So the last few weeks my car on occasion has hesitated shifting gears and yesterday it started to hard shift. Today however its fine, no hesitation and no hard shift. I still took it in to a local transmission shop that is well known in the area. They do a free 3 hour diagnostic and I was told that its the P1811 which is a very common code. I've done ton of research and I'm not sure what to do. He estimates 1500-2300 to fix it which involves a tranny rebuild and an upgrade to any part that needs fixing. He also states it will take 4-5 days to do it but that's only because he has 9 cars ahead of me in line and if he has time one day he will be able to start it.

So I'm not sure what to do...should i go for it and pay him to do a rebuild? I see most of the time its the PCS but if I only do that its not a guaranteed fix...I think tomorrow I'm going to take it to Mr. Transmission to get another estimate and another opinion...I just can't imagine paying 1500-2300 for a rebuild when I can buy a brand new one for 1500. I have searched the forums and found a lot of post about this problem so I'm hoping to revive this subject and maybe get some other advice or opinions...

Thanks everyone!

2004 Monte Carlo 3.8L non supercharged

 

Also curious as to how long I can ride this problem out, and doing things such as manually shifting from 1-2-3-D, if that will help or not. The guy I spoke with said that I still have time to drive it like it is, but it will just keep getting worse with time

 

For what its worth...
I had a '99 Chevy Venture minivan that did the same thing you're describing. If I pulled over when it started shifting hard, turned the engine off and restarted, it went away. Usually it didn't come back until the next time I drove the car. I drove it a couple more years like this and it was still running when I traded it in.
Manually shifting is probably not a good idea, as that's generally not a good thing to do with an automatic transmission that's not designed for it.
Sorry I can't be of more help with this issue. I can't say whether your transmission will continue to work as long as mine did.

 

thank you KJRich, from what I found this problem is more of an annoyance than an actual problem, If this is the case I can live with it and save the 2 grand for now

 

There are a lot of reasons that that code could have gone off. Check out this link for more info: http://www.tripleedgeperformance.com...ft__P1811.html

 

Look in2 gettn a shift kit (Thrasher kit,zzp performance,transgo,or transmissionpartsusa.comand change ur trans fluid 2 DexronVI!I'm having the same problem and I have been researching alot 2 and I came up with this,and thats wat imma try 1st!Yea such a headache!Good Luck tho!Please repost if it solves ur problm!!

 

Wanted to update this in case anyone has had similar issues. It's been over 3 years now since that code came up and I have yet to have any work done to repair it. It hard shifts so rarely...I doubt it hard shifts more than 5 times a year...literally hasn't done it in months.

I have occasionally put some lucas stop slip/hard shift in it hoping it will do some preventative maintenance and it seems to be doing its job, that or the problem isn't serious.

It's a simple udpate I know but it may help others than are wondering how long they can go with this code. 3 years and going, the monte feels as strong as the day I got it.

 

It is possible that transmission damage will occur due to the harsh shifting, but the solenoids need to be replaced. I drove my Monte probably 10,000 miles with that issue until I ended up pulling the engine and transmission to change the solenoids. Probably cost me a good $150 or so and some time, but it was fun.

 

I drove an Oldsmobile Cutlass for probably 50 - 100K miles with a hard shift code. The transmission finally gave out when I had parked on some ice and went to take off and the tires were spinning and then finally grabbed on the asphalt. I went about 3 miles down the road and the transmission gave out.

I also had this code on my '01 Monte and for what its worth it turned out to be a plugged catalytic convertor. I even had a professional transmission shop tell me that the transmission was toast. Apparently a plugged cat can cause the PCM to throw a transmission code when its actually not really the transmission.

Anyways hope you have continued good luck with it.

 

had mine done $600 plus shift solenoid , a friend of my brothers who works a GM dealership did it, had the car overnight u have to drop the subframe. Shutting the car off for awhile resets computer, if not it will keep the last pressure setting in memory, very hard on trans bands if not fixed