First the battery now the trans... what's wrong here?

Hi. I just bought my Impala less than a month ago and it's been nothing but a headache. I'm just wondering what is wrong with my car...

First, I drove through standing water & the battery light came on & the car limped through the flooded street, then worked fine.

A week later my battery died and I had it replaced.

Now my trans is screwy. It shifts late and my car is slow. I can't really drive it past 55 and there is engine vibration at higher speeds. I also get hard shifts from a stop. The delayed shift & hard shift are both intermitant, but become more frequent as the car warms up. It's usually pretty bad once the temp guage is at about 50%.

I just had a trans service about 2-3 weeks ago (old fashioned flush & filter) and the fluid was dirty, but the pan was clean.

I tried disconnecting the new battery to reset the PCM. Everything worked great for about 5 mins, then the problems started again. I'm thinking that this was not because of the PCM reset, but because the car sat for 30-40 mins.

I also did a quick check for leaks/fluid levels etc... & found exposed wiring under the car (there's a piece of rubber there, so I'm assuming there is supposed to be some kind of housing for this.)

For now I am doing as the manual advises, and driving in 2nd. I had a mechanic check for codes and it must be throwing something because they told me to take it to a trans shop.

I am having a trans mechanic check it out tomorrow, but I can't sleep and I could use some info on what is wrong and how much it is going to cost if anyone is still awake.

Did they FLUSH? the transmission? That can be bad for an older transmission, a Pan drop/ filter change would be preferred. and the harsh shifts sound like Max adapt (Code P1811), Before it starts shifting hard, do you notice it hanging on shifts, or feel it slipping? Cuz Slipping Cutches cause long shift times, and the transmsission Compansates. And any number of things can cause the transmission to slip. Could have been caused by doing a transmission flush.

I took it to a trans shop. They dropped the pan, & replaced some fluid & the ping gaskets.

My money is on that it was possibly a solenoid in the tranny that went, or other funky electrical component... But a lot of the times that can cost just as much as having to replace the entire thing...


Sucky deal dude. Let us know what happened.

these impala's can be very troublesome...I know of many that had problems, many problems.. and this transmission is weak....and easy to fail...


before you purchase your next vehicle , use the internet to select a more reliable vehicle...

also find a reliable repair shop , and ask what vehicle they recommend...

NHTSA is also a great place to find out what vehicle owners had found problems , with their vehicles...after going to NHTSA. you will be amazed at how many bad vehicles are produced..

had same problem with my impala i bet a code p1811 will come up had my trani rebuilt from wat i understand trani just too warn out and it can't make up for it anymore

How deep was the water you drove through?

The PCM is located under the air filter housing on the drivers side, so if was was pretty deep, you may have gotten water in the PCM as well as the engine (as the air intake is right behind the driver's side headlamp) and possibly fouled a plug two. A foulded plug can sometimes act up under load but will otherwise work fine at idle or light load.