Auto Trans Won’t Shift Into Top Gear Until Fully Warmed

[DanielHill]

Recently my van with an automatic transmission won’t shift into 4th gear unless it is fully warmed up and driven for several miles at 30mph or less. My trusted mechanic flushed the tranny fluid, but it didn’t make a difference. He said it is probably due to a rubber seal that hardened over time, and gets soft enough when fully warmed. He then recommended I add Lucas transmission conditioner to try and soften the seal, so I did and still nothing. I’d like to avoid getting the tranny rebuilt because my van only has 158k miles, and the obvious fact that it would be expensive (~$1,800).

Has anyone dealt with this problem before? Any tips would be greatly appreciated. :)

[JDM VANMAN]

Have you tried looking in the "Search Feature" typing in "transmission shifting" "transmission seal" "transmission flush" "kick down cable" something like that, there will be a few different threads that'll pop up and you'll need to scroll and read a few of them to see which one is closest to the issue your experiencing. Sorry I don't have the wrenching experience to give you an exact answer.

When I got my TownAce 2WD Auto with 140ishK miles it has a leaky Rear Main Seal and extremly dirty transmission fluid and was not shifting smoothly according to my Tech, he removed the transmission, torque converter and manually filled an drained it 3 times, replaced the seals, put it back together, filled and drained it again to remove the fluid that was still in the torque converter cause it doesn't have a drain plug its been driving smoothly.

Good luck:thmbup:

JDM

[Ace MM]

does it shift cold when you get to highway speeds?
i dont think mine hits OD until warmed around town, i also use the ECT button.

i dont like those additives. once i flushed mine with castrol transmax hi-mileage(which has the snake oil added) it hasnt missed a shift since.
had been flushed first with regular castrol and the stutter shifting was still an issue cold.