Help!!!"97 Continental Tranny Problem!!!!

Hi Everyone, I'm new to the board, but have "lurked" for a long time.

Here's my problem:I have a 1997 Continental with 200 000km, sometimes, even with the lever in drive, the car goes into neutral at a stop. When I accelerate to pull away, it'll either stay in neutral, or suddenly jump into gear. When in motion, the car shifts smoothly through gears. On other occasions after I start the car, whether I put it in R, OD, D, nothing engages, and the car is in Neutral. If I turn the ignition off, and restart, the problem usually never occurs again. Does anyone know what the problem may be? I'm supposed to be trading the car in in 2 weeks!! Help!! Any possible short term fix would also be appreciated.

I was hopeing someone else would grab this before me, but it hasn't happened yet :(

Anyway, IMHO, there's only two possibilities with this problem, well... maybe three if you're not telling the whole story :)

None, or very little transmission fluid..
Destroyed, defective torque converter..

Now, with one of these scanerios, overfilling the fluid level and driving in mildly extreme conditions can cause some damage.

That's my :2cents: , but I'm no genius with the transmission electronics. The ignition cycling that corrects the problem sure makes it sound like electronics though :wtf:

Thanks for the input. My fluid level is fine, good colour, etc. I just spoke with a 75yr old "Lincoln only" expert in the area. Aside from the AX4N being the biggest piece of crap, he had a 3 suggestions:

1. The piston is toast
2. The valves are plugged
3. In some cases, he's seen the filter get plugged, and the computer putting the tranny in a "safety mode" which will put the tranny in Neutral only no matter what is selected, in order to prevent any major damage.

Luckily, he is going to look at the car on Tues. (my luck its a long weekend here), check the codes, pull the pan and see if I need a tranny, or if the problem is something cheap and stupid.

I just found a used tranny with only 51000 documented KM (33000 miles) for a great price. At least I know that I should get at least 60-70k miles out of it before it takes a crap on me, which should give me plenty of time to trade the car in (I love my Conti., maybe I can find one with an upgraded tranny in my area).

Any additional input is greatly appreciated,
mfar

At long last , I had to solve the problem of my Lincoln's tranny. Suprise! The piston is toast. I've been fortunate enough to find a tranny with only 30k miles, for the bargain basement price of $550. I guess I have a little bit of time before I trade my "silver bullet" in. It'll be a sad day.
mfar

Thanks for the follow-up message.

What are you trading the 'silver bullet' in for? I mean, what will you be driving away with?

Not quite sure yet, but since I'll have time, I'm definately going to try and get the most bang for my buck. I've already been offered a 97 Honda Accord straight up, and various Mini Vans from all sorts of manufacturers in the 2000-2002 model year. I can't see myself in an Accord (just not me ) and I'm definately not a mini van kinda guy. Who knows, maybe a Lincoln that's had the probs. solved by someone else? Stay tuned to find out what the silver bullet was worth straight up.
mfar

Trading a used car you know for a used car you don't is nearly always a bad idea. Someone may have made everything work for now but you never know the abuse the auto took prior to you getting it. You may very well trade one set of problems for another.

You're absolutely right. I plan on doing as much research as I can about anything I'm interested in, and my mechanic has already been warned!!!!
mfar