Any NW Chicago Sururb people? Need advice...

[picghaw]

Hello,

Now this is an odd question given that this is mostly a DIY site but I was wondering if I could get a recommendation to get a potential transmission (well, I suspect) diagnosed in the NW Chicago suburbs area (Schaumburg/Hoffman Estates/Elgin/Arlington Heights/Palatine etc). Honestly, I am willing to drive a bit since I am trying to figure out this "hard-shifting" issue for a while now. Since it happens sporadically when I've taken it into the mechanics, one of which was GM itself, there were not able to trigger the problem. I've actually paid a diagnostic fees twice and no headway . I know everyone here is a DIYer, but I figured that maybe some of you work at an auto shop? used to work at a shop?.

Also is there place to take some classes to speed up my learning process like at Harper College, College of DuPage, some local automotive school in the area?
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Main Issue : My car has been having issues with what I believe is hard-shifting for some years now even though I have been good about getting transmission flushes. I bought the car new and as far back as 2004, I remember this happening on just 1-2 gear and at the time I determined that it seems to occur when I let my gas run until its basically on E or the gas-light comes on, so I stopped doing that. I also did a fuel injector cleaning service with Jiffy as that was recommended to me when I told them about it. It specifically got worse and very frequent and on all 4 gears last summer after bought Chevron Techron Fuel System Cleaner and poured in my gas tank. This was my attempt to see if DIY "fuel injector cleaning " would help, but it got worse. If I'm in stop-and-go traffic, it automatically kicks/jerks on ever gear. It only happens on acceleration. I actually had an episode where my brother was driving and he just slammed on the gas pedal and my car started stuttering/shaking a bit, but stopped as it got moving. I've experienced the same thing once before when I was going up an steep slope.

Last year, A mechanic did notice that I had a P1811 code and he said that it was due to a faulty PC Solenoid, but I've been going to have my code read every 2 months or so for a year now and that code has not re-appeared. Is that possible? Wouldn't it have showed up or gotten worse in the last year?

At this point, I just want to figure out what this means .... is it fixable or is it a sign that the transmission is going. I decided not to invest in the car and just ride it until it dies, but 1 year later and its still alive and kicking. I truly didn't think it would last past winter. I want to be able pin down this problem as
as I've put off other repairs (barely made it home today) since I thought the transmission ergo the car was dying.
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Sorry, this got a bit long.

Thanks in advance.

[FuglyGTP]

I had two transmissions replaced this year. First was by gator trans in wheeling and I would not recommend them. Good customer service, but i had lots of problems afterwards (they still haven't gotten it 100% right).

The second was in my 97 GTP. I took it to advanced trans in arlington heights. They did an excellent job with the trans but they had my car for over a month! So they do a good job but suck with customer service.

I'm curious as to how good of a job Trans-Fixed does. The guys who run the shop are both cool as hell. The shop cars that they drag race are pretty crazy. 60's camaro that does 10's and i believe a 90's trans am thats also built.

If you ever need your injectors cleaned and/or balanced, casper's electronics in mundelien does it dirt cheap.

Triton college offers an automotive program along with lincoln tech and a bunch of others.

[iroc2]

dont go to lincoln tech... bad experiences there. is short, you wont learn like anything at all. its not as good as it was back in the day. another one you could do is morraine valley, then theres the big schools like UTI and Wyo Tech.

[Koniig]

Come to Woody in Elgin, that's where I work. Ask for your car to be done by Dino, he's our transmission guy. Good guy who also is ****ing pro at transmissions.

[picghaw]

Konnig, that's where I took my car in March and no luck. I think the main issue is that the hard-shifting is sporadic so if they can't trigger it, then they can diagnose it.

Thanks to all for the info. I did find a mechanic that was able to trigger the issue but his advice was given the age of my car (10 years, $139K miles) that is best to just get a new transmission when this one eventually fails. I don't have the paper work with me right now but its wasn't the PC solenoid.....I remember him mentioning this issue was on the GM Technical Service Bulletin.