I recently had my 01 Wrangler auto transmission rebuilt. Now when the Jeep sits without driving for several days, it hesitates when putting in gear. In otherwords, I put it in drive, step on the gas and don’t move right away. It’s like the fluid drained and has to be pumped back up. After 10 seconds or so, I drive normally. I brought back to the Transmission place, but it still does it. Any thoughts?
I don’t know that enough about auto transmissions to say for sure. I think that fluid is draining out of part of the transmission while it is sitting, probably the torque converter. It needs to be pumped back in before you can move accounting for the the delay.
This is probably a bad anti-drainback valve on the torque converter. Yes, you are exactly right, the TC is draining down over time and the tranny pump has to fill it back up before you can move. Considering the volume of fluid that has to be moved before the TC is filled, this can take a while.
Unfortunately, the anti-drainback valve is ON the TC itself. This means you have to pull either the engine or the tranny to replace it. Pulling the engine will give you clearance to work in the car and get to the valve, but pulling the tranny lets you work on it on the bench.
If you can’t handle the R&R (removal and reinstallation) of the transmission, then this one will have to go to a transmission shop. How many miles are on this transmission/car? If it’s getting up there already, and the price difference isn’t too great because the transmission will already be on the bench, you could consider having it rebuilt while it’s out. Only if it’s over 150K though.
-Matt
OH! I missed the whole part about it already being rebuilt!
Check your service invoice to be sure but the transmission place almost CERTAINLY installed a new TC during the rebuild. It’s generally an automatc replace item during a rebuild. If they did, this is THEIR problem! They will have to confirm the diagnosis, R&R the tranny, supply any necessary parts and replace those parts for free if the transmission rebuild is still under warranty.
Even if they didn’t replace the TC, you may have a case because they SHOULD HAVE! And since the problem started AFTER the rebuild, if they didn’t replace the TC, they may have damaged the valve during removal.
Either way, this is most likely their problem.
-Matt (again)