Thread: possible failure yet again??

Had a scare over the weekend/Saturday. Was on the way to my cousin’s wedding about 90 minutes away and I wanted to drive my car there since my folks were going in their car at a different travel time. On the way up, there were open stretch of freeway so I went and did a few spritied drives, but no higher than applying ~60%. If u want to call it ‘babying’ I don’t know, as I have not went anything above 90% throttle yet. Anyways I was coming up to traffic and I had to slow down since the 2 lanes was about to merge into 1. As I coasted to almost to a dead stop traffic picked up pace and I applied throttle but didn’t go anywhere until it hit ~2,000RPMs then it lurched forward, not hard or anything and off it went. My heart was beating so fast for the next few miles hoping I had gears when it shifted.

The rest of the way to the church I drove normal even when the road entered the highway I was only cruising normally and the shifts appeared to went back to normal. When I got to the church I poped the hood and checked the dipstick and there were no burnt smell or faded discolor as well as fluid level, which was a bit higher over the hash-marks(would this cause shift issues?).

After the day was done and I was on the way home, I wanted to see if the car shifted alright on the highway so I began driving ‘spirited’ again. I felt and heard nothing all the way home even in the back-roads where there were stop lights it shifted fine and without issues. Is this a foreshadow of bad things to come?

ok now im getting concerned. the problem happened twice today. slowed down to a comeplete stop, the when i apply throttle the RPMs rise from idle to 1000RPMs and the car doesnt budge, then with the throttle still applied the car tranny will grab and jerk the car forward as if i did a nuetral drop? i syphoned fluid out since it appeared it was overfilled above the hash-marks causing too much fluid circulating. now im thinking its not and am more worried now :-(
could it be a possible selenoid or something else such as a bad misaligned shift lever? need some input please!!!

My first thoughts would either be something with the TPS or a solenoid in the tranny, specifically the PCS.

Gee if my 4T65E info page was stickied in this section to the top a long time ago... hint hint lol..... you would find your problem at the top of the common problem list. Here is the link

4T65E Transmission Info

Did you recreate that page in the forum Dave? If so, let me know and what the link is to the thread and I'll personally sticky it.

haha my fault i had an inkling to check out your page dave ^_^; i even have your page bookmarked. brb ^_^;

will looks like i'd need to drop the pan and inspec the 'new' filter that was installed and see if there's debris in there clogging the fluid from pumping >.<

Originally Posted by SyntheticShield

Did you recreate that page in the forum Dave? If so, let me know and what the link is to the thread and I'll personally sticky it.

I think he means just make a stickied post with a link to his page.

the more i drive it, is it more prone to fail on me? >.<

Since you have a new filter then I wouldnt blame the filter being clogged, that was meant for cars that havent been serviced recently or at all. You could have just had a intermittent hiccup and it may be nothing. It could have been a sticky valve in the valve body, its hard to say. Was this the only time it did this or has it done this before? The problem on my website is more directed for cars coming to a stop and wont take off or when you start the car up and move the shifter out of park and the car wont move, not so much when the car is going down the road when it happens. If it has never done it before and hasnt done it again I wouldnt worry about it too much until it keeps acting up.

this is like the 4th time it has happened with the other day happening twice in one day. i drove it today around and it did not happen....odd

copied this from the other forum. is this plausible?

There is a service bulletin for the 3800 if your Mass Air Flow is going bad the transmission will slip, if you havn't check and make sure that is reading properly. If you drive to much on a transmission that doesnt know its under a load it will burn up the bands and the transmission will have to be rebuilt since the belts wont grab anymore. This was also a major problem in the bonnevilles.

Edit: Mass air flow failure can be caused by: Air temperatures exceeding 97*F (Open Cone Intake), Over oiled aftermarket air filters (Be careful to not overoil your K&N and always make sure a new one feels dry), and also any cleaner used to clean around the intake if it gets on the MAF it will fail.

Plausible, but I would like to add that TB cleaner that says its safe for MAFs is just that... Safe.

A dirty maf will certainly cause the trans to slip and I have witnessed that first hand, OR if you have made a recent change to your intake plumbing/air filter. A larger pipe/filter/throttle body means slower airflow across the sensor and if it reaches out of range far enough it will cause the trans to be low on pressure. It will also cause the car to run too lean at WOT and all normal driving which means your fuel trims will be reading positve quite a bit at the same given time. Regardless, if the maf sensor is dirty the problem will exist all the time, not just once in a while. This was also a problem when using an AFC when it came out. You could make adjustments soo far and then it would cause the trans to slip if making big changes to make the number read lower. Also if the maf table in the pcm was tuned far from stock it can cause low trans pressure. Your problem really doesnt connect with a dirty maf sensor but you could always check your fuel trims and then clean the sensor and see if anything changes.

will i cant recall if the trans not engaging at a stop/slow slow when i did this, but i recently took out my FWI and just put the 9" cone filter infront of the LQ4 MAF, basically making it a HAI. i did this to test the burst KR as well as see if it helps with the KR in PE mode since im using alky to somewhat kewl the combustion chamber. my fuel trims varies alot even with the 4" FWI. cruising and/or slowing down it'll spike to +16.4 but once the casr stops the LTFTs drop back to +/-5.0. i blame that on my small exhaust leak by the rear header(long story). i'll at least try to clean the MAFF see if that helps it or not. im soooo tempted to take the car to the track to see what it runs with my curernt setup with the vs cam, but im honestly scared ****less of the trans. i've only taken the car up to no more than 70% throttle and only do 4-3 downshift and again its usually no more than 70%. the only time i gotten on it was against the cobalt ss race.

I cant believe I forgot to mention how I have my trans setup in the PCM. Is it a problem if the TCC unlock 4th gear from 0% to 31% be set at 28mph? my 4th gear lock is stock settings. everything else is set at how DHP has had their PCM trans settings calibrated.

ok aside from the fact that every now and then at random times, usually after i would drive the car somewhat hard, ie-4-3 downshift on the freeway, at a stop the trans appears to not engage into 1st gear as well as 2nd gear would not shift into 3rd at the usual mph and tps percentage. i also felt that if travling at a steady pace of ~41mph it feels like the trans is looking to lock or unlock the torque converter? it feels gitterly and the RPMs slightly moves up and down at 41mph. what could it be or if its something i should adjust in the pcm via powrtuner?

any thoughts? ^_^;