I have 1992 T-bird that has a 113,000 miles and the transmission is slipping a little. I changed the transmission fluid and new filter at 105,000 miles. The fluid did not look bad and there were no problems, about two weeks ago the engine would miss while at stop lights then the other day the car was bucking some which was the transmission slipping I checked the fluid level and it was just below the cross bars so I topped off the fluid level and the car drives better however the transmission is still slipping some even while the cruise control is on. The slipping mimics like the engine missfired ?The fluid still looks good. My question is would having the fluid flushed and changed with a new filter would this solve my problem or is there a mojor problem going on ? Should I go to the dealer or a transmision shop or can I go to a regular garage for this work ? I am affraid of a transmission shop I am scared they will see $$ signs and try and sell me a rebuilt transmission. Sorry for the dissertation !
You sound like you’re describing converter clutch shudder/chatter. I don’t know that there’s a remedy for this other than to have the thing disabled …as in cheap.
Try this. When the “misfire” appears at a cruise condition …tap the brake pedal DON"T SLOW THE CAR - JUST GET THE BRAKE LIGHTS TO ILLUMINATE! This typically disengages the clutch. If the condition goes away and then shortly returns …that’s your problem.
Will replacing the torque converter and flushing the fluid and new filter fix this problem ?
I dunno if it’s the problem. Have you done as I suggested? This will point to the converter clutch as the source of your problem. If it is, then I would probably exchange the fluid to see if that’s the source of the converter shudder.
Then you can consider more serious remedies.
It sounds like the transmission is on the way out and if you changed the fluid/filter in an attempt to cure this problem then it’s too late.
Also, you can’t always look at transmission fluid and determine if it’s good or bad.
If that’s the original transmission then all of those important rubber parts inside (seals in the clutch packs, etc. etc,) are about 19 years old and at some point rubber parts give up.
Just for a hoot, shift the trans into DRIVE, not OD, hold the foot brake down and try to quickly rev the engine. I think the stall speed on the converter is around 1800 or so RPM. If the engine revs to 2500 RPM or on up then the transmission is likely on the way out. If you do this stall test, do it quicky and preferably only do it once. If you want to try it twice allow the engine to idle for a few minutes before a repeat.
On the offchance this problem is not related to the transmission and the bucking is ignition related you should consider the possibility of a failing ignition module. Your car should be a TFI-IV model and these were very prone to module failures. Testing the modules is a coin flip that may or may not show a problem with the module being bad anyway. It’s a replace and hope thing.