Question about Transmission Shifting

97whitez71 · November 10, 2005

Brought the ’01 Burb in today for fuel module electrical connector recall. Since we bought the burb used, it’s started the steering clunk. I asked them to check to see if it has ever been changed. No, they wanted $180 to fix that. No thanks, I’ll handle it. I also asked them to check the transmission shifting. Once it gets into overdrive (at about 40mph), no matter what speed I’m going (40-75) if I want to go around someone on the interstate and press the gas a little it just stays in overdrive. If I push hard enough, it will eventually jump down to 3rd (I’m assuming). My question is, shouldn’t there be some sort of passing gear or something. In my ’97, when I hit the gas just enough it will come out of overdrive but won’t jump down to 3rd, but seems to find a 3.5 gear. I know this terminology isn’t exactly right, but hopefully it’s understood. Or is it that I'm having to hit the gas so hard that once it finally comes out of overdrive it's getting a lot of gas that makes it seem to be jumping into too low of a gear? The dealer drove it and said the programming on the transmission is fine but that the truck has a loss of power or something like that. They say it’s because it hasn’t had regular maintenance, according to their records. Well, duh, I wouldn’t dare pay that much to have oil changed, etc. He said the coolant and transmission hasn’t been flushed. What the heck does that have to do with power? The truck only has 74,000 miles on it. The dang book says not to drain coolant until 150,000 miles. They tried to tell me that they flush coolant at 30,000 mile intervals. Sorry about the rant, but does anyone have an idea on the transmission shifting? Thanks.

I-H8-4Ds · November 11, 2005

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe what you're describing with the "3.5" gear is actually your torque converter unlocking. It'll unlock the converter first, in preparation for a gear change, and then will kick down to the next lower gear with a little more pressure on the pedal. I'm also pretty sure that the transmission never shifts gears with the converter locked up.

97whitez71 · November 11, 2005

You might be right. What's happening is that I almost have to push it to the floor before it will unlock or anything. This just doesn't seem right. Am I correct?