1989 Electra Park Avenue tranny issues?

[mandabear]

I recently purchased this car for 1000 dollars last week. Test drove fine, then about an hour after I bought it, got it up on the highway(should have done this before i paid for it, iknow) drove great, then got off highway and stopped at a light and the engine revved up and hesitated going into 2nd gear. It proceeded to do this hesitation at almost every opportunity at every stop during regular city driving. It will 'clunk" into gear at times. So i took it back to the service shop that sold it to me, and the guy i bought it from did a transmission flush for free. It helped the problem only slighty for a few days. So driving it to work this week, i've been letting up off the brake and inching up a bit at stoplights, and if its moving it will go into gear fine, but if i let off the brake and it won't move, if i press the gas it will either rev up and clunk into second or will hesitate for a minite before going into second. Today at every stoplight it would rev but would not even inch along in 1st gear, it just died. I put the car in park and restarted it, and it would start up just fine and drive fine until i have to stop again. Also the check engine light is displayed sporadically, and i can't get any codes to display other than 12, when i did the OBD test.
The guy i got it from said that if the tranny "goes out" within 30 days he will split the cost for me to put a used one in.
From what i'm reading this might sound like a throttle position sensor issue?
I can't tell if this is a sensor issue or a tranny issue or both. Please help a girl out, um...you can tell i don't know much about cars

[wrightz28]

Sounds like the transaxle is burnt toast

[mandabear]

Originally Posted by wrightz28

Sounds like the transaxle is burnt toast

so what do i do from here? would it be worth it to put a used transmission in, as the mechanic that i purchased it from has offered? I can start it up, and drive very short trips with no problem at all, its only doing this after I've driven for over 10-15 minutes. Also, why would the check engine light be coming on if its a tranny issue? I apologize for my ignorance...
Thanks,
Amanda

[wrightz28]

Well,what you have to do is check the fluid level and condition out. How many miles are on the car all together?

[mandabear]

Originally Posted by wrightz28

Well,what you have to do is check the fluid level and condition out. How many miles are on the car all together?

the tranny fluid is a normal cherry cough syrup type color, does not smell or look bad and is at the right level. It looked this way when i bought it, and looks this way after the transmission flush. The car has 149,000 miles on it, and since I just bought it, I do not know the history of the car, other than a new fuel pump and water pump were supposedly put on the car before I bought it. The mechanic was surprised that I was having problems, because SUPPOSEDLY it ran fine before they sold it to me.
Thanks,
Amanda

[wrightz28]

Unfortuantely, you're right in the time frame mileage wise for the transaxle to croak and that's under "normal" usage. As a general rule of thumb, you should never flush the fluid out of a transmission/axle with over 80K miles not knowing it's service history, usually does more damage than good.

Whan I bought my '87 it had 72K on it, and the car was abused, BADLY. I had to rebuild the motor and transaxle, and after the rebuild it ran for 5 years and about 30K miles, then I had slipping issues again. I repalced the valve body on it, filter, fluid and all was well again.

[DRTaurus]

I have a 1988 PA with 250,000 miles and the trannie has been flushed twice in that time and it has NEVER been worked on otherwise. A previous car had a problem with the torque converter lock-up solenoid so I just disconnected the electrical connector to stop it from locking up. The problem with that was that it wouldn't unlock when slowing down. I would take your car to a transmission shop and have it diagnosed before thowing in the towel.

[mandabear]

Originally Posted by DRTaurus

I have a 1988 PA with 250,000 miles and the trannie has been flushed twice in that time and it has NEVER been worked on otherwise. A previous car had a problem with the torque converter lock-up solenoid so I just disconnected the electrical connector to stop it from locking up. The problem with that was that it wouldn't unlock when slowing down. I would take your car to a transmission shop and have it diagnosed before thowing in the towel.

I took my PA back to the mechanic that sold it to me and he put a used tranny in and it runs great now.