So last night a friend of mine thought it would be funny to steal my car and drive past me shifting manually "so I could hear what it sounds like". He was in first gear for quite a while and only got to second gear before shifting. He said he was at 4.5-5k rpm only but I know my car and it sounded like it was at 5.5k. I dont know how he shifted it when he went into second but when he got back I didn't say much cuz i was pissed that he took it. Then i get in and see that my check engine light went on. I was sooooo pissed. So i pulled the fuse for my computer just to clear the light, and it came back on today. Also, my car has never shifted the smoothest from the time I got it. I'm like the third owner. But after he did that last night its shifting ALOT harder and slipped in first when i stopped at a stop sign.....its done that in the past though. So its shifting hard into second and third most of the time now and my check engine light is on. A friend of mine has a code reader so I don't know what code its throwing right now but i'll find out in the next day or two hopefully. Did he possibly screw up my tranny? What would be wrong that my light is on? i REALLY REALLY hope this isn't something really serious cuz I do not have time do deal with getting my car fixed. Its got 55k miles

 

The code is going to be the biggest help, but it does sound like a tranny issue. Being in the wrong gear at high RPM for any period of time is not good for it at all. The first thing I would do is check the trannie fluid and see how it smells or looks

 

Sound really bad. I don't think transmission shops are to be trusted either. Hope your buddy is rich. Good luck with that

 

Oh S*it!!!!!!!!!

I would be PISSED too...you know, I may drive my car hard, but I never hold it in a gear it does not want to be in...thats not driving it hard, thats straight up abuse!

Sounds to me like you may have tranny issues now.....Let us know what you find out!

I'm so sorry to hear about that man!

 

Ummm I wish he was rich too. He's driving a free pos Geo that he got after he blew the cam in his Cavalier. I'll let you guys know what code it throws when my friend gets me his reader. MAMONTE, since we have the same exact car basically, when you turn really sharp and accelerate would your tranny ever slip? Just wondering because mine has always done that. I'm not even sure if it is my tranny. After driving it today, it shifted a lot cleaner into second and third although it did shift hard about 3 times, and once when I went out of park into drive. Which I thought was weird cuz I was on flat pavement.

 

Mine shifts fine all the time....The shifts are nice and firm no matter what RPM it shifts at. They have always been firm, not hard, since the day I bought it.

The only time it ever does something weird (its happend a few times) is if I go from reverse to drive, and don't wait to feel it go into drive. Basically I just throw it in drive, and hit the gas...then it literally clunks, or thumps into gear. The few times i've done this im usually in a hurry, and not thinking, or really pissed, and it makes me cring everytime its happend. It feels like it was not in drive yet, and it engages drive while i'm stepping on the gas. Like I said though, it only does this if I do not wait that second for it to engage drive before stepping on the gas.

 

BTW, sounds like your friend needs to take it a little easier on his own cars too....and ESPECIALLY YOUR CAR!

 

Alright well I decided to pull the battery from my car for a while and hoped that the problems would be solved by resetting the computer and clearing the code. I took it for a drive and it was much better. I also thought it would be a good idea to check my transmission fluid level......well I know this was very stupid on my part but it's low, so that is not helping the problem at all. I'll pick up some fluid sometime soon and hopefully my check engine light doesn't come back on. And if it does i'll check the code and let you guys know what code its throwing. Hopefully this will fix it!

 

Well, I'm happy for you that it is shifting better now....but get the fluid level up to normal ASAP! Why is it low in the first place??? have you changed it before and not filled it up to the right level when you changed it??? You tranny level should not go down at all unless you have a leak......

 

uhhh, no, i have never changed it. Its not leaking either, and it looks red and not burnt looking at all. K, now I feel like a total idiot cuz I just assumed that the levels were all full when I bought the car a year ago. Crap, i'm guessing its always been low then. My car was first a rental, then a guy bought it and got it re-poed, and then the guy after that got in an accident where there was front and rear impact. Thats what it said on the carfax report. Now im wondering how much work REALLY was done (or in a way lack of) to it before I got it.