i just recently purchased a 96 se and i have noticed the the tranny is shifting pretty hard from first to second but it'* only the 1-2 shift the other shifts are silky smooth.

My second issue is that there is a chirping sound coming from the front that goes away after i drive 5 or so miles. The guy i bought the car from said he just recently had the rotors and pads replaced and the rears had about 60-70% left.

Update on break problem: I went for a short drive to the store today and while i was driving the "break warning" light came on in the system monitor and a "chime" for about 30 secs. It did this again on my way home. Any thoughts?

for the hard shifts, flush the transmission according to the techinfo article. i had the EXACT same shifting problem, and after i flushed it and changed the filter, it shifts a LOT smoother now
here'* the article http://www.bonnevilleclub.com/forum/...de=article&k=9

not sure on the state of your squealing/chirping, but my first guess would be the serpentine belt may be out of its day, or doesn't have enough tension. but i could very well be wrong, lots of things make noises

From my experience, the 'chirping' sound has been the build up of very, very small amount of road dirt, which as been caught between the belt and pulley(*), being imbedded onto the pulley itself.

It'* the sound made when the embedded pulley/dirt,and the belt.. In the cases I've seen, I've used a putty knife on the pulley, to remove the 'smudge'.

As to the tensioner failing, I've found that the initial evidence will be, upon acceleration from a standstill, the weakness of the tensioner, results in the belt slipping -- that is not a 'chirping' sound, but a 'squealing sound', as you all, probably already know.