My 98 LX automatic hesitates when starting to move from a not complete stop.
I compare it to shifting the car into Neutral, stepping on the gas and then
shifting into drive.This happens when approaching an intersection if I don't do a
complete stop. it has become very annoying. the car only has 66,000 miles. Just did a
trans fluid change 5,000 miles ago. your help would be greatly appreciated.
Vic

 

Does the transmission jerk the car at all when it feels like it is shifting into drive? Any rpm fluctuations? i.e. when it hesitates do the rpm's climb then does the tranny catch and jerk the car forward?

 

Sounds like it doesn't downshift into first, probablybecause you didn't give enough time for it to do that. If you roll into the gas more slowly, you might feel it pull in 2nd gear for a moment before it shifts down to 1st.

If it's truly going into neutral, that would not be normal.

 

Yes, your description of the problem sounds better than mine. Whenthe tranny catches, it jerks the car forward.
I have not paid attention to the rpms but I'm quite sure that the rpms go up prior to the trans engaging again. I try to be as smooth as possible evento the point of completely stopping to avoid the forward jerk. Perhaps the other post was also right. It might not be shifting down to 1st but I don't
think it's truly going into neutral.

 

The reason I asked is I had a similar experience in my '90 Mustang. But mine happened mostly when I would be going from Park to drive or from reverse to drive. Sometimes I would try to give it gas and 1st gear would not catch. It would rev up the rpms then jerk into 1st. Other times it would be when I was at a stoplight. But I always had to come to a complete stop. I noticed my tranny fluid was low and I added some as well as some "stop leak" cause I could tell it had been leaking some (the car had 170k miles on the same trannyand I'm sure those gaskets don't hold up forever.) After I added the fluid the problem seemed to be gone.
I noticed that you said you did a trans fluid change about 5k ago. Have you checked the trans fluid level recently? Ialways try to look for the simplest things first, but Ireally don't know anything about transmissions.That is just what I would do to begin with.

 

Oil level is fine and there are no leaks.

 

When it stays in 2nd & then doesn't shift into 1st until you press the gas... That's a fairly subtle jerk that you can feel. It doesn't last long enough to allow the revs to really climb much.

In order to get better fuel economy, trannys are programmed to use the highest gear that's useable & only downshift when they need. The control strategy can be pretty sophisticated, but there's always gonna be certain specific situations where the driver can outsmart the tranny & it gets confused.

It might be tough for US to tell the difference without driving your car firsthand. Thebig thing is to figure out whether it's actually going into neutral, because that would not be normal.

 

Next rimeI drive it, I will see how high the rpms get before it jerks.

 

does it exhibit any other issues when driving normally or going up a hill? or is it just the downshift problem?

 

Just the downshift. TonightI paid attention to the RPM's as well and as Islow down to about 600 RPM's and then step on the gas, it will go up to about 2100 RPM's before it jerksforward and gets going.The upshifts are all good, no other problems.