heya, i recently bought a 1991 TR automatic (sigh) 2.6.
now while i love it to death already, i've quite plainly seen the error in my ways that i should of purchased a manual 3.0. The auto in my magna is playing up, occasionally 5-6 times since i've purchased it 3000 k's ago it gets stuck in second gear and refuses to budge for a good 20 seconds or so. now while the extra acceleration is quite nice for the duration its hardly re-assuring. The gear changing is also fairly rough and it tends to clunk through gears and upshift and downshift inappropriately. Could this be the transmission itself, or the fluid or perhaps the TCU, any suggestions

twice now while travelling at high speeds (i won't lie they are quite significant speeds) i've found that after some reasonable braking (not too heavy, but not soft) from say 160k's an hour i've found that i lose my brakes shortly after, and i'm left with next to nothing. followed by an exclamation mark on my dash. Is this just my brakes overheating (seems a bit easy considering i was hardly riding my brakes) or a sign of something perhaps more serious.

Another issue i've noticed is the car bottoms out if travelling over bumps too quickly and you can hear some quite obvious scraping. generally i'm not flying along too quickly, the magna looks like its been used for towing so i'm thinking suspension problems or is this just a magna thing.

The beast has done just over 180 thousand k's and looks like its been treated with some competence, i like to put a car through its paces once in a while, but i'm not going to sit at lights slamming my auto or anything too stupid.

i'd love to hear some opinions on what might be wrong with it and whether it'd be worth getting it fixed or just trying to flog it off and perhaps pick up a manual V6. I love my Magna but i dont love how its acting.

Thanks for reading this far at least it was quite an essay.

Edit: i forgot to say, after replacing the air filter on the drive home, the car started shuddering and threw me a check engine light. pulled over stopped the car played with the filter a bit and the air intake figuring maybe i hit something i shouldnt of (i won't lie i'm far from a mechanic). and then it seemed to run fine.

i believe the exclamation is just saying that your brakes are failing. Only thing i can think of is that the brake fluid is heating up too quickly because of a blockage or leak or your brake pads are worn.

As to bottoming out, you'll find this'll happen with any family sedan of considerable age with it's original springs and suspension. It's a fact that they sag. Sounds like yours may have had a bit more of a load than other magnas of that age and this is what's causing it. Best bet is just replacing springs and suspension anyway.

~twiggy~

Now i don't know about you but if i buy a car second hand the first thing do is replace ALL the fluids and filters even if the previous owner had told me they just did it. I don't trust what most ppl say when they sell you a car and it rules alot of things out and shows what the condition is really like. Cos if you have done all that and are still getting problems then you know that it wasn't cared for as much as they said and you can brace yourself for the drama's to come.
Now if i was you id do just that dump the old tranny old put a filter kit in it (ordered from auto-barn) and some fresh fluid, also check the magnets in the bottom of the tranny oil pan for metal shavings and the like to give you a better indication of it's condition. Now if you think that it was used for towing then id run the fresh tranny fluid for about a 100klms then dump it and put another fresh batch in there. Well thats what id do if i was worried.
now replace all the fluids and filters and jack up the car and inspect the suspenion componets for wear/breaks/split bushes and boots then let us know if the tranny has improved.

Well thats just one opinion you can take it as a grain of salt or do what you wish but thats what id do.

The auto in my magna is playing up, occasionally 5-6 times since i've purchased it 3000 k's ago it gets stuck in second gear and refuses to budge for a good 20 seconds or so. now while the extra acceleration is quite nice for the duration its hardly re-assuring. The gear changing is also fairly rough and it tends to clunk through gears and upshift and downshift inappropriately. Could this be the transmission itself, or the fluid or perhaps the TCU, any suggestions

i lose my brakes shortly after, and i'm left with next to nothing. followed by an exclamation mark on my dash.

Another issue i've noticed is the car bottoms out

.

Auto oil and filter service if oil is not light red
TPS adjustment (throttle body )
TCU computer controller
not a mechanical fault in the box by what you say

Brakes change fluid
check brake booster is working
check for leaking cyls
replace dodgy cyls including master
check vaccume line to booster at plenium (that line clocgs with carbon )
check rotors for warpage and brake disc quality

suspension check legal height and all shocks work

wait for a special from a suspension mob offering a free
inspection report :badgrin:

I'd swap out your TCU first, was having exactly the same problems up until yesterday when I changed the TCU. Seems to be a common problem on second gens. May not cost much either, I only paid $44 for a working one at the wreckers.

Get a trans flush done as well if possible, it makes a world of difference in extending the life and improving performance of the transmission. The Magna auto seems to be fairly sensitive to old fluid and wrong fluid (particularly GM Dexron based fluids).

I'm gunna go against the grain and say dump it and get yourself a V6 manual...

I would change mine to manual but i scored my TS V6 auto with only 23k on it. Goes well, but really needs the manual for sprited driving:badgrin:
And for no extra fuel usage over the 4 banger, it's well worth it for the extra hp.

Edit. But for now, check that tranny. Do a flush and filter service... And you may need to replace your brake fluid, if ur loosing ur brakes still, get them checked ASAP if you dont know what ur doing.!!

I agre with Trotty on this one. The 4-pot just isnt worth the time, moneyand effort. dump it and get a 6 man...

I'd swap out your TCU first, was having exactly the same problems up until yesterday when I changed the TCU. Seems to be a common problem on second gens. May not cost much either, I only paid $44 for a working one at the wreckers.

Get a trans flush done as well if possible, it makes a world of difference in extending the life and improving performance of the transmission. The Magna auto seems to be fairly sensitive to old fluid and wrong fluid (particularly GM Dexron based fluids).

Enough said, dont bother converting to manual if the problems cheaper to fix.

If you find out the internals are damaged then you can choose to replace/change/swap/sell etc

thanks for the advice so far, i figure yeah i'll just keep it and fix it up. the way its going it'll probably be hard to resell anyway (i picked it up from a dealer for 2900 for the extra peace of mind, didnt work out that way) i'm taking it down and getting the suspension and brakes fixed today and then flush out the auto with proper fluid and see how it goes then. if that doesnt work i'll start looking at stuff like the TCU which was mentioned.

I'm already fairly attached to it as it is, and i've rigged it up with a nice pioneer sound system and some floor neons so i dont really want to let it go.
Anyway wish me luck with the repairs i'll post back on how they go, hopefully i escape with spending less then 500

hmm, well pedders suspension quoted me 800 for new shockers, so i stormed back to the dealer and they told me it was a loose strut, they fixed it and gave it back to me. not sure that i trust them but i cant complain if the problems not there. They also said they couldnt find anything wrong with the brakes, i definitely dont trust them there. But at least they didnt try to charge me

bought the correct transmission fluid and figured i'll flush it out, just wondering is it important for me to change the filter as well?

can't wait for repairs to be done so i can start shopping for rims.

bought the correct transmission fluid and figured i'll flush it out, just wondering is it important for me to change the filter as well?




YES, inexpensive and should always be done to ensure smoothness