Some of you may have read about this in my post in the performance section. Basically I have my car running again with the exception of three or four small issues. I need a new alternator cause my battery is dying when the car runs, then the car chokes down. The exhaust is very loud, so I suspect a leak in the exhaust. There is a hairline crack in the header, but animals may have nested in the exhaust as the car has sat for at least a year and a half. I'm mentioning these in case they may contribute to the cause of my third problem. When my unlce test drove the car, he said he could not get it to shift out of first.

He thinks something has become stuck from the car sitting, and I'm inclined to believe that this is the most likely cause. When the car first started up again, it would not go into gear. It was at the dealership at the time, and they said it was out of tranny fluid so they added some and it went into gear. They parked it outside. When I went to trailer it home, it popped in and out of drive and reverse while trying to load it, which made it a real pain to drive onto the tailer. When we got it home, we found that it was still low on tranny fluid, so we added about 2 and a quarter quarts of ATF +4 to it. It now stays in drive, but as stated before, it never shifts gears while in drive.

I've been doing some reading, and I found a lot of posts about "Limp Mode," and that seems similar. However, when I talked to my unlce about it (I haven't been able to drive the car yet, as I'm waiting for the new alternator), he said the car never go to second, only first. So I'm wondering, just so I've covered all my grounds, when the tranny is stuck in limp mode does it start in second or shift to it and stay there?

It's probably not my issue, but I want to make sure before I rule it out.

Sorry for such a long post for such a short question, but I just wanted to make sure that I included all the possible variables since I don't know anything about transmissions besides what I've read from searching the forum since yesterday afternoon.

My build: verttuner.com (hosted on my blog)

Unfortunately when it comes to automatic transmission, there is not too much you can do.

You could replace the filter, etc, but I think it would be a waste of money.

Either buy a new tranny, or start swapping to manual!

The car will be removed from limp mode as soon as you shut the car off. Once you restart it it will no longer be in limp mode, until it finds the cause of the problem again, it will then go back into limp mode.

You most like blow the solnoid pack or pump. I have never had this problem with my car, but those 2 are very fluid happy and will die fast without it. Course could be a bad tcm. Just my opinion, does it make any noise at all. Like the standard racheting sound? A whine? anything?

Go scan it and see y its in limp mode, also if you put 2 much fluid in, it is just as bad as not having enough. Just seems like the dealer wouldnt be off by 2 1/4 quarts.

well thanks for the advice guys.

Hopefully I won't need a new tranny cause I'm pretty much out of money now.

The dealer only said they added some, but the radiator had a crack in it when I took it to them that I warned them about ahead of time, so they really couldn't run it long enough to get a good measurement.

I'm not really sure if it makes any noises or acts like it wants to shift yet, I'm waiting on an alternator before I can try to drive it.
The battery only held out enough for my uncle to drive it up and down the street he lives on a little ways one time. All I know is that it wouldn't shift out of first for him.

I'll post again as soon as I can get better information on the problem.

Edit: Is there any way to test for a bad tcm. Just thought I check that over while I wait for this alternator to ship
Thanks again for the help, any other advice is appreciated as well.

My build: verttuner.com (hosted on my blog)

Could be your alternator isnt giving the tcm sufficent voltage to run properly also.

lol, I was actually gonna ask if that was possible yesterday, but I figured I was just grabbing at straws.

Well hopefully that's my problem. I won't know for sure till I get a new alternator though.

I found a decent deal on a used alternator on ebay. Right now I'm waitin on my slow ass bank to clear the money I deposited so I can put it in my papal account and get it shipped to me.

My build: verttuner.com (hosted on my blog)

I would if I had one. I usually don't have more than $20 in my bank account though, so it's not really worth having one. I'm a college student, and I commute about a hundred miles a day, so all the money I make working goes into my gas tank.

I'm trying to find a better job now to get my career started, but it's hard cause I don't have any recent experience. I had an internship in high school, but it was too long ago for most companies to care. So now I'm at a point where I don't have enough experience to get experience. That's one of the problems with the IT industry, there's jobs there, but few are for entry level candidates like myself. I'm training to become a computer programmer by the way.

My build: verttuner.com (hosted on my blog)

Ok, I've got the alternator now, and the car shifts now, so I'm really close to having my car back. I do have an issue with two leaks. The rear main seal leaks once the car warms up, so my uncle removed the tranny to change it. When he did so, he found a leak in the tranny as well. Apparently I have a bad gasket. He said it wasn't the main tranny pan on the bottom, it's on the side of the transmission, but it looks like another pan. Anybody know what he's talking about? I need to know the name of the part so that I can get a gasket for it.

My build: verttuner.com (hosted on my blog)

there are no gaskets for the tranny. You just use silicone on all those covers. There pretty easy to seal, but good luck removing the diff cover with the tranny in the car.

yea the tranny had to be dropped and we just used some gasket maker to seal it up. Car runs and shifts now, but I gotta get the new brakes on it and get it reregistered and plated so I can drive it home.

My build: verttuner.com (hosted on my blog)