Hey! Okay so I've had my 99 Red beauty Monte for about 5 weeks now. I've replaced the water pump, flushed and refilled the antifreeze res, spark plugs, all fluids are good, front brakes AND rotors, a tire.
A week after being in my name and driving to Drs, I noticed hesitation going up hills. Okay, spark plugs maybe? Check engine light came on for a very short time. Wasn't able to plug my meter up to it. BUT it happened again and I plugged it. Came back DTC error 1 - cylinder 3. Crap: okay, done. Ran good for another week. Past few days I've have like 30% power going up hills. Oh and not to mention the anti-lock light pops on here and there (could be caliber on front drive side, grrr) anyways.. Past 2 days as I reverse from my parking spot at the house, back up to put in drive.. nothing happens. Tf?!? Dropped back into P, down each gear til I hear each one engage. When it comes to D, got nothing. Repeated P, E, OD, D.. added 2, & 1 then back to drive.. still nothing. Had to get it going in 2 then up to D.
Today was a repeat. P, E, OD, D.. nothing. Added 2, & 1.. nothing .. back to P then drop to 1st THEN it would go but had to start it 1st today (2nd yesterday) once I got going I could put it in S. It's like 70 degrees out so it hasn't been cold.
This c​​​​​​ar is killing my pocket but I love it!!
Did I mention I bought it 5 weeks ago with 135k?
Please, Monte gurus! I need help with my red beauty!

 

I think you already know the answer unfortunately.

You can check the trans fluid to make sure it's not run dry, but you probably have solenoid / hard part failure going on.

 

Thanks for replying!
Ugh! I had a feeling that's what would be said. I did forget to mention that it's been having a hard time starting since the check engine light came on the first time for me. Sometimes starts hard or right up and other times I gotta crank it 2x. Not sure if I should continue putting money into it or sell/part it out. Also needs a rear strut, front left caliber, possibly wheel bearings or ball joint, drums, alignment.. by the time I do all that; I'll have more into it than what I paid for my Monte itself.

× Sad Monte Queen

 

As for the engine knock, I know 3100s consistently have them but the sound is coming front the top left side of the head/piston area.. ideas? Or leave that alone?

 

Check to see if your fuel pressure regulator is going bad. That was the issue for me starting up my car.

I was in the same boat you were in at one point, but I decided I'd rather drop $2,000 to fix the car up than have a $20,000+ car payment. Just depends on what you want to do.

 

Uh oh! That's very, very bad new for the trans. Sounds like a broken forward apply band.
Here's a problem description from one of the best 4T65E Guru's I know of. Does it sound familiar?
Link:
4T65E No Movement D and 3 ranges only

As for the engine, I assume it's an LS with a 3400? Need a bit more info for a decent diagnosois. Should be more codes like P...

To repair or not? The miles are still fairly low, but you got a lot going on there. You seem more mechanically savvy than the average chic, so maybe you can do some work yourself, otherwise your looking at $3-5K for a shop to do everything you've listed. You might be better off picking up a good, low miles gen. 6 SS for that money. I fix and flip gen.6's usually picking them up for $800-1500 in the same condition as yours and sell for around $3K. "Black Knight" in "My Garage" is a prime example.

 

Hi Victoria and welcome to the club (I am newbie also)

I used to work on cars, 5o years ago, yes we had electricity back then.
Might I suggest you consider some simple stuff first:

1..Dipsticks motor and trans, goto Auto parts store and compare yours to new ones.
Hopefully they are same length and marks are in same place, if not, find out
which is correct and use them..Now we are comparing apples to apples. Now when
we measure level, it will be correct.

I did not see that you flushed trans, if not, wipe stick on clean paper towel, what is
color and smell? If dark and smells burnt you need to address it. "Power Flush" it!
Find out capacity of trans, most are around 7 to 9 Qts. Is trans cover alum or just
plain old metal? If metal look at it real close,,your looking for dents do same with oil
pan while you are down there..Speed bumps, debris and other things can dent metal.
The dents do not have to be very big so if dirty clean before you look. A small dent in
the right location will play havoc with your oil and trans pickup tube. You can be full of
fluids however if dent is under pickups it will raise bottom of pan up and your engine
or trans will starve for fluids even though your sticks measure correctly (hills, fast
starts and stops and will even agrevate problem, taking corners fast will slosh
fluids around also.. If you have dents, get new pans & gaskets trans filter possibly
pickup also.

Here is utube video on what your going to do to trans:

Here is videos for engine (this one is different, I used to use kerosene)
Justification:
Here is video that really gets it done:

Trans is pretty easy,,seafoam is one takes some guts to do it


Best of luck

Brad

 

sorry second one was copy of first..

try this


Brad

 

here is one on headlights


once and done!

Brad

 

Brad,

I will be happy to send you pictures of the headlights that came with my car, and the results after using this method. The results, of course, is that I spend $70 to replace them. The guy doing this video has no clue what the f**k he is talking about. My headlights re-hazed literally within a day of being sanded and painted. The haze has nothing to do with driving and rocks; it has to do with UV and contaminated air, combined with the fact that Chevy used garbage plastic on every composite headlight after 1999 (as opposed to Olds and Cadillac--my gf's headights on her SRX are glorious). Clear-coat spray paint does not form a vacuum seal and does not so much as alter the wavelength of ultraviolet radiation, no matter what the can says.