Here's the story... $20 paypalled to whoever provides an answer leading to a fix

89 SE AT, had a blown tranny and we swapped in another tranny off of a junked car. Tranny looked like a$$ but we swapped it anyway. It worked and all was well. Side note: before the swap, the car had been sitting for about 4-5 months being turned on from time to time as to keep the engine from going bad. I would have put in a 5spd but pretty much had one weekend left to do this project, and I work M-F 8am-8pm.

Enough of the back story. Here are the symptoms:

1. Can only get roughly 220 - 250 mpg off of what I believe is a 15+ gallon tank... I believe this MIGHT be related to the main problem. (i'm a 4th genner, and know little about the 3rd gen's details)

2. Coolant doesn't last too long. The coolant reserve tank requires filling every 1.5 weeks. (might not be related to the main problem)

3. MAIN PROBLEM, so I believe... Gears work fine and there's nothing wrong when shifting into a gear... BUT, shifting out of a gear is where the problem is. Off of a stop sign, applying gas will get the car going normally, but when I reach 3k RPM's, there is a loss in acceleration and if i keep on the gas, the car will redline (or come really close) before i have to pump the gas to make it shift to the next gear.

Ask more questions if you might know what's up. I know very little about cars, but am an active DIY'er with a pretty good learning curve. I'm assuming the problem can either be a torque converter issue, or maybe an air/fuel ratio issue. Throttle? Injectors? Hopefully NOT the tranny as that would put another major dent in my wallet, and my 97 gxe needs some work as well...



so.. any takers for that $20?

 

i had the same thing and just changed tranny. you might need to have it rebuilt. I took it out and it looked destroyed and was leaking metal.

 

The only thing I have heard of in terms of rev limiting is when the MAF goes bad. I believe that it will then only run decent up to about 2.5K or 3K rpm. It's just a guess, tho. To me, it's more likely related to the swapping of the tranny. Did you have any acceleration problems with the car prior to the old tranny going bad?

 

1 - if you keep going to redline then what you do expect..LOL
2 - any leaks? smoke?
3 - sounds like TC or the pump is going/gone. check ATF level?

if it runs normally otherwise (smooth idle, drives fine under 3K) then i would say your engine is fine.

it sounds more like your tranny is slipping...hence going to redline. it can also be the solenoid (sp?) pack that are sticky. does it do it every time? like if you go from the light and u hit 3K is it 100% of the time it always goes out of gear?

 

thanks for the info so far...

Danny, yeah that's what i figured with #1 LOL, although I didn't think the mileage would suck that bad.

This problem did not exist before the swap, and yes it does this 100% of the time. Rides fine in idle, drives fine under 3k's in normal street driving. Take it to the freeway and that's where you notice something's wrong. The problem is best seen under WOT.

No smoke, no noticeable leaks, and the AT fluid does not show any metal or dirty residue. I will say this though, My father-in-law tried working on it a few weekends ago and he put in some kind of additive. It solved the problem for a few days.

I want to either replace all fluids (again), which would not be a bad idea right now. I was thinking of a tune-up but wanted to get some .org consultation before doing so. I really am planning on selling this car, but would like to get rid of the problem if it can be a small fix (crossing fingers).

Possible vaccuums (sp), or hose leaks here and there?

 

Im wondering if water got into the engine somehow

 

i say it's definitely tranny related.
was the torque convertor switched over or did you use what was on the replacement tranny?

 

I used the old torque convertor which had been recently rebuilt before the other tranny went bad. The other tranny would accelerate only with the stick in 1st or 2nd. D would stall the car, and R was as if it was in Neutral.

I have the torque convertor off of the tranny that's in there now. We checked both for metal parts or to see if the fluid had a bad smell but both checked out ok.

 

it's worth a shot to check the solonid packs in the tranny.

 

would I be able to figure out how to do that from chilton's/haynes?

 

http://www1.autozone.com/servlet/UiB...3d801f54ee.jsp

From the stickies above. Worth a read anyway. It's free