'95 Police Interceptor Transmission

[MR. GROWLGORY]

Dear Experts:

I am having trouble with my transmission. I have to finesse it into gear from a dead stop. I do this by holding back on the accelerator and waiting a few seconds before I give it a gentle spray of gas. If I give her the "normal" accelerator she won't move right away and will later SLAM herself into gear. The transmission works fine in the higher gears at the higher speeds. The transmission is relatively new with 50k miles.

I'm curious if the transmission fluid is being depleted due to the engine overheating. I had a problem a few months back with a bad radiator and auxiliary fan motor.

Please some one help me from being suckered into getting another new transmission. But don't hold back: if I need a new tranny tell me. I'm a man, I can take the bad news!!

Your pal Greg from Chicago

[rhandwor]

Pull the transmission dipstick and smell it if burnt you need a rebuild. A plugged filter can cause problems I would change the fluid and filter myself. Look for any metal shavings. If you have to get it rebuild ask them to put an inline filter from the heat exchanger. Some mechanics get lazy and don't clean out the lines and metal shavings take out the new one.
Be very careful if using silicion as it can plug a valve. A damaged radiator heat exchanger can put water in the transmission.

[fleettech]

I have also seen the filters drop out of place and cause similar symptoms

[ModMech]

Greg,

The '95 CVPI transmissions are the 4R70W (first year for these). Your symptoms are consistant with low fluid, or a "starved" ATF pump from the wrong pan. In '96 the pans were redesigned to hold slightly more ATF, and IF the newer pan was installed with the OLDER filter, you get exactly what you have - pump starvation.

Check your ATF level with the trans in PARK and the engine running with the fluid HOT on a level surface. It MUST be within the "xxxxxx" area, and preferrabally near the top. It is OK to overfill the trans by 1 PT (1/2 quart), but NO MORE, to see if this will correct your concern.