[johnoh]

I posted here a couple days ago but misrepresented the symptoms so I am starting over.

1993 Buick Century 3.3l 4-speed automatic does this:

- while moving at any speed it shifts and runs fine
- while at stoplight, if you were just driving at 10mph or more, shifts into a false neutral while stopped and you have to manually shift it to neutral and then back into drive to get it to engage
- while at stoplight, if you were formerly driving at 5mph, stays in gear and takes off like normal upon acceleration
- when gear shifter is in lowest (1st) gear, runs fine regardless of how many times you stop and start. Never falls out of gear

To summarize, it seems the car is unable to downshift from 2nd to 1st and when a 2nd-to-1st downshift is called for, it falls into neutral.

[Crosley]

Originally Posted by johnoh

I posted here a couple days ago but misrepresented the symptoms so I am starting over.

1993 Buick Century 3.3l 4-speed automatic does this:

- while moving at any speed it shifts and runs fine
- while at stoplight, if you were just driving at 10mph or more, shifts into a false neutral while stopped and you have to manually shift it to neutral and then back into drive to get it to engage
- while at stoplight, if you were formerly driving at 5mph, stays in gear and takes off like normal upon acceleration
- when gear shifter is in lowest (1st) gear, runs fine regardless of how many times you stop and start. Never falls out of gear

To summarize, it seems the car is unable to downshift from 2nd to 1st and when a 2nd-to-1st downshift is called for, it falls into neutral.

High mileage tranny? Original tranny in the car ( If you know)??

Does the tranny operate the same cold & hot??

A multitude of items can cause your neutral situation as described.

worn seals ,hard internal seals , short lip seals on the pistons input drum, sprag clutch not holding , input clutch pack worn out, pump is worn out = low pressure the tranny will drop out of gear.

In manual 1 gear , there are more items applied , so the tranny has more holding power.



the flush job probably flushed out some debris that helped the tranny function.

[johnoh]

Originally Posted by Crosley

High mileage tranny?

Car has 137k but I am not sure if this is the original - the guy at the trans shop said it looked like it was either a meticulously maintained original, or a replacement at some point.

Trans is a 4t60

Originally Posted by Crosley

Does the tranny operate the same cold & hot??

When cold it always has the problem stated earlier. When hot, the problem happens maybe 50% of the time.

Originally Posted by Crosley

A multitude of items can cause your neutral situation as described. worn seals ,hard internal seals , short lip seals on the pistons input drum, sprag clutch not holding , input clutch pack worn out, pump is worn out = low pressure the tranny will drop out of gear.

In manual 1 gear , there are more items applied , so the tranny has more holding power..

Just wanted to point out that it never falls out of 1st gear, whether its a manual 1st gear or in 1st gear while the shift lever is in drive. It only falls to neutral when failing to downshift to 1st from 2nd. And if I shift from neutral to drive while at a stop (putting it into 1st) it always holds 1st gear then as well.

Originally Posted by Crosley

the flush job probably flushed out some debris that helped the tranny function.

I have been driving it for a couple weeks and manually shifting to neutral then back into drive when needed. Do you think I may be hurting it by doing this? Its really not a hassle and is preferable to a 4-figure $ rebuild.

Thanks!

[m/w]

Hello from the great white north . Don't know if you still frequent this board or not but here goes. We have a 93 olds ciera 3.3 with 4 speed auto thats doing the same thing your car was, we had put another tranny in it so i'm thinking its maybe an adjustment thing . We put all new filter & oil into it so the guts are good . I was wondering if the tranny gave up the ghost or worked ok driving it while it worked this way . Later bake

[Crosley]

m/w ; please read dates on threads

The member that posted the original thread question has not logged in since 2008.