93 legacy turbo w/ auto tranny symptoms

[rallynights]

great forum!

i have a great 93 legacy turbo sedan with 160k that has suddenly caught a transmission cough. gear shifting from 2nd-3rd is hesitating for longer split seconds than normal and then clunking or dropping into gear. this is very easy to detect while accelerating mildly from a stop. if i take it really easy while accelerating, hesitation with less gear clunking is noticable especially 3rd -4th gear. stop and go driving in the city is the best way to experience the hard gear changing from 2nd-3rd gear.

ive tried additives into the tranny for gear smoothing and shuddering and have noticed no improvements, rather the symptoms are graduating into longer hesitation and slipping.

i'm not sure if a heathy automatic's transmissions gears are very active when decellerating... helping to break the car. ive noticed that the rpms are very inactive when coasting to a stop over a significant distance on the highways.

ive ran both d and u tests and found codes 51 and 42. inhibitor switch and idle switch respectively. could these be related to the tranny?

ive been trying to brush up on the matter of rebuild or replace through other posts and am wondering if there is such a thing as a sure-fire rebuild or are they just a short term 50k fix at best???

what about throwing in a shift kit from transgo or the like? could the kit or something else possibly cap the hesitation and shuddering/clunking problem and slow the tranny's death to a significantly slower rate? also,
would adding and new tranny filter and radiator contribute to the cause?

all advice and replies are appreciated greatly

paul

[Legacy777]

Paul,

The diag check you ran. Did you get the TPS sensor from checking the ECU....or TCU?

The TPS does is in fact a pretty important piece when it comes to the tranny and controlling shifts.

Here's info on testing the TPS
http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8 ... sting1.jpg
http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8 ... sting2.jpg
http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8 ... sting3.jpg

The last page has the most important info on it about setting/adjusting the TPS....assuming it passes all the other tests.

Inhibitor switch shouldn't cause any issues with the tranny's operation. It's mainly there to work with the shift-brake interlock.

I've had the valve body on my tranny rebuilt & had the transgo shift kit put in. It helped the 1-2 shift. The 2-3 & 3-4 are still pretty laggy. The brake band itself is most likely the culprit.

I have to decide myself what I want to do......whether I want to rebuild this one, or try to find another low miles one.

Hope that helps some. BTW I've got all the ECU & TCU code removal info on my site.

I'd suggest clearing the memory of both, and then see what pops up again.

[rallynights]

thanks for the info and links josh. at this point i think i'll take the car in for a test drive at a tranny shop and see what they think. i need an unbiased perspective. small town, family owned perspective should work. btw how many km or miles do you have on you 90? could this be a common problem for the early legacy? hope not!

i ran a TCU previous codes test after you reminded me of the TPS sensor- which the dealership did in fact find during their series of tests - and found code 32- vehicle speed sensor 1. the dealership did find codes 31-TPS, 49-ECU, and 42-idle switch. they attributed the codes being triggered by an oil leak fix where i had several seal and o-rings replaced. apparently the mechanics may have started the car or tripped the codes somehow during the repair?! not the reasoning i was hoping for. they did however reset the computers and reassured me that they would keep atop the situation. milk money anyone!

the check engine light has gone off several times since the repair and resetting of computers. i did run a TCU current codes test and found nothing. running the d-test found code 51-inhibitor switch. running u-test found code 42-idle switch. no TPS code to be found other than the reported dealer finding. what gives?

i have taken the matter into haynes manual and am considering buying a multimeter once i find the right one to buy. what company (s) makes a good performance/price auto-multi meter?

thanks for any advice

paul