Thread: Engine revving but barely moving

That's your trans slipping and it's very bad. Try changing the fluid and filter and throwing in a bottle of lucas and hope for the best but save some money up for a trans.

Is there a whining happening at all?

The filter could be clogged or partially blocked, starving the transmission for fluid, and without fluid the transmission has no hydraulic pressure to engage the gears and such.

So as dsmuts said, check out the filter.

It's really just dropping about 20 bolts holding the pan (and about 7 qts of fluid) up, just release the bolts slowly so the fluid can slowly leak out into a pan, it can get a little messy. Then when the pan is off and all the fluid is out (it will continue to drip for hours but dont worry about that), wash out the pan and I wash off the gasket too (Reuse the stock gasket if you can, it's better than the one that comes with the filter, but if the stock one is damaged dont use it). Be sure to clean all the gunk off the magnet that you'll find in the pan... I use Dawn dish soap with my hands to clean it all off, and I did it in my bathtub, but beware there will be some stains for a week or 2, lol. Make sure it is 120% DRY before you start putting anything back, I leave mine out in the sun to get nice and hot to be sure it's dry.

Yank out the filter and pop the new one in, make sure it's seated in there well because the transmission uses that like a straw to suck up fluid. (I reused the stock o-ring since mine wasnt damaged, it can be a real pain getting the old one out).

Bolt it all back up and start dumping in the new fluid, after you get 6.5-7 qts in, start it up and drive around (gently), once it gets up to the proper operating temp, check the levels with the car on a level surface and add as needed.

It's only about 15 dollars for a trans filter and then maybe 50-60 for 8 qts of tranny fluid, it's routine maintenance and possibly an extremely cheap fix vs where it may be headed if left alone.

^^^ Agreed with all of that ^^^

But I do wish to add that if you are NOT comfortable doing this yourself and go to take it to a shop. Do NOT under ANY circumstances allow them to "FLUSH" the tranny. As this will cause it to fail completely. Lots of info as to why, ask or search if you want to know why. But more or less... Pan drop, replace filter, refill with dexron fluid (consult manual for dex3 or dex6... 05 is a oddball year, could go either way).