2000 Intrigue No Overdrive

Good day all,
I am new to this forum, looked like the most informitive group to ask.

I have a 2000 Intrigue with 188k miles on her. Runs great gets 34 mpg until yesterday. She will NOT go into OD. I was driving in city and noticed that going downhill or slowing the rpm went to idle speed. Freeway she revs to 3000 at 65 mph. Scanner said torque converter circuit stuck on. I have reset the code, no luck. Disconnected the battery hoping to reset circuit, no luck. What am I looking for to repair the problem. Car is definitely quirky! Please say this is a minor fix. This is the only transportation we have and at $4.20 a gallon, we need the high mpg. Any help as where to look and replace would be GREATLY appreciated.

I hope I can return the favor someday. I am not affraid to get dirty here, but I have limited experience with computer controlled cars. Used to building the old school hot rods, I just can't get them to sip gas like the younger cars. Thank you..........Rich

Welcome to AF.

Your post has been moved to it's own thread entitled "2000 Intrigue No Overdrive". We prefer that old threads over a certain age are not resurrected or an old thread hi-jacked to address your issue. Your future cooperation is appreciated.

these transmissions are known to strip the 4th gear O/D hub...resulting in loss of 4th gear. you need to go to a trans. shop and get the trans specific codes read with a high end scanner (regular Obd2 reader just does DTC's, not in depth codes)

Heres an old post with a similar problem:

http://www.automotiveforums.com/t424344.html

Doesnt seem very DIY friendly.

change you tranny fluid and filter and add a few lubeguards to top it off. = hopefully that will loosen up the stuck solenoid.

When is the last time you changed your tranny fluid?

The tranny pan gasket is reusable.

I took it to a trans shop and sure enough, OD splines are suspected to be stripped. He hooked up his puter to mine and found nothing electronic wrong. $1500 - $1700 was the quote. OUCH! I don't think the car as a whole is worth that, before the work. Any idea how much more damage I will do by driving it as is, until my money tree fully blooms? And who is the genius that thought of putting an oil galley right behind a trans bolt that if you do not replace it with the 1/8" shorter bolt, you will puncture the block? They really don't want the regular guy to work on his own vehicle anymore! I have had the car 3 years and I'll bet the fluid has never been changed, at least it has not been by me.

Got metal floating around in for one thing, second with no 4th, a possible CEL, in some states it will not pass inspection.

Dont use D, put the the shifter in 3 to drive....flush the tranny and drive it while you save up money.....its a good buck but you will be happy with a new trans when it gets fixed...as most of us will :-)

you had the obd2 code for the stuck solenoid,if you only see find
metal silt in the tranny pan = most likely a solenoid issue.

Its still a tough one to replace because the transmission still has to be removed to replace that solenoid. A different trans shop might have a different opinion and price quote. But labor alone for removing the tranmission isnt going to be cheap.

I believe the TCC solenoid code is bogus for a stripped OD. =the logic conditions show a bad TCC because that all the system knows and it mimics a bad TCC logically and that God it's smart enough to stay out of OD otherwise you would just damage it even more.

You can get an Intrigue for cheap on Ebay or ~$3000 on a used car lot.

The answer you seek is in your tranny pan.

Haven't seen a stripped broken OD sun gear on this forum for years = usually it break within the first few years.

You could drive it keeping it in 3rd (no OD) and when it breaks your transmission will need to be replaced from the damage.

Without speculating the OP should post the tranny DTC. If the TCC is stuck on we could assume it is most likely P0742 or maybe an extended DTC like P18XX. The problem is P0742 is not supposed to inhibit 4th-OD operation although IMO it could. The other TCC DTCs will inhibit OD. So it is really hard to say whether the OP has a valid TCC issue causing no 4th-OD or a bad 4th clutch shaft.

One other symptom of a bad 4th clutch shaft is when overdrive drops off while driving it will feel like you are in neutral until you manually downshift. Many of our members that get a bad 4th clutch shaft have over 100K miles on the transaxle since the 4th clutch shaft unhardened splines may gradually wear out.

seen a similar situation on a 2000 montanna van...after 30-45 mins the van would jerk and buck like a horse and throw a p0742 (tcc stuck on)...trans shop did a diagnosis and came up with an extended p1811 (max adapt/long shift) and the diagnosis was this: Most likely both codes (p0742/p1811) are both directly related to a faulty PCS (pressure control solenoid) in the transmission. The codes set, in this case, DID disable 4th gear but 4th would return when the codes were cleared. Now it is very labour intensive to drop the tranny down to acess the side cover and replace the PCS..and even if you went through all that there were still two problems: 1. there still may be a physical problem with the TCC and it may still need to be replaced. 2. the 4th gear hubs are without a doubt going to be in not-so-good shape if they are the original. So in this case..it was drop the pan and change the fluid/filter, add some lubegard treatment to possibly help the PCS (but not likely), drive in 3rd and when they got the money saved up, drop the tranny right out of the van and do a total overhaul (or, at least the 4th gear hub, PCS and TCC)

Thank you all for the information.
It still sounds like I am going to have to drop the trans to much of anything. I have found one at a junk yard with matching part numbers for $400. For a car with 186000 miles I guess this may be my best option. At least it comes with a 90 day warranty. I still believe the OD splines stripped from what you all have dignosed here. Or a combination including that. Very informative group, I have learned a lot. I hope this may help others and I hope to return the favor someday.

Thanks again,
Rich

I just want to point out that not all P1811 (max adapt, long shift) DTC or the erratic, hard shifting you get is solely the result of a bad PCS. Many members that have it replaced wind up getting the problem again later on down the road or PCS replacement does not resolve the issue. Shift timing as perceived by the PCM module is critical. Plus there could be other internal wear such as the second clutch pack which gets worse once mileage accumulates. Just so the word gets out check out the thread below. You might find the results and alternative fix very interesting. Definitely applicable to any Intrigue or other model GM cars since many do have the 4T65E autotransaxle.

Click here (http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=899929)

good point that is important to mention...the purpose of the p1811 code is supposed to tell you your shift points are off by a value greater than allowed...meaning the transmission has tried to adapt as much as it possibly can to the long shift. If the pcs was bad, then obviously the shift points will be off and you would get a p1811 (due to incorrect line pressure causing delayed shifts) but quite easily there could be true internal transmission wear causing this (or a combination of both)