95 Riviera Transmission Problem
sirnation
12-11-2005, 10:54 AM
When driving up a major hill my tranny will go down to third gear and then stay there after going over the hill. I have to turn the car off for a few minutes to get the tranny back to normal. Does anyone out there know what might fix this problem? Tranny is fine otherwise.
Sully98
01-24-2006, 09:52 PM
My 98 Riv also had a tranny problem, the service light just came on and there where no sympoms, and i wound up having to get the tranny rebuilt, and it only had 50k miles on it.
classicradiorepair
01-25-2006, 08:30 AM
Sirnation,
Did you locate the source of your tranny problem?
A week after christmas my Riv wouldn't shift back into overdrive either, and I traced down two problems: I had a bad brake switch retainer, and one of the contacts in one of the two brake switches was bad.
Replacing this retainer ($1.74), and cleaning the contacts fixed not only the tranny shift issue, but also got my cruise control working again. None of these problems will set an MIL, but it will store codes for the cruise.
There are two switches on the brake pedal assembly that control the brake lights, cruise servo vacuum release valve, ABS, and TCC. If these switches are out of adjustment, have dirty contacts, or your retainer is bad, you could have serious "transmission problems" or a non-functioning cruise and not even know the cause. It's a simple check - all you have to do is pull the panel under the steering column to have visual access to these switches. If you do, the two plungers should be adjusted so that when the brake pedal is up (released), only the notch in the head of the plunger is visible when you look at them from the side. Checking contacts is easiest if you pull the switches apart and have visual access to which pins go to which sets of contacts. (An ohmmeter helps to check this, otherwise just clean every contact well, I use 600 grit sandpaper, followed up by printer paper and contact cleaner.) Watch out for flying springs on the plungers if you go pulling these apart tho!
Nicholas
Did you locate the source of your tranny problem?
A week after christmas my Riv wouldn't shift back into overdrive either, and I traced down two problems: I had a bad brake switch retainer, and one of the contacts in one of the two brake switches was bad.
Replacing this retainer ($1.74), and cleaning the contacts fixed not only the tranny shift issue, but also got my cruise control working again. None of these problems will set an MIL, but it will store codes for the cruise.
There are two switches on the brake pedal assembly that control the brake lights, cruise servo vacuum release valve, ABS, and TCC. If these switches are out of adjustment, have dirty contacts, or your retainer is bad, you could have serious "transmission problems" or a non-functioning cruise and not even know the cause. It's a simple check - all you have to do is pull the panel under the steering column to have visual access to these switches. If you do, the two plungers should be adjusted so that when the brake pedal is up (released), only the notch in the head of the plunger is visible when you look at them from the side. Checking contacts is easiest if you pull the switches apart and have visual access to which pins go to which sets of contacts. (An ohmmeter helps to check this, otherwise just clean every contact well, I use 600 grit sandpaper, followed up by printer paper and contact cleaner.) Watch out for flying springs on the plungers if you go pulling these apart tho!
Nicholas
Automotive Network, Inc., Copyright ©2024