2001 Aurora transmission "kick"

Since I bought my car at 49600 miles, the transmissions kind of kicks when it changes into gear. It doesn't do it all the time but has become more frequent lately. My car now has approx. 104K on it (I drive about 100 miles a day). I talked to a GM tech once, he said it sounds like a common problem with Auroras & Intrigues with the Pressure Control Solenoid and/or PWM Solenoid (?) in the transmission. Along with the "kick" the car makes a whistling noise coming from the engine while the gas is being applied.

I have the same issues with my 2001 I thought the whistling noise might be from the fuel pump. Try driving with the rear trunck pass through open if it is like mine it is alot louder. I will be watching for replys to your questions.

A vacuum leak will also cause that annoying whistle, but from the engine compartment. It's usally a pain to isolate where the noise is coming from if there isn't an obviously cracked fitting or loose hose. You can do it with a homemade stethoscope made out of a piece of rubber hose. Just listen around with it until the whistle gets louder.

You might check the motor mounts if you do have a leak. Too much movement can tug on vacuum lines. I heard someone mention that could cause the hard shift out of park into D or R, if that is what you are describing with your tranny trouble. I get this 1-2 times a month (on an older Aurora though). Unfortunately it's not my motor mounts and has proved equally difficult to pin down. The good news is I'm up to over 180,000 miles and it hasn't killed anything yet.

Well, this whistling only occurs when the transmission is acting up. The "kick" or jerk I feel occurs when the gears are changing from 1st to 2nd, 2nd to 3rd, etc; I do not have any difficulty shifting from P to D or vice versa.

I have had two pc's replaced. (01-77,000 miles) Feels like running over a rumble strip when shifting from 2nd-3rd.(atm) Then get high rpm/rough shift. The whistle/whining noise i had was defective smog pump. If the dealer replaces it you might as well replace the smog check valve also. My dealer didn't. Had to go back two days later when ses came back on.

Are the pc's you mentioned the pressure control solenoids in the tranny? If so, how much did it run you? Did it correct the jerk when the gears change? How much did the smog pump run you too?

I had the tranny flushed about a month ago, but it's still changing the gears pretty rough, so that didn't help. The car seems to be acting up more often lately.

Is your car a 2001 also?

I am having the same problem with a Buick Regal LS 3800 4t65-E tranny. I am also interested in the costs involved with the PCS?M replacement, or whether this could be caused by any other sensor, electrical, or vacumm component. If indeed my trans is slipping, or long shifts, are there higher visc. fluids or additives that would help and not aggrevate the problem. I would like to change fluid/filter but am hesitant, if it is a clog causing low pres and hard shifts it could help, if it is clutch wear it'd likely aggrevate the problem.

I have the same "kick" issue with my 97 Aurora trans. I don't have the whistling symptoms mentioned, but I'd be curious to find out if this is a solenoid issue as some have mentioned as a common problem. Does anyone know if this is an easy fix (parts/labor)? Mine has 156K.

Well, the shift solenoids are easy to get to. I don't think that is the issue. My main trouble turned out to be the turbine speed sensor inside the tranny. The bad news is there are a couple of solenoids inside there with it that the tranny shop said are known to be problematic. Taking the tranny out, reinstallation, some disassembly labor, plus 2 pages of gaskets, 2 solenoids, a speed sensor came to $1150 plus tax. It was about $450 in parts and $700 labor.

Just to possibly reassure everybody, I did get an intermittent input speed sensor code in the computer for my trouble.

I have had the codes checked and one did come back for the speed sensor, but I had no idea what that was. My brother mentioned it was a transmission code and another place said I was getting a code for the transmission also, so this is likely what my problem is. Did you take your car to transmission specialist or to the dealer?

My ex has a 2001 Intrigue and says he's having the same problems. Why hasn't GM recalled the faulty parts?????

I took it to a tranny shop to get the speed sensor fixed. I had a great experience with the 2nd shop I went to anyway.

I've not really been on speaking terms with the Olds dealer here in town for a couple of years. They did some really crappy work for me, totally misdiagnosed a misfiring problem They changed a couple of coil packs and screwed me out more $ cleaning the injectors since I wouldn't let them change the 'bad' ones- all for what turned out to be a s.p. wire arcing. That and they tell me I need like $2500 of other work every time I come in. Apparently work done by other garages and myself doesn't count...

I'm skeptical of going to the dealer b.c I know, me being a lady, they would try to tell me all kinds of things are wrong with my car and charge me an arm & a leg. I was thinking of taking my car to Aamco and have it checked out. I used to own a '96 LSS before the Aurora. There was a knocking coming from my tranny so I took it to Cottman Transmission. They charged me $2200 to rebuild the trans only for me to bring it back 2 months later with the same knocking. He kept my car for 2 weeks only to find out that it was a cracked fly wheel the whole time! A $300 job, which he graciously did for free (I'm being sarcastic here)! So I'm very skeptical of getting tranny work done at all. The Aurora runs fine, it just has that terrible "kick" when it changes gears.
I really appreciate your help on this. I'm pretty convinced that the speed sensor & possibly the solenoids are my problem, also considering after seeing so many people with the same problem. You'd think GM would have fixed this problem since it's recurring in every Aurora from '95-'01 that I've seen so far! Thanks again!

The guys that worked on my car said they saw a lot of the same problems with the solenoids inside the transmission and especially the shift solenoids on the bottom. They thought it was a pretty crappy design. According to that mechanic, supposedly GM did change the design a bit starting with the 99s to head off some of the solenoid issues. It didn't sound like the speed sensor thing was rampant by any means though.

Have you looked in the backseat? Maybe there's someone whistling and kicking the driver seat :lol2: jk
I'm sure glad my Aurora's tranny doesn't kick, mine only misfired for a year!
Why the hell did I lose my mind and spent $12500 on a 1995 Oldsmobile 5 yrs ago?! :banghead: I don't know. Must have been the 250HP (that feels sluggish because of 4000 pound+passengers weight)
Just dump it and buy a Toyota camry/solara and never again have any problems.