Engine/Tranny Problem

[enve]

Okay, I've been having alot of problems with my 99 2dr coupe grand am lately. I believe it is mostly because of the way i drive it, so lately and for now on i have been babying it like hell, going 55 in 65s, and generally 5 mph under the speed limit, normally i try not going over 55 mph because it begins shaking. It doesnt shake alot, but the steering wheel shakes, and the front dash, which i believe is because of the engine. But this isn't my problem. Basically what is happening is every time i go from reverse to drive, or from park to drive and accelorate it seems the tranny doesnt catch and it will rev up to about 6 grand before it finally does, but what i found out is that when i just barely hold the pedel down reving at around 1k rpms IN DRIVE after about 30 seconds to a minute it will finally catch and begin to accelortate. Also, when i try accelorating quickly, not very fast, just a couple mphs faster than most cars my entire engine bay, steeringwheel and front end begins shaking violently. I am kinda stumped on this, i havnt taken it into a shop because i dont have the money to get it completely check out, any one have any ideas?
Also when i am just normally driving around it hesitates to go from 1st to 2nd, 2nd to 3rd, and so on. I think i could be my transmission, but i've seen alot of people mentioning spark plugs being the cause of transmission problems and thought that mabie my 6 cylinder is only working on 5 thus creating extreme knock, or it may be my catalatic converter, if u have experienced anything like this or similiar plz tell me how you fixed it and what your symptoms were so i can attemt to diagnose my own care. Sorry for such a long post just trying to give as much detail as possible, if any of you need to know any more info about it let me know. It is an automatic transmission also.

[kevin_W]

Hi...
Sloppy or late shifts sound like either a bad pump in the tranny or tranny fluid is bypassing worn/burnt clutch pack seals. Check if the tranny oil is dark and burnt. An additive to thicken tranny oil might help a little. Spark plugs shouldn't cause tranny slippage.

Good Luck...

[kmohr3]

I think you're going to have to get the engine working properly before you can fully evaluate what the transmission is doing.

If you're driving around with a constant engine mis-fire you're gonna trash out the cat eventually, too.

Have someone that knows cars look at it.