hey all. this is half to vent, half to ask some questions. my tranny has been slipping/chattering for about the entire time ive had the car. well since the first week when i had the tranny flushed. thats when it first started. (stop slip was gone) guys at the buick forums said the shifting solenoid likes to go bad on these cars, spent the $300 to have that done. half way home its chattering. took it to a shop, throwing code 1811. saved up all summer, and thought id have some cash for tires. i take it to a shop that says 995 plus tax, done im driving away. right from the start this morning i get well its going to be about 1125 with tax because we're putting synthetic fluid in. before he even got my signature. at this point i figure im here, its slightly more than the competition but its synthetic and he said one day not a week. after getting my sig he tells me about how im most likley going to need new exhaust flange seals. (which i did and they ended up being "specialty" and $40.) after he gets into it he calls me and says he flushed the torque converter 3 times and it still is flushing metal chunks. apparently, because gm is the only company that make the converter he had to buy it from them. ($300) then he calls again and says the splines on the pump look shrunk because it most likley got too hot. another $200. in the end, i ended up paying $1796.xx. im reasonably sure ive been ripped off.

anyway, it pulls like it should and gets better economy but it still slips if i get on it between gears. or if im about half into the throttle it will slip shifting. i hope its the learning curve but after 65 miles of hard driving im not sure. whats ironic is "because the electronics and shifting solenoid looked good he didnt replace them" and on the reciept it says they arent warrantied. i wonder if he drove it and found the same problem. im about to go out and shoot a video but i have a gut feeling im going to go there and he is going to say its the solenoid that isnt warrantied.

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ok, so its mostly fixed. i went out to shoot the video, and pegged it in one of the slips because i was mad and it locked right up lol. still slips occasionally but not as often.

video will come tonight or tomorrow. got lots of editing to do lol.

thoughts?

As a trans builder, he should know the in'* and out'* of this very common trans and it'* problems. Without knowing what he did in there, it'* tough to say. However if the soleniods weren't all new, he should have changed the EPC as a matter of habit on this trans.

thanks for the comment. it still slips some at about half throttle. like, from a dead stop putting it at half throttle like say turning onto a 55mph road it slips a little between gears. at full throttle and just cruising (i mostly do city driving and dont go over 1/4 throttle) it does fine. its just half throttle. ive tried again today to catch it on video but unless you are behind the wheel with your foot on the gas and you lurch forward you cant really tell. as far as the solenoid its new as of march or so.