I have a 1999 Chevy Lumina with 70k miles on it. One day on my way to work I noticed that when I accelerated after stopping at a light the car would not move for a moment, then violently kick into gear. I tried manually shifting the gears, and it drove just fine.

I drove it for a few days shifting the gears manually while I waited for my paycheck and looked around for a good place to get the transmission looked at. When I had the money, I started driving my car out to the shop, but halfway there my car stopped shifting gears entirely, and I had to have it towed the rest of the way.

Today I got my car back, and they told me they rebuilt the transmission. I noticed immediately that it was not automatically shifting when in drive, but was shifting manually just like it had before it totally quit working. The mechanic told me it was just the governor, and it should unstick if I drove it around manually for a bit.

Because this is exactly what it was doing just before the transmission went out completely, I am worried that driving it around manually is just going to make the transmission go out again and I will be back to square one.

Is there any validity to what he is suggesting? Should I just drive it around for a bit, and trust it will take care of itself, or is this just a bunch of BS from a bad mechanic?

  • alltheusernamesargayBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    to me it sounds like it simply ran out of fluid. when an automatic transmission gets low on fluid, when starting from a stop it will violently kick into gear as you described, and if it completely runs out of fluid it will just stop working. When a transmission is failing there’s often tell tail signs. like grinding, whining, or slipping(when shifting from one gear to another in the middle it acts like it’s in neutral and you can rev it in drive without going anywhere, then it will catch). I have never heard of a “governor” on a transmission before. once rebuilt it should have a break in period of a thousand miles or so, but will be fully functional. this whole situation seems sketchy to me. I would take it to a different shop for another opinion.