Big Thanks to Y'all

I have to give you all a big thanks. The tips and suggestions here saved me over $300CAD last month on my fiancé's 95 SL 1

My fiancé had a break down coming home from out of town and managed to hobble the car into the dealership. The dealership then proceed to quote $4500.00 for repairs. I have managed to do most of the repairs myself for about $500.00, (incl. 4 new tires).

Your posts on the EGR valve turned a $300 part + labour into a $5 cleaning - the cost of a gasket. Big thumbs ups to y'all on that one.

One problem has eluded us thus far however...

The trany (auto) likes to come out of 3rd occationally. The diagnostic came up with a missing 3rd code this time although previous tests haven't. The dealer is says that there is absolutely no 3rd gear and we need a $2k+ trany. I have driven it myself since - it is there, just down shifts to 2nd from time to time (pretty rare actually, but still... freaks her out when it happens)

I have read that there is a problem with wires flexing and wearing that causes an intermittent signal to the computer - makes it think a gear is gone so it shifts and records an error. I'm pretty sure the problem is not mechanical as the trany was replaced with a reuild a couple of years ago, not that many miles on it yet.

Any thoughts?

If it is a wiring problem, how hard is it to swap out these wires? (whole harness or just a section?) Where are the wires located anyway?(I haven't been able to figure which wires are which under there).

Thanks for any further assistance. You've all been a great help so far.

Warren.

the wires flexing was a TSB a while back(it may has been two TSBs), i don't have it now, i should be able to find is on monday, but i think it was only for 91-94. the wires were just the connector on top of the transmission.

what year was the donor transmission? did a saturn dealership do the work?

another common problem for the s-series auto trans was a loose input shaft nut, resulting in a ton of problems, the most common is a slam into drive.

She doesn't know the year of the trany. It was swaped out in November 2001 by a Saturn Dealer (different dealership). I'm not certain how to tell the year, are they marked?

She doesn't have any slam into drive. It simply likes to leave 3rd from time to time down to second or not shift up to 3rd for a bit. Then in a few minutes everything goes back to normal and stays that way for several days/weeks. Some times there are multiple occurances throught a trip.

if it was at a saturn dealership i'm sure it matches, but some trans shops have been known for swaping in the wrong transmission.

i will check on the TSBs as soon as i can.

sorry for the wait, i couldn't find the orginal TSB we were talking about for your year, but i found a possible nother - remove the center console and check the wires around the shifter mainly the right front.

Thanks I'll try that