Buzzing when Shifting Into Gear??

[manofpeas]

O.K., weird question, I hope other Avenger owners have heard something like this or of it before.

I just bought a 1999 Avenger Sport 6 cyl with the auto trans. It has 58000 miles on it. When I shift into Drive or Reverse, the car shifts fine, but there is a loud buzzing for a second. Hard to describe, it sounds like a huge, lower-pitched novelty buzzer and it goes for as long as the transmission is shifting from one gear to the new one. The car buzzes when your foot is on the brake and you go from Park to Drive to Reverse and between any gear and Drive and Reverse. Also, when coming to a stop at lights, it does the buzz for a moment right before the vehicle comes to a complete stop. As the car starts moving again, it buzzes briefly.

I took the car to a mechanic, who looked at it, said he'd seen Chrysler transmissions buzz like this before, and people drove them for years with no problems shifting. He advised me to leave it and not worry about it until the tranny stops shifting. However, it's actually kind of embarassing to have this SUPER loud buzzing every time I shift into gear or stop at a light. Finally, I don't like the thought of driving a car that's making loud noises, as my hunch is that I'm doing more serious damage to it and fixing it now would be preferable to fixing it later.

Anyone have any idea what I'm talking about and how to fix it? Any help is GREATLY appreciated.

P.S. ALSO, THERE DO NOT APPEAR TO BE ANY FLUID LEAKS. THE TRANSMISSION FLUID LEVEL IS FINE, AND THE FLUID IS NOT BURNT OR OTHERWISE ABNORMAL. THE PLASTIC COVER ON THE SHIFT HOUSING IN THE PASSENGER COMPARTMENT DOES SEEM A LITTLE WARM TO THE TOUCH, WHICH IS DISCONCERTING, BUT OTHERWISE, IT DOESN'T SEEM TO BE RUNNING ALL THAT HOT. AGAIN, ANY HELP IS GREATLY APPRECIATED, I JUST HOPE I CAN FIND SOMEONE WHO KNOWS EVEN A LITTLE ABOUT THESE TRANSMISSIONS AND THE AVENGER IN GENERAL.

[Jeep8402]

I have a 1997 Dodge Avenger ES V6 that does the same exact thing. Owned it for the past 50,000 miles and has done it since I owned it. Dont know what it is but doesnt seem to be getting worse.

[fiberglasscivic]

That really is something that you should keep in mind. I have never heard of the automatic buzzing loud enough to be annoying. There should be a slight hum when you first shift into drive or switch from drive to reverse and vise versa but nothing should be loud enough to be annoying and it shouldn't happen as often as you describe. IMO it sounds like a problem with the torque converter, or something directly related to your gears. I would get a second professional opinion (preferably a local dealership).