was a bad solenoid or modulator problem. I had checked the fluid level and it was right on. After a few days, the tranny would go into a "neutral mode" during acceleration, like when you press the clutch in a manual tranny and rev the engine up. I thought for sure the tranny or torque converter was dying on me.

I decided to have the filter and fluid changed before I made up my mind to buy another auto tranny,..or do the 5 speed swap. I woke up early Friday to drive the car to the tranny shop BUT the car didn't want to move when I engaged it into gear, ..ANY GEAR!! The tranny, I thought, was completely gone. I had to have it towed to the shop. WHAT A WAY TO START THE DAY.

Well, it turns out that the car just needed to have the filter and fluid changed. The Filter was completeley clogged and there was a lot of sludge on the bottom of the pan. The car is now running great. The car/tranny/chassis has 130K on it and I'm guessing the tranny filter/fluid had never been changed by the previous owners.

SO,...for all you fellow Auto FD owners, have your filter/fluid changed before you give-up on your transmission slippage problem and decide to replace it with another one. It might save you a lot of money and headaches.

 

I believe the general rule of thumb was to change filter and fluid every 30k at most, im sure someone correct me but I read that somewhere. Wow 130k without changing, im suprised it lasted that long.

 

all fluids are changed every 30k

 

I've only driven the car 5300 miles since buying it last May 03. I didn't realize the previous owners were so careless.