Lately, if my car sits longer for more then a couple hours, the converter on my car does want to lock up. I will drive thru town for a few minutes and then hop on the highway. It takes another 3 mintues while crusing at 70 for it to lock up.
what could be the problem?

Also, my car hesitates when giving it gas from a shop. Maintence parts have all been replaced within the past 15k.

 

Regarding the torque converter - has it recently become cold where you live? I know it will not engage until the tranny fluid has warmed up.

 

is this the original converter.?

 

when you say hesitates from a stop...do you mean the RPMs rise and the car barely moves or its just sluggish off the line?? RCY is right about the temp thing, but the sluggish starts combined with the intermitent lock out could mean the inevitbale tranny rebuild is in the future

 

Are you sure it's lock-up you are refering to? Could it be possible you are refering to the trans not going into 4th gear? When the trans goes into lock-up if you're not paying attention you can hardly tell, but you will definately know when it's not going into 4th gear. Regardless there are several conditions that can effect the trans not going into 4th or lock-up, without quoting me a few I can think of are trans temp (as previously stated) throttle position, shift selector position, O/D switch, etc.

 

I noticed the T/C lockup took longer to engage over the winter here than in summer. Usually it went straight in while on the highway, but over winter it took nearly 5 mins to engage! Btw, i got a new tranny and T/C about 25k ago, so pretty sure its normal.
So, i agree with rcy. The fluid just needs to warm up. Although, have you checked the level / condition of the tranny fluid lately?

As far as the hesitation goes, could be any number of causes.. Can you be more specific as to which maintenance parts you've replaced? and if there's anything you've done to the car recently around the time you noticed the hesitation?

 

Thanks for the help so far.
it is the original converter and tranny. Also, it has been getting colder out so I guess it is just a temp issue and the tranny needs to warmup.

the hesitation just makes it sluggish off the line. Maintence includes cap, rotor, wires, plugs, fuel/air filter, pcv valve, and I also added some fuel system cleaner a couple weeks ago.
The hestiation started about 3k ago and around the time it started I didn't touch anything on the motor. It was just out of the blue when it started.

 

i would check fuel injectors next. one of them could be bad and make it slow off the line if ones bad you should be able to here a miss in the exhaust and feal a slite vibration at idle and how many miles are on your car the tranny may need to be rebiult soon

 

it does have a vibration at idle. It was hardly noticable when I bought the car. I bought it with 127k and now it has 133k.
I hope the tranny doesn't go out soon but then again the last guy drove it with about a quart too much in the tranny. I changed it and it didn't make any difference in shifting nor did it smell burnt.