Hey all, I have researched my brains out for two days with no good answer. I just bought the car for $600. It has 264,000 miles, the 3.0 and auto transmission awd. The car drives fine in reverse, but in any other gear, it will barely move no matter how much throttle is applied.

I plan on pulling the motor and trans to rebuild and replace all seals anyway, but I am not sure exactly which part to replace to fix this. The lady who sold it said some tranny shop told her it was some module in the trans that controls something like 3rd, 1st and cruise control…? She said cruise control died on her just before the trans totally died. I have read about the pcm's crapping out, but everything I have read says it gives a rumble strip type of feel or jerking when driving. This doesn't apply to me.

Could it be the valve body since it isn't all gears, or does it sound electrical? I am not interested in just buying another trans new or used, I would like to rebuild this one knowing it is solid since it is for my wife and she will be traveling a lot with our daughter. Thanks for any help you can give.

 

Anybody??

 

Gotta say I'm not impressed with the help I didn't receive from this site. I had high hopes someone would know, especially since it's a very common problem with these vehicles. Over 100 views and not one idea from anyone. Thank god for google and youtube.

 

Get it towed to a Auto trans shop for diagnostic.

 

Isn't the point of this forum to get advice and ideas to avoid something costly like that?? I am not going to pay hundreds to be told something I could possibly learn here. After a month of searching the web, I figured it out. Now I know exactly why I need before I even tear into it.

Perfect example, the previous owner did exactly what you said and was told it was a control module of some kind. Thank god she or I didn't listen, because they were way off on what the actual problem is. Most shops just bs and guess anyway, and they don't care if thy are wrong because they aren't paying for the wasted parts. I have never taken a vehicle in to a shop and I never will. Like I said, thank god for google and youtube.

 

So let us know what was wrong it & share your knowledge with us, so we shall share with others.