I know in general how torque converters work, and reading how you got the fluid out, and how the car is acting..... You might have a big air bubble in your torque converter. I know this post is a bit old, but is there an update? A torque converter needs fluid in it to build up pressure. This pressure is from the innards of the converter compressing the fluids. If yours is full of air it's compressing air and not fluid. Air is much more compressible that fluid. This is why you probably have no torque. I may not be explaining this worth a crap, but I grasp the concept in my mind. LOL! I work with fluid drive couplings and they are on a basic level a lot like a torque converter. They act the same way when the fluid is out or even low.

 

Good try but there isn't a way to have a bubble trapped in the torque converter that I've ever seen. Now, I'm not a transmission guy. I don't work on them if I can help it but I know theory and I have diagnosed a ton of them, pulled them, had someone (shop) fix them and reinstall and adjust them.
If the front pump is out then you have no fluid and the trans will not move the car. If the pump is working it will always push any air out of the system.
Low fluid will be a problem but it's low fluid causing foaming and slipping and that could create air or foam in the converter. But it's from low fluid and you'd see it low on the stick, or off the stick.

 

Maybe I should have littered my response with.... I know nothing about auto transmissions, but.....
Is there any way he could have gotten an air pocket in his torque converter and something is keeping the fluid from getting back in? Trash or anything? It is acting just like a fluid drive coupling acts when it is out of oil or very low. Has this problem been resolved by the OP?

 

Not a problem. You never know where that "right" answer is going to come from and it's not worth the time to try and disqualify your answer. Just don't take any ribbing to seriously as we love to poke fun at each other.

I just found out I was posting pictures of an oil pan when I thought it was the engine block on a stand. It was a picture of a port but I thought the port was leading down toward the pan not cast into it !!

Last word from OP is he was headed to a shop for a free diag. Hope he pops back up with the skinny on his problem.

 

I would check the fluid inlet screen somehow. If it is partially clogged you could lose oil pressure under most conditions. If you cannot check the inlet screen( IDK where it is on this trans) find an oil pressure gauge and do a line pressure test. I would imagine you are losing line pressure if there are weak shifts. You say it accelerates sluggishly? Is the car actually shifting or do you think it is in one gear?

 

Wow! This is just the information I needed. The tranny blew last week. Advice almost came in time.

 

Hello there! Well after years without driving my 850 (I kept running the engine on a regular basis) I decided to either fix or get rid of the car. I finally called several mobile mechanic. The last one got the the bottom of the issue and told me that the catalytic converter was bad. I got it replaced and also the drive axles which were bad for a long time. I got a new battery and checked all the fluid levels.

I took her for a spin and slowly and surely she ran better and better and I even managed to get the needed readiness status to go for an inspection . Yesterday I was on the freeway and had to slow down to a near stop due to traffic. Till that moment the car was running great without and warning indicator or CEL on.

Upon resuming driving / I pressed the gas pedal and felt the car was accelerating poorly / very sluggish.... I checked the dashboard and the CEL was now ON and the orange arrow as well. I managed to get home but car was slow with all gauges such as fuel / temperature / speed at zero... The electrical power was clearly low. Upon getting home I shut the engine down and there was not enough electrical power to get it to start again.
I checked the codes P1617 (engine oil level switch circuit) & P0560 (Electrical system malfunction).

My guess is that te voltage regulator is bad and with the car running the best I read is 12V and under heavy electrical load it goes down to 10 very quickly... I am wondering if the engine oil level switch circuit truly has an issue or if the code was triggered by the lack of electrical power during my drive.

Please any imput / ideas would be welcome... I hope to get the car running again soon She may be 20 now but she still looks amazing in and out.

Thanks!!!

 

We had the same issue on our 850 (CEL, Yellow arrow, all gauges at zero.) turned out to be a combo of weak battery and a bad ignition switch.....

 

This may be a stretch but have you tried pulling out the transmission control unit and cleaning out all the dirt and the reinstalling it? I did this and it helped when I kept getting cel and arrow lights.

 

Sounds like the alternator died and killed the battery.

I'd suggest you take it back to that mechanic to have him diagnosis and repair it.

If you want to fix it yourself, charge up the battery, start it, and measure the voltage while the car is running. If it is near 12v, take out the alternator and have an auto part store load test it. If it is bad, buy new to replace.

 

Hello. Well I got the alternator replaced with a used one (tested) and it seems to have resolved the issue. The one removed was in very sorry shape with a lot of corrosion. Anyway, now that I have the drive cycle completed (readiness is complete) what do you suggest I do next? The CEL is still on for now with the 2 codes previously indicated. How long do you think it will take for the ECU to remove them? Would it be better / faster to reset the ECU and redo the full drive cycle? Thanks!

 

I'm not aware that they would ever reset. Maybe they do and I just don't know it.