i put up this post before but lost it. so for those who responded to it before, please bear with me.

my 99TH magna only has 95,000 kms on the clock and the auto transmission likes to shift intself into neutral when it's in D. i have to tap on the accelerator to get the gearbox to engage again and it comes in with a jerk.

i thought it only happens when the engine is not fully warmed up and especially when going up slopes. but the other day i had been driving for over an hour and again it suddenly went into free gear (gear still in D) and i had to depress the accelerator pedal to get it going again.

anyone in this forum has this problem or know what it is?

Go have the Torque Convertor look at by an auto tranny mechanic :D

Hmm. Guess what, the same thing just happened to my KS Verada.
Although its done 210000km. I'd be driving along and as soon as the
car warms up, the trans will slip into neutral. I'd switch the car off, let it
cool and then start up again. Had to tow it to the service centre eventually
and they said its the torque converter. Its going to be costly. They are
currently working on it, it might be as expensive as $2600.00. :(

2600 for teh torque converter!!!

Damn!!! another reason to buy a manual!! clutch - 650 + fitting!! haha

Manual

i bought a car buyers' mag and they identified this shifting into neutral problem in the magna. but when i bought this car, it displayed no such symptoms. even now, it's hard to tell when it plays up and i've brought it to 2 different mitsu dealers and even left the car overnight with them. none of them could fault the gearbox or anything. this was during the warranty period though... so those ****s might have spotted the problem but since it's a what they call 'intermitant' problem, they don't wanna have to replace a whole new gearbox or torque converter for me.

vlad: are you saying that when your problem plays up you can't even get it into gear again?

My brothers TP did that once when he went over a speed bump. Whoops.

My TS did that all the time, especially over bumps.

Bugger fixing it so i trashed the car around for a few more moths and flogged it off super cheap.

my car does that also

i just use it as an excuss to rev the engine like a manual.. hehehehe

mine slips back into gear nicely though, doesnt jerk

my car does that also

i just use it as an excuss to rev the engine like a manual.. hehehehe

mine slips back into gear nicely though, doesnt jerk

Ice, how many Kms has your buddy done and what model and engine is it? mine comes in with a slight jerk, not all that bad. but it can be dangerous when you're going and all of a sudden you lose transmission control. esp on a highway!

have you found out when this behaviour occurs? it seems to me it can happen anytime without rhyme or reason.

Not in a magna but my sister's excel does that if you thrash it around a bit... I think it's a general auto tranny problem... However, the only way to get it back into gear would be to shift it to neutral then into drive...

I was thinking the ECU might be screwed? Seems like there's been a history of problems with the ECU screwing up shift timing, etc.. Might be a long shot, but try resetting it by disconnecting the battery overnight (remember to get your stock radio code if you've still got it....) Can't hurt to try...

tried that before Night, didn't work. didn't know it resetted the door lock radio frequencies and had to drive it to mitsu to get the guy to fix it.
i think very likely it's either the gearbox or torque converter. i don't have to trash the car around to induce the behaviour. it just comes out of nowhere.

You know you can reprogram your key remote codes yourself...? shove the master key in on, acc, on, acc, on then it'll turn the hazard lights on for a sec or two to indicate program mode... then just press your remote, then the next one, etc....

Anyway, stuffed if I know what it could be then... doesn't sound very happy though =/// Maybe if it's going to cost you so much, you could use this chance to get a manual swap..?? =D

i bought a car buyers' mag and they identified this shifting into neutral problem in the magna. but when i bought this car, it displayed no such symptoms. even now, it's hard to tell when it plays up and i've brought it to 2 different mitsu dealers and even left the car overnight with them. none of them could fault the gearbox or anything. this was during the warranty period though... so those ****s might have spotted the problem but since it's a what they call 'intermitant' problem, they don't wanna have to replace a whole new gearbox or torque converter for me.

vlad: are you saying that when your problem plays up you can't even get it into gear again?

Whats happened with mine is as follows:
Driving at 60km/hr, the gearbox slipped out and the engine revved pretty
high, thought I had accidentally pushed the leaver into N. Pulled over,
stopped the car, started it and the car was fine. Approached a set of lights
and as I was slowing down, I felt a shudder and the gear slipped again. So
for the next 10kms I had to stop and start a dozen times until it won't engage even if I stopped the car. Called the RAA, waited for an hour, the RAA guy came and said he couldn't do a thing and called for a tow truck.
Tow truck came and took the car and me to Agostino Mits at Elizabeth. The
next day they called me and said that the oil pump, electronics etc were
all working but as soon as the car warms up, the gearbox starts to fail to
engage. Upon preliminary inspection they noticed metal filings in the
gearbox and said that the best way to go is to do a reconditioning. Mits
don't have new gear boxes for the TR/TS/KR/KS anymore so reconds is
the only way to go. So $2600 is for recond of the torque converter and the
gearbox. One thing to note is that before this, every time I start the car
from cold, I had to put the gear into D first and then into R, as if I put it
into R straight away, after starting, there will be a severe jolt as the
torque converter engaged. Don't know if my car will last me till 2005 when
I plan to buy a runout AWD Verada. :(

The car has already costed me a new transmission computer which burned
itself when my wife and I were 40km out of Adelaide on Pt Wakefield Rd.
SIGH!!!!

hmm... i should be worried now. the mechanic who inspected my gearbox noticed some metal filings as well. he told me it had only abt 60-80,000 k's before it dies out. i was sceptical at what he said until now. but then again, my magna is only 3 years old with 90,000k on the clock at that time only! hopefully it doesn't die before i sell the car in 2.5 years' time!

Metal filings doesn't sound good :shock:

My brother had a similar problem with his TR a few years ago. He'd drive along and he'd stop at a set of lights and it'd drop into neautral. Anyway, turned out to be just the throttle position switch.

hmm... i should be worried now. the mechanic who inspected my gearbox noticed some metal filings as well. he told me it had only abt 60-80,000 k's before it dies out. i was sceptical at what he said until now. but then again, my magna is only 3 years old with 90,000k on the clock at that time only! hopefully it doesn't die before i sell the car in 2.5 years' time!

My dad's 95 Verada XI has only got 90,000k's on it and he said that the magnets in the pan on the bottom of his gearbox have a few metal bits on it too but when he called around they said it was normal to have a few bits but not too much..

[quote:e49554f472="alf77"]hmm... i should be worried now. the mechanic who inspected my gearbox noticed some metal filings as well. he told me it had only abt 60-80,000 k's before it dies out. i was sceptical at what he said until now. but then again, my magna is only 3 years old with 90,000k on the clock at that time only! hopefully it doesn't die before i sell the car in 2.5 years' time!

My dad's 95 Verada XI has only got 90,000k's on it and he said that the magnets in the pan on the bottom of his gearbox have a few metal bits on it too but when he called around they said it was normal to have a few bits but not too much..[/quote:e49554f472]

when i brought me car down to mitsu, they told me that the older magnas had such problems but it shouldn't be the case with my 99TH cos the gearboxes had been revised. don't know how true is that. hmm... hopefully it's alright. don't wanna blow any more $$$ on such unnecessary causes.