4th gear issue on automatic trans

182 Views 1 Reply 2 Participants Last post by Iamantman, 3 d ago

oldmillxxx

Discussion Starter · 5 d ago

2017 with automatic transmission with 85K miles.

Hit a deer, and had the car repaired. They forgot to reassemble the transmission cooler lines correctly and (due to vibration/hoses flopping) I blew a hose off one of the metal cooler lines, and lost most of the fluid. It was black as black and figured it was engine oil as I could not see the source. Loaded on a trailer and took it home. After changing engine oil, took it for a drive and it began slipping very bad and had to limp home (about 5 miles) barely moving at higher RPM as needed to keep car rolling because the transmission was very low on fluid (didn't know that at the time). After finally discovering what it actually was, I added new fluid after repairing the hose and drained/added new fluid to the transmission. Now my Cruze shifts hard from 3rd to 4th gear. If taking off from a stop onto a highway, it will at times slip badly like someone riding a clutch on a manual not fully grabbing the gear. I know it is there, so I tend to lift off the gas during that shift and left it "gently" shift into 4th and then I am fine. I wonder if it is a clutch, or solenoid for that gear and what it will take to fix my issue. All other gears shift smoothly.

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Iamantman

· #2 · 3 d ago

oldmillxxx said:
2017 with automatic transmission with 85K miles.

Hit a deer, and had the car repaired. They forgot to reassemble the transmission cooler lines correctly and (due to vibration/hoses flopping) I blew a hose off one of the metal cooler lines, and lost most of the fluid. It was black as black and figured it was engine oil as I could not see the source. Loaded on a trailer and took it home. After changing engine oil, took it for a drive and it began slipping very bad and had to limp home (about 5 miles) barely moving at higher RPM as needed to keep car rolling because the transmission was very low on fluid (didn't know that at the time). After finally discovering what it actually was, I added new fluid after repairing the hose and drained/added new fluid to the transmission. Now my Cruze shifts hard from 3rd to 4th gear. If taking off from a stop onto a highway, it will at times slip badly like someone riding a clutch on a manual not fully grabbing the gear. I know it is there, so I tend to lift off the gas during that shift and left it "gently" shift into 4th and then I am fine. I wonder if it is a clutch, or solenoid for that gear and what it will take to fix my issue. All other gears shift smoothly.

I had a very similar issue on my car though I'm not sure how it initially started. But what you described is basically what happened to my 2018. Started slipping, then a few blocks later would barely move, and engine was free revving. Pulled over, had it towed to the dealer. Determined DOA and transmission was replaced under warranty.

No way to know for sure but you're going to have to pay someone diag to take it apart and inspect. If you have proof they didn't do the initial repair properly after hitting the dear you could have a case, but that sort of thing might be hard to prove. That's a case by base basis. Best of luck to you though.

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