A/T Slipping

[EDM95]

So the car is a automatic and when I put the car in drive and go down the road it don't want to shift into the next gear and the rpms just climb up but sometimes i'll shut the car off and go and it will be fine for maybe a few mins and then do the same thing. So do I have a bad torque converter or could bad valves cause this too? On a side note I had the trans rebuilt by a shop a few years back and I maybe drove the car 1 year on and off with the rebuilt trans.I just want to be sure before I do buy parts I don't need you know.

 

[EDM95]

Would a dirty filter cause this too?

 

[jimmythesaint]

Sounds like your transmission is slipping when the fluid gets hot. This could be several things. Pumps fail in the transmission, fluid is old, etc.

And yes you have valves in automatic transmissions. In fact, there is a valve body which is the control center of automatic transmissions. It contains a maze of channels that direct fluid to the valves which activate the clutch packs to smoothly shift to the appropriate gear. If your valve body is clogged it could cause shifts to be sluggish or intermittent.

Try a flush of the fluid and replace the filter. If that doesn't solve the problem then take it to a reputable repair shop. Automatic transmissions are much more complicated than manuals and without having the car in hand its almost impossible to diagnose the problem.

 

[rbwtrans]

Is your "check engine" light on? The most common failure for these is the speed sensor. The input fails most often, but the output fails too. If the output fails then the speedo stops working. Either failure will put you into "limp in" which locks the trans into 2nd gear until the key is cycled. Speed sensor failures are often misdiagnosed because they usually will post a bunch of gear ratio codes before a speed sensor code. Is the trans making a whining noise? If so, then the filter is stopping up.