Overdrive and Cruise Control issues...

[Protege Patrick]

My car is a 2000 Protege 1.6l Automatic with about 135k miles on it. I drove from Phoenix to Disneyland last weekend and noticed an issue with my cruise control after a couple hours of driving. I had the cruise control set to about 80mph, and noticed that while my car was going uphill, or if I tried accelerating via cruise control settings, the cruise control would not automatically downshift like it's supposed to do. In fact, instead of it downshifting automatically while going uphill, it would just shut my cruise control off. And when I push the OD button to downshift, the "OD OFF" light illuminates on the dash panel like normal but the car would not downshift. The only way I could get the car to downshift is to push the pedal down myself. I stopped for food & gas, and let the car sit for a while and once I got back on the road, the problem seemed to disappear....for about an hour and then the problem came back.

My car is completely stock, and I don't believe it has any other problems except for an exhaust leak where the catalytic converter meets the exhaust pipe but I know that couldn't be the problem. Does anyone have any idea what this problem could be? Is it a transmission problem? Thanks to anyone who offers me any advice.

 

[BoPro5]

mos def a transmission problem. I've had problems similar to that on a different vehicle its the ... transmission. sorry for the bad news. i don't remember exactly what the problem was but I've heard that changing the transmission fluid will usually make the problem more apparent (easier to find).

 

[Protege Patrick]

I don't think I like your answer. LOL. Just kidding. Thank you for the info.

 

[Protege Patrick]

Let me also say, that since I got back from California (2 weeks ago) I haven't had any problems. The car runs great and it shifts smooth. I'll try flushing the transmission fluid and see if that makes any difference.