Hey guys,

So I've got the car in the title of this thread. It's been shifting really hard into and out of 1st gear when accelerating and decelerating. I took it to my transmission guy and he's saying he's seen this problem a lot with this model car and it's a bad design of the valve body. They put in some aftermarket replacement, but they also need to do a full overhaul of the transmission. He says he's done either or (the valve body, or the overhaul) and it always comes back screwed up still. The only solid fix he's found is doing both. Unfortunately this is going to be about 2300 bucks.

Anyone know if this sounds familiar?

Thanks

 

The '04 transmission has the updated valve body. Maybe the first gear solenoid went bad. Get a second opinion. A complete new valve body (~$800.00 plus 4hrs labor) would fix the problem most likely but you may be able to just change one solenoid. (Same labor cost). I would not do a complete overhaul. Instead I would pull a trans from the wreckers. Lots available for under $1000.00 complete with low mileage.