I am having an intermittent problem driving my Protege LX AT. I will be driving along at around 70 mph (sometimes on cruise, sometimes not) and when the car goes up a hill too steep for O/D it tries to downshift. The only problem is when it downshifts, it is extremely rough and it won't shift up or down again until I stop the car and restart it. When this happens, sometimes the battery light comes on and sometimes it doesn't. Very odd problem, any takers?

 

the battery problem sounds like it could just be caused by this. basically, what is happening, is that an auto tranny has several clutches that control shifting, three in your tranny. reverse and first are on one, second and third are on one, and fourth and O/D are on another. when the seals go bad, the pressure just blows past the seals and the tranny either struggles to shift or doesn't shift at all. the bad news is that the tranny needs to be rebuilt. the good news is that it will be cheap if you do it soon.

 

o_O. So even though it works after I merely restart the car the tranny needs rebuilt? well crap lol. I think I might call my mechanic...thx man = )

 

oh, i forgot that part. could be an electronics issue. a lot of AT's don't actually have a physical OD. they just have a converter that basically moves the wheels faster than the motor (in a perfect gear ratio, the wheels and motor are going the same speed in fourth). i don't know a whole lot more than that about the electronics of a tranny, so i guess if someone else wants to chime in, go ahead.