Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) Very Sluggish

[BLee]

My truck has 26M absolutely trouble free miles on it. Last weekend I towed the fiver home from the RV dealership after its annual checkup/winterizing. Other than being wet from a light rain, the 30 mile trip home was completely normal, and I drove the truck about 30 more miles unloaded. It shifted perfectly. Incidentally, I always tow in direct drive. Monday morning the truck started normally and backed out of the garage normally. I put it in Drive and noticed that it seemed very suggish; it just pulled itself off slowly. At first, I thought the turbo wasn't turning, but then I realized that I wasn't getting any transmission shifts. The transmission acted like it was in a limp mode. It did not shift up or down. The T/C would give me enough torque to get moving, and it would run up to 65mph at 2500 rpm, all without shifting. It was hung in third (diredt) gear. The T/C was not locking. I could shift it manually with the shifter, and it would accellerate normally. Whatever controls the transmission to start in low and shift upward just wasn't working. I had no lights showing on the dash - no check engine ligh or anything. I thought I had better get over to the dealership, but I had one stop to make. After I stopped and restarted the engine, the transmission was back to normal. It was kind of like some computer needed rebooting by turning the engine off, then restarting it. I drove it again a few minutes ago, and it is still completely normal. It shifts perfectly, and I don't know how to deplicate the comdition. The warranty runs out on that transmission in about 4 months, and I would sure like to know what happened. Has anyone else had this happen to them?

 

[LSMITH]

Sorry I cannot help much with your problem, but if it were me I would take it in and see if any codes were stored. Hopefully some codes were stored and/or they have seen this before.

 

[athompson]

I had the very same thing happen to me with my 92 Bonneville. I couldn't even get it up the driveway. I disconnected the battery, had dinner, then reconnected the battery. It ran just fine, burned rubber, shifted, etc. The next morning it was back to being in drive only. It cost me almost $1000 to get it shifting right. I had to replace more sensors than I thought the thing had. I got rid of it shortly after that.



I would definetly get it to the dealer before the warranty runs out. It will only get worse.

 

[pwr2tow]

Blee,

My truck was just repaired for the same thing your truck is doing.



It was the transducer in the valve body, an electrical component.



I see by your signature that you have ATS upgrades. I would give them a call and pass along the information and see what they say.



I don't know if you were referring to your warranty by DC or ATS but if you were referring to your DC warranty then you no longer have a warranty any how due to your transmission upgrades. DC will void warranty for just about anything and a transmission upgrade is considered a major component.



Hope this helps,

Ron

 

[pwr2tow]

One more thing, there will be codes in the PCM and possibly the ECM even though the check engine light never came on. Mine had four codes set in it and the check engine light never came on once. Have someone hook up a scan tool to retreive the codes.



Ron

 

[BLee]

Thanks, Ron. Who fixed yours? About how much did you have to spend on it?

Bill

 

[pwr2tow]

The part was three dollars. Parts and labor was covered under BD's warranty . It is about an hours worth of labor for changeing the transducer and dropping the pan and oil.



Diagnoseing was another story. They figured it was the transducer from the start but wanted to go through the elimination process just to be sure. After all is said and done it was a couple of days. It took that long because like yours once it was started for the day everything worked fine so it had to sit over night in the cold so they could get it to replicate the problem.



That reminds me, it done this a couple of times last spring and then went away for the summer but when cold weather appeared again this fall it started doing it again so I would say the cold is what affected mine. The cold didn't cause the problem just enhanced the problem.



Ron

 

[BLee]

Thanks. I talked with Clint at ATS about it. We're in a wait and see mode right now. If it reoccurs, ATS knows about it and will handle it, I'm sure.

Bill

 

[pwr2tow]

The best thing to do is to e-mail them and have them send you a reply of what you just stated, that way you have a record that something was wrong before the warranty runs out. They should take care of it even if there is no warranty because it was reported before warranty ran out and you have proof.



It not that I don't trust them or any other company but you can never be to cautious now a days.



Better to be safe than sorry.



Ron