Torque Converter

[93 Grand Prix]

How do I know if my torque converter is going out? Acually I don't know if it is or not. When I start my car in the mornings, I shift out of park, and it jecks the whole car. Then when I'm driving, I do fine in gears 1-3, but in 4th gear I have no accelleration at all. It just stumbles in 4th gear until it decides to downshift to 3rd. What could be causing it. I also think that it could be spark plugs/wires. Please help out a "POOR" fellow college student!!!

1993

Pontiac

Grand Prix LE

4 door

3.1L V6

460Te transmission

[Guest Anonymous]

Does the car miss at all? Does it miss after you are moving, when it's in 4th?

[93 Grand Prix]

YES!!!!!!! It misses like a motherfu....!!!!!!! I thought it was gonna damage something. Is that a sign of a bad torque converter? Someone outthere please help! I will be in church praying for an easy fix! :bawl:

[GnatGoSplat]

Does it downshift hard too?

My guess is a coil or injector.

I usually use a timing light to rule out the coil. I clip the inductive pickup to each spark plug wire, and make note of the ones that make the timing light flash erratically or not at all. If there are 2 wires on a common coil, then it's the coil that's bad. Alternatively, you can also pull the spark plugs and see if there are 2 fouled on a common coil.

 

If all spark plugs and coils seem fine, you can check the injectors for proper coil resistance. Usually this requires accessing all 6 injectors (removing the plenum), but there's a way to do this non-invasively. I'll see if I can dig up the instructions.

[Guest Anonymous]

Does it downshift hard too?

My guess is a coil or injector.

I usually use a timing light to rule out the coil. I clip the inductive pickup to each spark plug wire, and make note of the ones that make the timing light flash erratically or not at all. If there are 2 wires on a common coil, then it's the coil that's bad. Alternatively, you can also pull the spark plugs and see if there are 2 fouled on a common coil.

 

If all spark plugs and coils seem fine, you can check the injectors for proper coil resistance. Usually this requires accessing all 6 injectors (removing the plenum), but there's a way to do this non-invasively. I'll see if I can dig up the instructions.

 

What he said. You beat me to it Shawn.

[Guest]

My Regal is acting almost the same way. It idles a little erratic when warmed up. When I have been driving for a while (long while), I mainly feel this if it is in cruise, when it goes to shift down when you are going up a hill it feels like it is bucking before it gets going. Is this the same thing?

[GnatGoSplat]

My Regal is acting almost the same way. It idles a little erratic when warmed up. When I have been driving for a while (long while), I mainly feel this if it is in cruise, when it goes to shift down when you are going up a hill it feels like it is bucking before it gets going. Is this the same thing?

 

Could very well be! I lived with it for many months before discovering the problem was an injector!!!

[krenn]

Mine doesn't even shift into 4th gear at all. I have the 4T60E transmission. 1st to 3rd is fine, but no overdrive at all. Engine revs at 2800 rpm at 100 kph (60 mph). Any ideas what could be wrong? Car has 267,000 kms on it now.

[GrandPrix34]

i got the same problem on my 3.4 DOHC. I shift outta park and i get this huge jerk...downshifting seems a bit erratic too and paying close attention to the sound, you can here a sort of 'putt putt' sound as though the car was misfiring...