transmission wont go into gear

[eskupperschmid]

i have a 98 grand prix gtp i was driving it the other day, and it just started reving up like it was in neutral i tried all the other gears, and still the same thing. i started it up today and it goes into each gear now for the first 2 min its running, then goes back into the neutral stage. any ideas on what it could be

[eskupperschmid]

the transmission never slipped, and I do not get any codes, it was acting like it was stuttering when the gas peddal was pressed on the interstate before it went out. I drove it on the interstate for 45 min then parked it at a freinds house, a couple hours later headed home, and only made it about a block before it went out.

[1bad3800]

i am having the same proublem and every where i turn its a broken band in the trans that mean a complete rebuild but have you checked teh fluied and also try unpluging the plug on the bel houseing and see if it moves that should comend it 2 3rd gear and it should move but reve up alot ...

[BillBoost37]

Your issue is not a broken band.

A broken forward band will make it so that when the shifter is in D or 3 you will have no forward movement. Yet reverse and if you pull to 2 or 1 you'll have movement. Forward movement won't be normal, but it'll move.

Losing all gears after a moment or minute is typically a clogged filter. Our transmissions run on hydraulics, without fluid to the various areas, they simply can't do anything. Hence the loss of all gears and when you turn it off..the material falls from the filter and then you can get moving again.

Something like this could clog a filter

[eskupperschmid]

Yeah I tried all the gears ano no movement what so ever, after about a min of it running so I will try and change the fluid and filter first thanks.

[BillBoost37]

Bring a camera... Not that I'm saying you're gonna find anything..

[eskupperschmid]

I'm going to do the fluid tomorrow, but I talked to a transmission shop today and they said it sounds like the pump went out, not sure if that is a possibility or not, and he also said the clogged filter would of been a possibility in the past with the filters they used back then, but they don't use them anymore so it can't be it. But I'm going to try the filter and fluid change first since it's the easiest and cheapest first.

[FordMan77]

Ok, so what kind of filter do we use now exactly??? I've been working on cars for quite a while and have yet to see a trans. filter that looked/filtered any differently than "back then".

I see/hear of clogged filters all the time, even on modern cars. This isn't a PowerGlide or TorqueFlite but the principal remains the same. A clogged filter WILL starve the trans of fluid, thus causing excess heat, slippage, and possibly no movement at all. I just worked on a buddies 96 T-bird and he complained that he would often loose reverse and that shifting was sluggish at best.

Drained the converter and pan, installed new filter and refilled. Guess what- he now has reverse all the time and it is shifting like new.

[BillBoost37]

I've never seen a change in filter design either. If you told him that it will work for a minute or two then stop and he said pump is bad, try a different trans guy.

He should know that it would have fluid to start and then for some reason lose fluid. That means the pump is working. Being shaft driven by the engine, it's going to either work or not. Maybe it gets worn and has issues..but that's not going to be a two minute and stop then after a restart begin working again.

I'm almost 100% sure, there's something in your pan and it's getting picked up and clogging the filter, when you turn it off..it falls into the pan again and then on restart you repeat the process.

[eskupperschmid]

Well here's an update drained the transmission fluid, it was black but no chunks or anything in the pan, not sure if it was in the filter or not, but it is working just fine now after just a new filter and trans fluid. I agree about the pump, that's y I always do whatever I can to fix it myself, most of them are out there to rip people off. And thanks again for the advice

[BillBoost37]

Had to be in the filter. Might have been full. I'd probably suggest another service (like you just did) in another 5-10K miles. That will help freshen up the fluid a little more and return some of the detergents etc into it. Also clean the filter of whatever remains in the trans/fluid.

[eskupperschmid]

I get 4 codes now from my engine p0171, 102, 742, and 741 could these be from the sylanoid? I'm going to try changing my sparkplugs again first because I got the 1st 2 on my explorer and that fixed them

[FordMan77]

I would try a search of the s/c forum here and see what turns up for those codes. Trans. section really isn't a good place to ask about engine related codes. Would get better attention there

BTW, the p0171 sounds like it could be a vacuum leak. Check all your vac. connections.

[eskupperschmid]

P171 is saying the fuel injectors are running lean, and the next one is for the map sensor, and the last two are for the torque converter, so I figured the torque converter is causing the all the codes, and it just needs to work out all junk that is in it and drain the fluid again, then all should be fine.