Being that my '03 Monte is the first FWD vehicle I have owned I'm curious as to whether the shift pattern it exhibits is 'normal' or not. The 1-2 shift seems proper, but 3rd gear only engages briefly then it shifts into 4th gear. It does this no matter what kind of load the engine is under. It just seems to me that it should stay in 3rd gear longer than it does. I plan on dropping the pan and doing a fluid/filter change soon, but if this shift pattern is abnormal then I'll just take it to a transmission shop and have them address the issue at the same time. So is this shift pattern 'normal' and something I just have to live with? Is there anything that can be done to improve it, yet not jeapordize the service life of the transmission? The RPO codes for the transmission are:

MX0 Transmission, Automatic, Overdrive (Merchandising Option) A/Trans Provisions (MX0)
M15 Transmission, Auto 4 Spd, HMD, 4T65-E, Enhanced Electronic 4 Spd A/Trans (M15)

 

It's been a while since I have had "normal" shift points, but I think that's normal for fuel consumption. 3rd gear to me always just seemed like the passing gear for the highway.

 

It seems to me like all overdrive automatic transmissions are "in a hurry" to get into overdrive

 

That's the purpose of overdrive to shift as early as possible to keep the RPMs low and conserve on fuel.

 

You say it shifts to 4th no matter what load the engine is under- even WOT? It should hold 3rd in WOT after 2nd.

The bad thing is, without having some kind of TPS % and speed values, its hard for us to guess if its normal or not. It depends how you're driving, what speed you're getting up to, etc- but as mentioned above, the car wants to get into overdrive as quickly as possible without lugging the engine to save gas. If you need more power, and don't want it to go to overdrive, you can put the shifter into 3rd/D.

 

At WOT it will stay in 3rd a bit longer before shifting into 4th. In normal stop/go traffic (35/40mph) around town it immediately shifts into 4th...so I'm thinking that is normal from the replies. What got me thinking about the shift pattern is I have a hill that I pull on a daily basis and always get stuck at the light at the bottom of it. As I begin to pull the hill the car only stays in 3rd briefly then shifts into 4th. This causes the engine rpm to drop (bog) and then I have to step down on the throttle until it downshifts. As a result the car then picks up speed rapidly and I find myself doing 50/60mph up the hill...in a 35mph zone. So, I back out of the throttle, it shifts into 4th and starts to bog down again....so I step down on the throttle...etc. I guess I'll try putting it in 3rd manually at the light and see if this will provide a more consistant speed up the hill without the engine bogging down. Thanks to all for the replies.

 

This honestly sounds like you may have a bad Cat, hills at that speed were the WORST when my Cat was clogged.

 

I have a long, fairly steep hill nearby. I always manually downshift to '3' at the start. Otherwise it bogs down as you describe. It just doesn't downshift on it's own until it's too late.

I put on a new Cat last year and that did noticeably improve my uphill performance. But for a steep enough hill, I still manually downshift first.

 

Yes, I realize this. Didn't mean it to sound like a flaw.

 

You may be onto something. It isn't constant, but now that I think about it there has been a couple of times that I could detect that 'rotten egg smell' while pulling the hill. I'm going to take the car to a friends shop so we can check engine vacuum at various rpm and run a pressure test on the exhaust.