So last night driving back home after a couple hours of driving I stopped at a set of lights. Lights went green, I took my foot off the brake, pressed the accellerator and, out of nowhere, nothing happened until 1k+ revs, when the car violently jolted into first gear. (was using D, not tippy, although it did the same thing with tippy 1st gear selected).

Gear changes after the initial take off are normal and smooth as they've always been.

Kept driving along, and the same thing kept happening accellerating from every standstill I came to. The jolting kind of reminds me of when a manual's clutch is let out a bit slow on a hill start, although it is one single jolt, but still violent enough to notice.

I also noticed that in D on hills the gear was not engaged on idle speed as the car rolled back as if it was in neutral.

After a bit of "spirited driving" the car seemed fine as if nothing had happened, taking off in first was the usual build up from idle. However after going back to normal driving for a while the car started doing the jolt thing again.

Took the car home, I checked the ATF colour which was a greenish/dark brownish colour. (I searched up and read a few threads on here, apparently it's meant to be a light red/pinkish colour?)

This morning I decided to take the car for a drive to the shops as I was curious to see what a good few hours of rest would do for the tranny. Started the car, and put it in reverse and got the same jolt. I was in the driveway and shifted it into drive when it seemed rough to physically shift the selector to D. It must have been half way stuck between N and D as both of the lights were on initally. However I managed to engage D after moving the shifter to park and back, and drove off, the car not showing any signs of the jolting. After that the shifter seemed to move normally.

This afternoon I started the car up to check what some more rest would have done, shifting it into R and D gets a rough jolt but the feeling of it being in neutral until you hit above 1k+ revs was not there. Just a harsh jolt in engaging the gears.

So would an automatic transmission flush be the way to go? Or could it be something more serious? I did not notice any metal shavings in the fluid. Feel free to ask any questions at all, I don't know the first thing about transmissions so I'm open to opinions.

Car has approx 167,000kms on it.

Thanks!

This thread might be in the wrong forum after a second look, sorry if it is :stoopid:

something to try for free and in your driveway is disconnect the battery for a minute or so. This causes the transmission computer to 'forget' its settings and relearn. Once reconnected the battery, let her idle for a few minutes before driving to sort the idle out.

Thanks! Will try this and get back to you.

I'd start looking for a another transmission. Sound very much like what happened to my first gearbox. Dead at 112.5K. I think the dreaded wave spring may claim another gearbox. You can search on wave spring for more info.

That looks brutal, I'm praying that's not whats happening :(

I'll start looking at transmissions if this is the case, were there any other symptoms when yours died?

even if it is the wave spring going a trip to an Auto box specialist could save you lots of hassles and money

In our experience the wave-spring made one quick clunk - and then it was no drive at all in forward or reverse. happened to me in my KJ at 58K and also to dad in TJ at 140 ro maybe 160-ish K.

What happens with wave-sring is a piece breaks off the end and is flushed thru the box. In our case this piece flushed thru the internal oil strainer and jammed in the tranny oil pump. The oil pump locks solid and engine powaaa shatters the pump rotor....... then all the little bits go thru the box as the tranny dies its last couple of seconds.

But what the wave srping affects could vary a bit from case to case. Yours may not be that.....

The killer with the auto however, is labour. Almost nothing is accessible with tranny in the car, and its a specialist job to strip down the box and repair for most of us.

A trip to auto place to seek advice and quote might be agood idea - in my case teh non-Mitsi business knew exactly what my problem was, they use a different replacement wave-spring which they have never known to give trouble. Coming up to 40K since my tranny was rebuilt and no dramas.

Let me make a suggestion, and please take heed.

Do not drive your car until you have had a full automatic transmission fluid flush.

If you need to drive it somewhere to have it done, fine. Otherwise, avoid driving it.

This exact same thing happened to Ffeeky's car (although his was a 5 sp auto) It ended up packing it up just after he traded it in to a dealership.

If you can do the flush yourself, great. If you can't, get it to a transmission specialist ASAP and get it flushed with genuine Mitsubishi automatic transmission fluid. After the transmission service has been done, then disconnect the battery and follow a relearn procedure. Don't be disheartened if the relearn doesn't do anything straight away. Mine flares on 2nd->3rd gear changes still for a little while.

If after all that you have the same symptoms, then I would be looking for a second hand automatic gearbox, or talking to a transmission place regarding a rebuilt gearbox.

M4DDOG had a tiptronic gearbox for sale. Might be a cheaper option as a full rebuild can be expensive (mine cost $2K). When your transmission fluid gets overheated it not only changes colour, but also changes its properties and doesn't do it's lubricating job as efficiently. Things wear out faster and you are essentially playing Russian roulette with your gearbox. It will fail completely, you just don't know when other than soon given your symptoms.

I'll do an AT flush then before doing the relearn procedure. What fluid would best match the Mitsu fluid if I was buying from Supercheap, Repco etc?
According to the service manual I'll need ~8L of the stuff?

Btw does anyone know what could be causing the roughness when physically shifting between N and D? Could this have anything to do with the inhibitor switch, or would it just be something with the transmission?

Buy the fluid at a Mitsubishi. It is Mitsu's brand and the gearboxes love it more than any other. Plus its the same coin.

Thanks, will try head over to Mitsubishi today and get it flushed tonight!

EDIT: Will get around to doing this over the next few days, didn't have a chance to go out there today.

I'll do an AT flush then before doing the relearn procedure. What fluid would best match the Mitsu fluid if I was buying from Supercheap, Repco etc?
According to the service manual I'll need ~8L of the stuff?

Btw does anyone know what could be causing the roughness when physically shifting between N and D? Could this have anything to do with the inhibitor switch, or would it just be something with the transmission?

You'll need about 11-15L for a proper flush depending on what the condition of transmission is like.

The clunking can be caused by bad transmission fluid.