Need help with XJ Transmission/or something

[Woot]

Four days after buying our 97 xj cherokee The transmission stuffed up and left the car unable to move. We had the transmission reconditioned and then continued to have problems.
When taking off the car would change from what i believe is 1st gear. to second gear and then when trying to make the 3rd gear change the car will slip back into neutral for an extended period of time before making the change into the 3rd gear.However it did not happen all the time.
We returned it to the mechanics who recondition the transmission a number of times each time they said there was no problem. Eventually I went to the mechanic and made him come for a drive with me in the car and about 5 kilometres down the road the problem started to show.

We were advised that the problem may not be with the trassmission at all and possibly an electrical problem and they recommended that we take it to a particular auto electrician not far from their buisness. When taking it to this auto electrician and explaining that we had these problems after reconditioning the transmission He refused to accept our buisness and did not want to get involved with the vehicle.

We then returned to the mechanic to come to a desicion to send the car to jeep and have them have a look at the error logs on the computer or something. We were then givin the impression it was a problem with the solonoids . SO we then went back to our mechanic with the results where we were again told the problem must still be electrical. Something controlling the solonids must be malfunctioning. Once again they recommended us to an auto electrician but this time it was another company. They Claimed if there is an electrical problem These guys will find it. So we took it there,... When we picked the car up they said their was no charge. They knew what we were going through and felt sorry for us. Also They could not find any problem with the car.

After that we were told to replace the neutral safety switch because this could be causing the problem. This was not cheap to do the cheapest quote was $1000 so we had this done. Also we had not had reverse lights since having the Transmission reconditioned, We had mentioned this to the mechanics They apparently tried to adjust the safety switch to fix it. Anyway having the switch replace gave us our reverse lights back but Did not Fix our gear changing problems. Also the car started in park and neutral every time now.

Still the transmission continued to stuff up everywhere we drove it.... and still does. We have also taken the car out a few times with a quad bike on a trailer. And after a long drive in the car it would sometimes temporarily lose 3rd gear and i would have to drive home using the stick in 3 and going at a maximum speed of about 60-70 reving high. Driving in D would continue to go into neutral if i tried to go over 60-70 km's. We have other reasons to believe That having extra weight in the car or pulling a trailer will cause it to slip into neutral between gear changes for a few days after.

Now these days a new problem has appeared. Or hopefully a new clue to the old problem. When Taking off in D the car will take off really sluggy like its taking off in 3rd BUT if we use the stick to change gears while taking off (1-2 to 3 to D ) the car will accellerate correctly with power. So that is how we have to drive it now Manually changing the gears in an automatic transmission and occassionally still slipping into neutral for 2-8 seconds inbetween the 2nd and 3rd gear. There is also ther fear that if i try 4wd again i will lose 3rd gear for a day or so and have to drive home extremely slow again.

Anyway eventually the mechanics replaced the 3 solonoids and gave us a piece of paper saying if the problem continues it must be electrical and they are not going to look at it anymore since a year had passed and the warranty on the transmission was now expired.

So after a year of returning the car to the original mechanic and taking it to everyone they recommended we were still left with a car that doesnt change gears properly. The worst part is it took a bank loan to get the car in the first place now we are paying for a car that well.... sucks. I do not want to sell it as i will be ripping off anyone i sold it too or losing a lot of money by selling it ridiculously cheap. I also cant afford to spend money on things that will not fix my problem as we have already spent more on the car than we originally paid for it.

We really need some expert advice... or help.

[cantab27]

tps maybe,,,throttle body sensor,,when they go bad can make trans shift all over the place...but usually comes with a stalling problem as well ...

[BennyWA]

$1000 for the nss??? It takes 20 mins to change and it's worth $250 genuine????

Where are you located??? Sounds like you've been ripped off consistantly.

Sounds like the torque converter in the gearbox is low on oil or the belts are too loose.. definately a gearbox problem.

[rainman]

what year XJ & where are you?
Also have you downloaded the manual and read up on the trany and how it is controlled? maybe that will give you some ideas on where to look.
http://greatlakesxj.com/tech.html


hopefully some one nearby will have a spare Trany Control Unit you can borrow to see if that helps?
good luck with it.

Also rockauto.com if you have to by any more parts, takes about 6 days to get here. about 1/2 local prices even with postage. Have used them heaps.

[brenttj]

yep sounds like you have been shafted hard you can clean you own nss up if its not to far gone or buy from rock auto, agree with the 20 min job thing to
http://jeep-xj.info/HowtoNSSrebuild.htm that's how to rebuild one

[XJeepers]

Sounds like some of the funky shifting that was happening when I was experimenting with my second gear switch on OBDII. Try reset the ECU perhaps (might not fix it, but cant hurt it either):

Disconnect the POSITIVE battery Terminal and touch it to ground for 30 seconds. (This is to discharge the PCM capacitors, which maintain the Adaptive Memory.)
Reconnect the Battery Cable
Turn Ignition Switch to the “On” position but DO NOT start the engine
Turn Headlight “On”
Turn Headlights “Off”
Turn Ignition Key “Off”

Adaptive memory has now been flashed, or erased from the PCM.
When you start the engine it will be running off a set of pre-programmed tables that come with the PCM from the factory.
When you get the engine up to operating temperature the PCM will start to collect data for the “Adaptive Memory”.
The PCM will collect data for Adaptive Memory for the first 50 Warm-up Cycles.

Does it have any switches installed that you do not know what they are for? Could be the previous owner has/has tried to install a switch to hold second gear. Perhaps have a look around the loom from the TCU and see if it has any signs of being tapped into either currently or previously.

If you can find somone nearby that has the same vintage, you can try see if you can borrow a TCU to see if that is the problem (or at least rule it out).

Hope you dont get ripped off anymore Woot.

[bigkev]

Hi I see and herd of this before my XJ was doing the same after the mechanic washed down the motor to change out my trans, Im a Electrical Machanic by trade how come none of your mechanic have change the TPS (throttell position sensor) ? on the throttell body this is the sensor that tells the trans computer when to change gear to what speed the jeeps is doing and hold it in that gear. TPS are only around $60 and take 2 minits to change out, disconnect the battery first before you do the change over this all so clears the ECU mem and the trans computer mem hope this helps