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2G 1999 Eclipse GST turbo auto trans issue

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AntmanAndLittleDi

Proven Member
161
15
Nov 12, 2014
Russell, Kansas
Last time I posted we were rebuilding the engine in our 99 eclipse. Put 1000 mild miles (no turbo spool-ups) on motor then started adding higher rpms (4500) and allowing turbo to spool. Even at that rpm was amazing difference on a fresh motor. However the tranny didn't agree. On the 4th pull to 4500rpm, it blew. Barely had enough power to get back home and called friends to push it into the driveway. We did a full master rebuild with Raybestus packs and threw in a shift kit for fun. Ever since then we have been plagued with no 3rd and reverse gears. The trans is a f4a33 and is currently out of the car for the third time. There has been a few nicked seals and a bad selinoid the second time it was pulled, but nothing and I mean nothing physically wrong with the tranny the third time. We have pulled codes but all that shows up is for the catalytic converter (cause it's not there anymore). Has anyone experienced this? If there was a problem in the tcm it would surely show up on a scan tool right? Any help is appreciated, trannys are not my favorite creatures to play with. Too many teeth.
 
had a similar problem still trying to figure it out but i blew a motor too so i have not done anything yet
 
had a similar problem still trying to figure it out but i blew a motor too so i have not done anything yet
I was amazed at how cheap we were able to rebuild our motor and head. I will say if you can, pull it all out of the car. We left the block inside and it was a royal pain.
 
i did its been apart for years the only thing in is the auto trans and im thinking of going manual to avoid the electronic issues.
 
Think we found the problem. Ended up having my dad unleash his OCD on the trans & he tore every tiny piece out of it, even opened the front pump up. Replaced a couple o-rings and resealed the pump, plus found out the place that sold us the pump had cleaned it & not replaced the check ball. After dad's maddening process of quadruple checking everything before reassembling the whole tranny again, we are finally going to stab it back in the car today. With luck, going on a cruise around town after supper
 
No such luck going for a ride. Help didn't show up til later so the ride may have to wait til tomorrow. Ant is still hard at it, got trans in and was positioning linkage when I was leaving. Took him the intercooler and trans fluid but he's still got a lot of bolts to turn before those are needed. Funny watching him work on the car with 4 others standing around watching, there's gotta be a joke out there somewhere for these occasions.
 
Got it all back together and it still isn't right. Still has a screaming noise that comes from inside the transmission, can really hear it when the dipstick is removed. The car is still up on stands so we can go through all the gears and watch the wheels. So far every gear is a forward gear except Park and neutral. Had to unstick the shift linkage after the first test, it locked into Park and zero power to the car. Restored power but still wouldn't drop passed reverse. Got that moving again and despite the non-stop chatter from the ecu, we fired up again. Same thing, no reverse. Setting it down now and seeing about what gears will pull it's own weight.
 
Gah! Stripped bolt on battery positive side clamp. Back to the bolt bucket for digging. One of these days I'd like to make a post that the car is working great. Not "Let me find one more bolt" nonsense.
 
And the chase begins, tomorrow anyway. Got the battery cables secured then pulled the shift linkage cable loose to double check the position. While the shifter inside the car was untouched, the trans was trying to shift itself. Thankfully the car wasn't running. Ecu stayed quiet but the selinoids in the trans were non-stop chatter. Got a scanner plugged in but only code is P1105 for the fuel pressure selinoid. So we pulled the console apart to look at pcm, there's about 6-8ft of leftover cable for the wideband sitting on top of it plus the ground for the cd player is hooked to pcm ground. Not sure if this would cause any problems, but we will move them anyway. Tomorrow is a new day to play with wiring. Any one have any warnings? Helpful tips? Words of encouragement?
 
Go find a good used transmission, auto transmissions are best left to transmission specialty guys, there are too many places for failure inside of there for a back yard tinkerer to be poking around blindly. The buzzing solenoids are normal in the transmission btw.
 
Nobody around here will touch it. You say Mitsubishi and get a look like you're from another planet. Even the dealership 3hrs away doesn't mess with autos. They buy factory rebuilds from Arkansas. Ours isn't stock, has heavier clutch packs. I have to work on it myself or ship it out of state and I don't have the money to pay a tech to do that.
 
I had the same issue, and after hours of searching I took the solenoids off with the board and found out there was a screw that made its way out that was holding a ground wire to the board, another issue was the board pinched off the blue cable not allowing the trans to shift. check all your wires on the solenoids
 
We are putting the good weather to use today and tracking down all the grounds from the battery then using a volt meter to test all connections. Just got the trans back together so am trying to not pull the pan again. Hoping we should be able to test the selinoids from the external plug. None of the manuals I have say exactly where the grounds need to be, if anyone could shed some light that would be great. We have them on the firewall, backside of the manifold, and on the starter.
 
Sorry to keep dragging this back up, just want to keep everything in one spot.

Really trying not to drop the pan again, so we decided to go ahead and check the voltage from the harness into the valve body. The battery reads 12.25 but while checking the plug to the valve body while shifting through the gears, we only see variations of 8 for whichever gear is selected, or 0 for park/neutral. Is this normal? Or should it be 12? My Haynes manual doesn't have anything on auto trans.
 
http://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/tranny-stuck-in-2nd.417817/

http://www.atdsm.com/pdf/95-96awd.gif

I posted a link with a dsm shifting problem, and a link with a wiring diagram.

as for the correct voltage I wouldn't know what to say, but most sensors work on a 12v out put. get a capacitor and bridge it between your solenoid pug and your trans harness. what the capacitor will do will save up voltage and put out a 12v out put if your trans shifts well you will know you might have a short in the harness somewhere. something you can try, but it will help to find out what will be the correct output voltage.
 
Thank you sooo much for that first link. That'll let us check the tcu without a laptop (since we don't have one). Will read more when I get home.
 
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So a digital multimeter won't work to read codes? I flipped the probes thinking I had the pos/negative reversed, but it read 0.00 the whole time, no flashing of anything on the display. Will find a Led light if I have to.
 
Walmart has cheap analog multi-meters that work great for this, pick up a set of alligator clips while you are there, it makes it a lot easier. Also I'm sure this is obvious but 2Gen (+) to #6 and (-) to #4.
 
you would need a analog volt meter, or just make one at home, get a turn signal bulb solder a cable to each prong and leave the ends of the wires frayed so that way you can insert it into the correct pin.
 
Couldn't get the analog meter to work either. Would show one pulse & that was it. Took several phone calls but I finally found a guy with a scanner to read the tcu. He couldn't access much of anything either. Could connect to the ecu manually, turn accessories on/off, but not the tcu or pcm. He would constantly get a message saying No DTC's present. Is this a software issue?
 
your tcu is bad, if it was in working order the computer would be able to connect. open it and check how the condensers look.
 
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