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Big problems, Need Help!!

1K views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  DIRTE30 
#1 ·
OK this whole problem started probably 6 months ago. I'll do my best to describe the problem and how it occured then, and now. At first on rare occasions I would be coming to a stop and just before i came to a complete stop I would hear and feel a bump that seemed to be comeing from the tranny and suddenly it was like the car was shifted into 3rd gear and refused to upshift or downshift. The instant this happened the little exclamation point warning light on the dash would come on. If i stopped and turned off the motor for a second then turned it back on it would be just fine until the next time it decided to do it, which could be that day, or 2 weeks later. This seemed to gradually stop happening until something worse started happening a few weeks ago. I was out in a blizzard fishtailing up a big hill and barely making it when suddenly i felt the tranny bump and it fell into the 3rd gear only problem. This was different from the original problem it 2 ways. First it happened while i was spinning the tires fishtailing up a big hill in the snow. I wasn't being rough, just struggling to get up the hill. Secondly I had some of my guages shut off at the exact instant the tranny bump/3rd gear thing started this time. I have so far permantly lost my mpg,tac, and temp guages. When i start the car now it starts normaly in first gear but as soon as it goes to shift up to second it does the bump and shifts straight up to 3rd gear(i think). Im assuming 3rd because i get a big difference in how much i have to push the pedal to get the car to go, nothing like it would be in 2nd. Once i get up to speed it doesnt seem to be shifting into overdrive either. Im praying this is a electronic problem and something half way easy to fix. The tranny itself seems to work just fine it just isnt shifting right. I'm really confused as to why the guages quit when it did it the first time going up the hill. The car runs just fine in this condition other than the guages (which havent worked since the hill incident) and the tranny problem. Anyone ever have this happen to them?
 
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#2 ·
I had a friend that had her 525 (same engine and tranny as your car) kind of doing the same thing. Her car would basically not want to shift and her exclamation point light would come on. Is it the light with an exclamation point circled in what looks like a gear or is it the one with a sort of arrow circling it? If it is the one with the arrow, i believe her problem was the traction control sensors were going bad. In this case I would clean out the sensors and hope that fixes the problem before i replaced it.

Let us know which light (or even take a picture if possible) to help us answer your question better.
 
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