I'd be curious to see you drop your pan. Run for a week with hard drive magnets on the pan first.

From my experience, 2nd gear takes the biggest beating of all gears. I'm deep in the power when it shifts, and friends have observed my entire car twist under torque as 2nd gear shifts. All the debris I got out of my pan was off 2nd. I only get into 2nd 1/6 of attempts now.

I agree a flush may be in order, but I'd put in a cleaner/additive and run for a week first in case you have any buildup or lacquering. Also remember that all shifts will be harsher in the cold.

heres the update...

my dad took my car for the week, and has been driving it, and put new rotors and pads in.

he did not drop the pan, but he talked to a reputible tranny tech that he knows. the guy said that he sees this problem a lot with this transmission.

here is what i understood.

there is a orfiss tube that has a screen on it, once the screen breaks, to much fluid is going into the pump or shutoff valve for the torque convertor lockup

its prolly a $5 part, and about 10-12 hours labor.

my dad can do it, but he will need my car for about a week with his schedule. he doesnt have time to do that right now, so it will be put off for a while.

i will just have to deal with it.

he did not mention to the tech that i had been downshifting, but i am quoting my 20 year mechanic dad on this "it is not bad to downshift an automatic transmission"

anyone care to argue, i would love to get a discussion on here for him to read.

Here'* what is bad. If you downshift an auto, lets say from 3rd to 2nd, and you are going 80mph. Well, that is too high, and your tranny will NOT shift into 2nd, until the car slows down [at least mine does this, yours may just stay in 3rd, mine just drops out of gear]. Then, transmission damage may occur. As long as you aren't doing this, then all is well. Just be careful with those free revs.. like dropping 3rd to 1st going 40mph. That'll bite cha. I downshifted my auto, but not beyond when slowing down for a stop sign/light, and going 15-25mph, and dropping it in first. Made the car slow down a helluva lot faster, and since my brakes suck, that'* always a good thing .


-justin

ok, here is how i downshifted....

from 3rd to 2nd at about 40mph
from 2nd to 1st at about 25mph

would that hurt anything

RPM'* never above 2500

No. Downshifting actually causes unecessary wear in the valve body. There is a rod in the valvle body that'* operated by the shift linkage, and it'* in a bored out area....Well the friction of moving that back and forth all the time elongates that bore....and let'* fluid flow where it shouldn't, and you could just either get an oversized rod and o-rings or get a new valve body. Most shifting bores only last for about 100 some k anyways. I highly doubt that it'* a solenoid or anything...Shakin or shuddering isn't really a characteristic of a bad solenoid. I hope this helps. If your trans does frag can I have your old one?

you confused me there...

i asked if it would hurt anything...you said no, and then explained what was being hurt?

at this point, from my dads view, this is nothing big, and we will be able to fix it no problem...the tranny stays with me

You can keep your trans..I want a destroyed one. I don't need one that works yet. And no...it doesn't "Hurt" anything....just causes some unecessary wear.....

decided to do some testing after work today...

heres my shift points

2nd - 13-15mph
3rd 23-25 mph
4th 49-50 mph

when it shifts to 2nd, it really feels like 3rd...

i want to do that mod that tells me what gear im in

UPDATE

dads been workin on my car the past 2 nights...

got the tranny out the first night

got the tranny apart tonight, and found out that lil screen like the other mechanic has said, was cracked...he got a new one, but is waiting on a bad gasket...

things are looking hopefully...

i forgot how my car was supposed to shift until i drove the 97 this week...its so nice

well imagine that