My girlfriend has a 96 sunfire with the 3 speed transmission, i believe it is the 3T40. It has close to 170,000 miles and am not sure if the trans was ever rebuilt but it is starting to act up. It wont pop into reversre or drive right away when coming from park. If you throw it in gear and try to go it just revs and ketches with violent jerk. But if you throw it in gear and just let it sit for 20-30 seconds it feels as if it eases itself into gear but if you try and hit the gas to early it reves and pops itself into gear. Also when coming to a stop the car has a slight vibration like the transmission still wants to push the car. Im not an expert on transmissions but i feel this is a torque convertor problem. Has anybody else had a similar problem and know what the fix was? TIA!

Could be a lot of different things. My sister's just did about the same thing (170Kmi too), was the pump on the inside. If you have a diagnostic kit you can figure out what's wrong. After I diagnosed the car, we had a shop just drop in a rebuild for $500 and called it a day. Doesn't sounds like the TC at all. Sounds like possibly a selenoid. How does it shift from 1-2 and 2-3 gears? Slugish, doesn't want to shift?

shifts are firm and normal. Forgot to mention i scanned with my ob2 reader and no codes came back.

It might be worth disconnecting the Torque Converter clutch solenoid connector on the Transmission, just to see if anything changes.

At least it won't cost anything


Alont

What color is the fluid? Dark red or bright orange? Any dust/residue on the dip stick?

(Yes that's a 3T40 or TH125c, Same transmission different names).

Well i will be putting a new tranny in it myself this weekend as long as i can find one. Which i dont see that being a problem. Anybody have any tips or anything before i tear into it? Im pretty familiar with the GM FWD setup and have changed a number of motors/trannsmisions in w-bodys so hoping theres not many differences other than its smaller. Wish me luck!