had some issues one the way home

[Supreme Cutlass]

I took a 45 minute drive to my grandparent's home, then after I got off the freeway, the car made a grinding noise, wouldn't shift, and took quite a bit of gas to finish the trip. checked the transmission fluid, and topped it off at the near by tom-thumb (drove fine all the way up there), then went home. All was well until after leaving the stop light next to the freeway exit, when it wouldn't downshift. I parked fast, then put it into reverse to straighten out, then it died, restarted, then after cooling off ran fine all the way home.

[Supreme Cutlass]

any ideas?

[Prospeeder]

toque converter selinoid? my moms grand am 3300 had a similar problem, wouldnt engaue, waste gas, and if u let it cool down it would run, but if not, drive would just kill the car, but i dunno, try it i guess

[Supreme Cutlass]

That sounds like the problem, however I found a walkthrough on about.com and it stated "If you have the 4T40 automatic transaxle the procedure is more complicated and should be left to a professional." Does anyone else have suggestions? I want to make SURE that that's the problem.

[Prospeeder]

just uplug the selinoid and find out, it like some plug on the front of the trans, but hopefully some1 of higher intellegence steps in!

[Supreme Cutlass]

Would unplugging the connector to the TCC solenoid harm anything?? I'm curious if unplugging it and taking it for a ride on the freeway would be a good way to test to determine the problem.

[1990lumina]

Won;t hurt anything....lots of people on here are driving around with unhooked TCC solenoids lol...the car will just fev higher and waste gas