Not sure really what this is... just started happening not ALL the time but more frequent and today just now I was surprised...

I have a 2001 xlt regular cab, 2.3l 4 cylinder auto.

When driving just at about 45-50 range and accelerating I feel what appears to be it trying to change gears but it's like it's caught on something and I feel a shuddering feeling in the truck. Today driving to Sears it was like the rear end felt like it was stuck or slipping on something and kept making a slipping feeling and when I could feel it trying to change to the higher gear, perhaps overdrive? It didn't until I let off the throttle then re-applied it.

Any ideas what's going on?

I plan on changing the transfluid and might be doing that this weekend now along with changing the rear end fluid (I changed the rear dif fluid about 20k miles ago)

Truck has about 120k miles on it. Up until this nothing major just minor things to fix, blower, resistor...

This worries me though because it is happening more often. Almost like the gear is missing something somewhere and not engaging so it's slipping if that makes sense, but I can't tell where, either the trans or the rear end?

Thanks,
-Nigel

 

I see no one else is chiming in here. I had a similar experience with my 2001 Ranger. I thought it was the tranny. However, it turned out to be ignition related. I am still working on figuring out the exact problem, but mine eventually began throwing misfire codes. For me, the problem started when in low rpm and high torque (starting in a new gear) it would miss and hesitate, giving a slight lurch. I thought the clutch was slipping or something. But then it began doing the same thing when at steady cruise speed, only 2-3 times in a 5 minute span. Then it just began running rough altogether. Is that similar to what you're experiencing?

Have you checked to see if there are any stored codes? A scanner can pull up codes even if the CEL is not on. I believe the misfire codes are P0301, P0302, etc with the last digit being the cylinder number.

Hope that helps.

 

check the coil pack

 

I did put a new coil pack in after it began to run on three cylinders, shaking violently. That fixed the shaking, but it's still running rough. I'm beginning to think it could be a bad coil pack. Or maybe wires. Didn't mean to hijack this thread. I'll post a new thread about my rough running at low rpm woes.

 

New wires did the trick! I would never have guessed that old wires would make it hesitate like that.

 

Hi there, if it is the transmission and not the ignition system, I would look into your tranny solenoids because I have heard that they can make your car not shift up and you have to let off the gas for it to shift...

That's just a thought and not very well explained but I'm tired and I thought that might help you out :)

 

This is weird. It's a 3 year old thread made by Nigel that got bumped by someone else, normally it's the other way around.

 

 

lol

I'm the only one using the search feature I guess when I bump old *** threads.

But that's ok bumping old *** threads is my thing.

-Nigel