loud shifting of transmission

1997.5 Buick Century

When shifting gears from park into reverse i notice that it sounds like a "clunk". Ie: the shift is more erratic then ever before. Checked the tranny fluid level. It was BELOW normal level, so i added some ATF fluid. However the "thump" shifting is still present. This Century only travels like 6kms round trip by my mom to work, daily!!.

My '97 Regal LS doesn't have this problem, "Knock on wood"

Any comments or suggestions are appreciated,

from Brampton, ON

thanks

does it shift hard or just have a clank?

yes!! that better describes the sound as a "Clank". What could that be anyways?

Thanks again,

My Grand prix has a very agressive shift from park to reverse when its cold out side and the car is cold (when its sat over night). It has a clank at that time but when the car warms up the harsh engagement goes away and so does the clank. I am 99% sure my cars PCS is going bad the shift adapts are coming up but not enough yet to set the 1811 (max adapt code).

Ditto, I had a 1988 Oldsmobile Eighty Eight with the 3.8 Liter engine and 4 speed overdrive which did the exact same thing as you describe especially right after a cold start (first thing in the morning )and not every single time when it was warmed up. It did this right after the transmission had to be replaced under warranty. I had it back to the Olds dealer several times for this problem since it was under warranty. They replaced some type of springs in the tranny, overfilled this tranny slightly ( which they claim the dipsticks were wrong back then that the transmission was starved for fluid) and some other tsb bulletin repairs. Unfortunately they threw their arms up and said I would have to live with it. Eventually after several years it did go away on its own. And I never did have any transmission problems with the car until I got rid of it at around 120,000 miles due to it being wrecked for the third time in the front. How many miles on your vehicle and have you every had the transmission fluid flushed out ? You may try this first since its the cheapest route to take. I also talked to a transmission specialist at a private transmission shop after the vehicle was out of warranty and said there was a fix for this transmission that the dealer never had tried. It involved modifying the valve body inside this transmission. I never had it done due to the cost of this and also he convinced me that I probably would not have any problems with the transmission just the annoying clunk. Well he was right.