Hey everyone, first post, and of course it'* a problem.

I recently moved on from my 3.1 1996 Century as it finally rotted away, and moved up to a 2000 LeSabre with 134k. It'* got some rust setting in but most of the body is straight, and I'm only the third owner - it was bought new and passed down from father to son before it came to me.

The question I have regards putting the transmission in gear. It'* VERY stiff to move the gear lever. I DID pop the end of the cable off of the transmission and it moves freely and easily, so it'* going to be an issue with the transmission linkage. I can turn the the linkage by hand, although I wouldn't say it'* super easy. Stick the cable back on and the the shift lever still requires a heck of a lot of effort to move.

I'm pretty sure there was some TSB on this for 2000, but finding details or anyone else with this kind of problem has proven difficult. I also think the TSB was related to the lever mechanism in the steering column and the cable itself.

Has anyone run into this before or have any ideas? The car runs and drives smoothly and effortlessly once it'* in gear, and although I'm not exactly short of upper body strength, this is obviously not how it'* supposed to operate.

-Kelly

No worries. If we didn't want to hear about car problems, we'd be over there at carsthatneverhaveproblems.com enjoying the excitement of seeing different members post how well their car is working, and banning members that have car problems.

So while disconnected from the lever on the transaxle it moves completely freely with the lever?

Before reading your post all the way through, I assumed it is a bad cable. I'm still not convinced otherwise. Sometimes with no load on them they work fine, but with a load they bind up. Try doing your disconnect test again, but this time have someone pulling (and later pushing) on it and see if that creates a bind.

Putting a lot of strength to it will just make it go bad faster than otherwise anyways, and the steering column lever mech will never be right again.

I think I'm correct in saying that the 2000 model year transmission uses an IMS instead of an external NSS. I've blasted the shaft of the linkage with some light oil but I doubt it'll seep in and help any.

The question becomes, can the IMS cause this problem (broken internally, shaft rusted to oil seal, etc) or does it work on something within the transmission that requires push/pull movement.

I honestly enjoy keeping older cars going. It'* more budget friendly for me that uses a car like this for running around town, winter commuting, etc. But when I start to see the potential for repair bill $$$ that out-values the entire car...I get a little concerned.



Correct - like, one-finger operation. Obviously there'* no load.



I was all set to order a new cable and when it moved like butter after being disconnected I kinda felt my heart sink. The only thing I can see wrong is that the xmas tree clip that holds the cable in place at the top of the routing is broken off. I'm going to just zip tie it down to rule it out, but I wouldn't think a tiny plastic retainer would make much difference. It looks as if it'* been broken off quite a while.



No doubt. I already had the special edition vice-grip model hood release on the Century - not looking for that solution for a gear selector in what is actually a very clean car.

Update: Pretty confident it isn't the cable.

Had to move the car today, gear selection felt even more stiff. Now it won't shift into park, even at the top of the shift lever'* travel. The PRNDL does not indicate park and the pawl does not engage, the car will roll. I cannot rotate the linkage further towards park (towards rear of car) by hand. I was able to rotate it forward into reverse, but it took some effort (not extreme, still by hand).

Looking like I bought a lemon or a ticking time bomb. Just my luck. Wish I knew somebody familiar with these transmissions near Chicago.

This is pretty unusual to me. I've never heard of this on this line of transaxles. Barring someone else here with the answer, it'* probably worth having a decent transmission shop look at it.

I dumped the car at a shop I trust on Saturday. I imagine it'll be a while before I hear anything back. They aren't a specialty trans shop but I'll start with them. Used FQ3 RPO transmissions in my area are ~400 plus the R&R. The car is not worth a reman unit. If it had no rust at all, maybe.

Shame, I've had it less than a month and it really does drive nicely.

Sounds like the manual valve is having a problem. Do you do a lot of manual shifting with it?

None. I've put less than 200 miles on the car since purchase. Even if I wanted to run 1-2-3 manually you would need to put an UNGODLY amount of force on the gear lever that you'll probably steer right off the road while you're trying.

The cable pulls and pushes the manual valve. If the bore gets out of round they can bind.