its my transmission or something

[TheEdgeofSanity]

ever since i've had my car, I've known that its transmission has something wrong with it. Anyhow, I had the tranny fluid changed by a trusted shop and they said that there was alot of sediment and some metal shavings indicating wear. That was 10,000 miles ago at 92,000 miles and now my cars really starting to drive odd at 102,000. Firstly, when i accelerate, holding the pedal at a specified point, the rpms will go up to, say, 3,000 rpms and the car will feel like its bogging then suddenly it will jump up its rpms and acclerate normally. also, when its not doing this and driving relatively normal, it will make this weird grinding feel in the gas pedal when shifting from 1st to 2nd. I'm not sure if the bogging is the transmission, fuel system, or something else though because I've never changed my fuel filter and it might be clogged? i really don't know so if you guys have any ideas please tell me because i'm afraid that its my trans.

also, does anybody else's alero have issues staying in 4th gear? if its in 4th and i barely touch the gas pedal, it jumps back into 3rd. any ideas?

[Redog]

The downshifting thing is normal. Cars today do that to get up and go for getting out on the highway and stuff.

The bogging issues, I would check the fuel filter, maybe the fuel pump is going, but your problem doesn't sound like a tranny problem. My Alero did the same thing right before the fuel pump took a crap

[TheEdgeofSanity]

^^thanks...just curious, but how much does a new fuel pump & install cost?

i'm going to try a new fuel filter first and might have the pressure at the rail checked by our mechanic

[Pacho]

fuel pump at aap is $220+ and install yourself. get a haynes manual for $20 at aap and save yourself some money in exchange for a few hours.

[TheEdgeofSanity]

$220? wow thats pretty steep....

my friend just had his truck's fuel pump changed and its an in-tank and it was less than 200 for the pump and install

[kniedelm9490]

autozone tried tellin me the fuel pump was like 300+

[TheEdgeofSanity]

bump bump!!

Acceleration problems are continuing. Its gotten so bad now that it happends evry time I acclerate and its the worst when I have the car floored from a complete stop. Its the worst when the car's up to temperature. The RPM's go up as usual and then the trans shifts to 2nd and the rpms go down like they're supposed to then they wildly jump up and fly around then go back down. I'm almost sure that its my transmission but is there anything I can do? i've been trying to go easy on the old girl but its so bad that even normal driving is causing it now. how much is a transmission? i bought my car in december of 2006 for $3900 so is it even worth a transmission?

[rowdygls]

I'll go out on a limb here...are you throwing any codes ??

If not...when was the last time your plugs were changed ?? also and this will sound a little off but...I would have the back pressure checked...it could be a clogged cat. Your issue sounds very similar to my issue. Also is the car running hotter then normal ??

[[ion] C2]

Cut your cat off and see what happens. Mine drove terrible and overboosted, way too much backpressure.

[rowdygls]

I already know I have a clogged cat..just to lazy to replace it. The reason the car drove normal at night was because it kept the cat and engine cool enough.

[TheEdgeofSanity]

hmmm... the cat could be a possibility. are there any other symptoms? my car's been running hotter lately but i thought that could be because the trans was overheating or something. also, why would it only affect the 1st to 2nd shift?

also, even without any light of my dash, could there be codes that need to be checked?

[rowdygls]

I'll describe what mine was doing in MI. I could get up to about 30 during the day...if I was lucky 40-50, but it wouldn't hold the rpm's and I couldn't go much faster. If I tried to keep the car at 50 it would shoot up to 3000 or so and then drop back down to normal for maybe 30 secs and would then go back up to 3000. My temp gauge was going through the roof the whole time this was happening. I'm up to temp (190-210) just by going around the block at 30-40...thats how bad my cat is plugged. If the tranny is as bad as it sounds...I would think you would be throwing codes. The cat not so much. Do you have headers ?? Do you or anybody outside the car hear any whistling ?? Once you get it up to speed past 2nd gear and lay into the gas does it bog and start acting up ??

[TheEdgeofSanity]

nope, my car is stock. after 2nd gear, it drives fine for the most part but sometimes seems to be lagging in power.

[rowdygls]

Hmmm...I'm out of ideas as well.

[TheEdgeofSanity]

well, i may take it to a trusted mechanic and see what he says.

i'm out of ideas. i'm pretty sure its my transmission but would hate to have the darn thing rebuilt and have the problem still.