Transmission problem! Please help

Maintenance/Repairs
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1

I bought a used car from a local dealer and 1 month later the transmission was completely done. With the help of my father (not an amateur, has been a professional mechanic for 40+ years) we re built the tranny, which made a huge difference but still had problems. The issue we have now is when driving I have to let go of the accelerator for it to shift into 2nd, then smooth into 3rd albeit at higher rpms, it will sometimes go into 4th then limp mode but usually goes limp mode when it tries for 4th. There is an option to manually select gears up to 4 on the shift tree, which works great until it tries to shift above 4th, then limp more again. The check engine does illuminate when it goes into limp mode. I am desperate at this point, anyone have ideas?

2
  • Don’t panic when the limp mode occurs. It’s designed to make your engine survive to make sure that you can drive to the workshop to repair the problem.
  • Limp mode is often caused by an electrical problem with the engine or transmission
  • Limp mode is a security state
  • Make sure that you go to a workshop or try to fix it yourself as soon as possible. It’s not good to drive around with limp mode
  • You can buy an obd2 scanner to check the cause of the limp mode yourself at home.
  • Do not just replace parts on your vehicle without reading the trouble code memory first.
3

Actually, it sounds like limp mode is occurring to save the automatic transmission from mechanical damage

A fine distinction, versus what you stated

HUH . . . ?!:confused:

4

Yeah limp mode is just intended to get you home or to a shop like when the wife took the Olds and it went into 2nd gear on the freeway. She came home and changed cars and we towed the Olds to the transmission shop.

5

Those symptoms could point to either a problem in the electronic control of the transmission or something wrong with the mechanicals inside, or both. Get an experienced pro’s diagnosis on this. By “experienced” I mean someone who has experience with diagnosing and repairing Mitsubishi transmissions. Once you have an accurate diagnosis you can decide whether to fix the problem yourself or have them do it.