My 99 Taurus is having an issue, :confused: Occasionally and only when it is warm it will what I would describe as a hard shift into first gear, its not slipping, its trying to shift, then does, with a kind of thunk! I had the tranny flushed and filled, still happened every now and then so took it to a tranny shop. They drove it, of course, it did not do it on the road test then they did all the diagnostics and could find nothing wrong with the tranny itself. I am at a loss!! As I said this is only from a start and only into first gear, all others working fine. It can do it on one stop and then not at all the rest of the drive. Any thoughts on this anyone??

So randomly when you try to accelerate from a stop the car won't go anywhere, then all of a sudden the transmission engages harshly and will shift into 2nd, 3rd, and 4th just fine? Or are you saying that it does this harsh engagement to 1st when slowing to a stop? Does the engine speed increase before the engagement as you're accelerating?

-Rod

Thanks for responding, guess I wasn't really clear. You go from a stop, the car goes forward, so I guess the problem is in the first shift not the first gear as I said, it is that first up shift that seems to be the problem. You get to going and when it should shift it kind of hangs then seems to just bang into that gear. It kind of jerks. It is odd, I have had cars with tranny problems and this just doesnt seem the same, the engine does not seem to race as you would expect when this happens. And it does then shift quickly into gear. It is only from a stop on that first up shift. No problems with any of the higher gears or reverse. I guess I am used to the opposite with tranny problems all of mine seem to have started with overdrive when they went bad. As I said I did take the care to Amco and they couldnt find anything wrong with it there either but it seems to be getting more frequent but only when the car is warm, never cold. ????
Thanks
Cathy