Hi Everyone. I seem to be having an issue in my 2006 Escalade ESV when I go into overdrive and give the vehicle just slight gas to accelerate but not enough to kick down into 3rd gear there is a stutter that occurs. If the tranny gets enough gas to kick down to 3rd gear then there is no stutter in 3rd gear or any other gear for that matter. It only seems to occur in overdrive and while giving it gas to get up slight incline and not downshift. Any pointers what I should be looking for? I dont seem to have issues at any other time and I think only at lower speeds in overdrive as I have not noticed a problem on the freeway at 65 plus MPH. Seems when the truck goes into just slight load while in overdrive is the only time I see this happening. Also when this shudder is in process and I touch the breake ever so slightly while maintaining speed and staying in overdrive the shudder stops. Thanks for any guidance as to what may be a starting point here.

I have understood from doing some research that this could be associated with the TCC solinoid. How can I diagnose this problem and is the TCC Solinoid located in an easily accessable area?

I have heard that these vehicles are very sensitive to their fluid level being correct. I have found that mine may be a tat low and plan to top it off today to see if that helps. I do have 117K on the vehicle but the trans is very smooth in all other gears.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

I think this may be normal. When you are in 4th and the torque converter is locked up, this is what'* called "direct drive". What you are experiencing is engine shutter due to extreme loads. If you gently let the gas go and gently get back on it, the torque converter should unlock and your RPM'* should increase a tad. Again, all normal.

Well I appreciate the info Mike. I have to say that this certainly does not seem normal to me. It certainly is a new thing that has not previously been happening in this vehicle. Granted it is suttle but the vehicle shuddering is not a normal thing. Any help would be appreciated.

How long since you have done a tuneup? If its something suttle, chances are it may have happened before, and was just never noticed.

It is suttle but it is not so suttle as to be considered normal. The wife noticed it when it first started happening about 2 weeks ago. She knows nothing about cars but is quite perceptive of changes. Anywho I have only had this vehicle fo the last 17k miles of its life and have not done any tune up at all as the dealer had done that before I bought it as I understood it at the time. I am going to probably change the transmission fluid though as that is something that I feel would not hurt and may help.

In rereading my original post I see that I described the problem as a stutter instead of what I meant to say it has a shudder. The stering wheel shakes. Its like it is going in and out of gear very fast and hard.

I am a huge proponent of GM'* updated trans fluid, DEXRON VI. It made a night and day difference on my trans. You might consider exchanging the fluid. I don't beleive in "fix in a bottle", but this fluid is very different than the older fluid generations.

https://www.gmforum.com/showthread.p...ghlight=dexron

Thanks for the reply Guns. I am thinking of doing the transmission fluid change thing as my next step. I should be running the Dextron VI Fluid already as it is what is called out on this model Escalade. I did find the fluid low just a slight amount and brought up the level to full hot and am going to test drive it today to see if I can recreat the shudder. If that did not help im going to change the fluid and see if that helps. I am thinking that this may be the TCC Solenoid but cant find any repair manual for this model that tells how to replace it. I have conflicting info on just where it is located in the transmission. Some say it is in the bottom and all you have to do is remove the pan and replace and others say it is not accessable from the pan. Anyone know? This is a 4L65E Transmission. I have been unable to find a transmission repair manual either for this transmission. Any help on this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Took another look at your post. Could you possibly be having a missfire and not a tranny problem? I recall when I was living in Alabama I had a tranny shudder while going up inclines at 60mph. Ended up being a bad spark plug wire. I probably had the misfire all along, but only showed up on inclines at higher speeds

I have not ruled that out. If that is happening it is only happening when the transmission is in OD. All other gears ar smooth and no shudder. The one thing that makes me think that it may be associated with the TCC solenoid is that when I can recreat the shudder condition and hold the throttle steady so that the shudder continues while I lightly tap the break the shudder stops immediatly. There is a switch that does something to the transmission on the break pedal. Im not sure what exactly but that does stop the shudder immediately. I know there is a switch that activates the break lights and also one to turn off the cruse control but there is also one associated with the transmission there. What I had read somewhere on another post that was about a similar problem was that if you could tap the break and the shudder stoped then that was an indication that the TCC solenoid was was not functioning properly to initiate lockup or the signal that activates the TCC solenoid is not being sent to the TCC solenoid. Without a manual I am hard put to check this functionality to find the fault. Thanks for your help.