[BoomDone]

My daughter has a 99 ZX2 where 2nd gear seems to have gone away and the O/D appeared to have stopped working. When I say stopped working I mean that the tranmission doesn't seem to shift into O/D because at 60mph its cranking 3500 rpm's and as soon as you lift off the accelerator it drops to idle. This seemed like a torque converter lockup issue but I scanned it and got a P0761 code which states
P0761 Shift Solenoid C Performance.

Fluid level was fine and fluid condition was fine. I dropped the pan and everything looked great. Inside of the pan was very clean, nothing sticking to the magnets inside the pan.
Given the code I decided to change the 2-3/3-4 solenoids (not for the faint hearted) along with the 1-2 solenoid to try and improve the 1-2 shifting smoothness.

Got this all done and the P0761 code is gone but I still seem to have no O/D or 2nd gear. The next thing I am wondering if I should replace is the TCC Lockup Solenoid?

Has anyone else had this wonderful experience. Any ideas or help are greatly appeciated.

 

[Hardline]

If she has been driving it like that for any extended length of time( like a few months) the clutch in the converter is most likely dead. When you dropped the pan, was there a lot of sludge at the bottom of it or caked in the filter? If so, my recommendation is a new torque converter.

 

[BoomDone]

No it just started a week ago. Bottom of pan looked very nice. filter was also rather clean. Do you think the TCC Lockup solenoid could be the culprit?

 

[Hardline]

It is possible, I'd also check the pump pressure at idle. In the ford manual, it demos how to test the pump pressure

 

[BoomDone]

What I seem to be finding is that most repair shops instantly want to replace the complete transmission without doing any diagnostics. The sad part with these cars is they become disposable because of the cost of a tranny replacement. I appreciate your help. I am changing the TCC solenoid today and I will report back with the results. Unfortuantely I am not holding out much hope at this point. But if I don't try it, I won't know.

Boom Done.

 

[madmatt2024]

Yeah, those shops are full of it. You usually don't need to replace the trans for a torque converter issue. You can replace the torque converter by itself if need be but the solenoids are a good place to start and the easiest thing to do besides changing the fluid.

 

[BoomDone]

Well I changed the TCC solenoid and still no overdrive. I am calling the tranny shop today for a quote.

BTW, I had to drop the valve body to get the bolt out that holds the TCC solenoid. The TCC solenoid would come out no problem if the bracket that holds it in was slotted. I wasn't holding out much hope that this was going to fix it, because when I fed 12V to the solenoid I could hear it click. But I already had it, so I changed it anyway.

After driving a friends sisters ZX2, it appears that lockup is working but I have no 2nd gear and no 4th gear.

 

[302svt]

Did you find the problem or just replace the trans, mine is doing the exact same thing.

 

[ZX2Fast]

You probably have a busted band if you lost 2 and 4.

 

[BoomDone]

Bingo on the 2nd and 4th band being gone. Sad part is the car is in decent shape that it made sense to fix it. Finally took it to one of the local reputable tranny shops and had a complete rebuild done for about $1700 bucks. They also had to replace one of the aluminum case halves because the tabs that hold the clutch packs or something in had 4 out of the 5 of them missing. They had an extra case sitting around but when he torn it apart the same 4 out of the 5 tabs were broke on that one as well, so he had to get a core from a local bone yard which added about $200 to the job. The tranny guy figured that is from the harsh engagement when going into reverse.

They would have just fixed the 2nd and 4th gear band for about $500 bucks but with no guarantee's on anything. By having a complete rebuild done it came with a 1-year/ 12000 mile warranty.

It wasn't a easy decision to make, but the daughter likes the car and she is not going to find something else that is this dependable and gets this kind of mileage for the money, so that is why we decided to go ahead and fix it.