Transmission Shifts at only when I let go of the throttle. Please help.

[atriuum]

Hi fellas,

I have a 1.6L Protege 1999. It is at 190k at this point, but I need it a while longer.

The tranny rpm go to about 4500-5000, and won't change gears until I let go of the throttle. I would really appreciate help determining what is causing this, and what is my next step.



I appreciate any thoughts on this.

 

[atriuum]

I've determined that the transmission is in "fail-safe" mode and is not shifting into 4th gear as a result.

I am trying to troubleshoot the cause of the fail-safe mode. If any of you can toss a suggestion as to what commonly causes this problem on the protege, it would be appreciated.

 

[Brains]

I can't really help, but i can tell you that i have a 2001 protege with the 2.0 and occasionally from 1st-2nd it slips out of gear and goes to the next gear after it's revved up past 3000 (or maybe 4000 if you really step on the gas) and sometimes it's accompanied by the tires spinning a little. My car doesn't always do that though, and if you let off the gas it goes into 2nd no problem. It usually likes to slip/hesitate to shift when you're going up a hill.
We changed the transmission fluid and it seemed better for a while, but it's pretty much back to "normal" now. I just attribute it to the car getting old (154,000 on it) and the previous owner taking very little care of it.

 

[talltim]

Just baby it until you can afford to have it looked into. Have you changed the fluid and the filter yet?