[broken_machine]

I have a 93 escort. When i stop at a light, the transmission never wants to kick down into 1st. So whenever I move from a stop, the acceleration is horrible since it's staying in 2nd gear. The only way around this is taking it out of D and putting it in Low, then manually shifting back up to D.

Could this be something as simple as replacing the ATF fluid / filter? Or is it more likely a problem inside the transmission?

thanks

 

[James92Scort]

probably just need to change the fluid...

 

[siragan]

siragan sez:

check the kickdown cable. It's on the throttle rotor. I'm not good with ATs at all, but that may be the problem.

 

[TitoElSpicco]

Like Siragan said, check the kickdown cable.

and for the love of God people, flush your tranny's every couple hundred thousand miles.

 

[majormastermind]

yeah true that.....but on the gt i don;t know if it's the same cable but it's under the intake on the tranny if i can remember right. There will be a wire that can go bad i belive. I'll get more info on it later.

 

[broken_machine]

I checked the kickdown cable and it was fine, and i changed the tranny fluid. It still does it though. I noticed that when i start from a stop and floor it, then engine revs VERY loud and high, but barely moves, which tells me it's something inside the tranny. Like even in 2nd gear it should still be moving much faster than it does. any other suggestions?

 

[jon91156]

if it is not going into first you will over power the clutchs in the tranny and it will slip. Check your fluid level. Then try a bottle of trans medic from gunk i belive. I had the same problem with mine. It cured it for almost a year. But it did finally go. Or you can use this as a sign to switch to a standard. Thats what i did in the end. And i wish i had of done it sooner. I get a lot beter fuel milage, and better performance. Plus it is usually cheaper then replacing the auto.

 

[birddog]

stuck valve body. I would lay odds on it. Especially if you have been, how shall we say... performing sub-optimal maintainance. If you can have the tranny flushed somewhere try that. just changing the fluid doesn't help a lot in this case. BTW starting out in 2nd under hard acceleration will kill your torque converter.

 

[broken_machine]

I'm not too sure about the maintenance, as the person we got the car from didn't have any records whatsoever. Seems like one of those cars that's changed owners many times. It had 133K miles when we got it, so problems are to be expected.

When I changed it, I didn't get it flushed, so that could be it. As for 2nd gear, I've been manually putting it in Low at lights for the very reason of not thrashing the transmission.

Thanks

 

[TitoElSpicco]

1. It's probably a stuck valve body.
2. You still need to have it flushed, for it's own good.

 

[broken_machine]

So should flushing the tranny fix the stuck valve body problem, or is there something else i'd have to do too?