I have been having an issue for quite a while regarding the Torque Converter not locking up. I had a cam installed over the winter and after the install it ran perfect. When i got it back on the street in the begining of the summer it also ran fine. A couple months ago I would have fluxuations of around 500 RPM on the highway after I have been driving for over 20 minutes. If i dont drive it for a atleast this amount of time there is no fluxuations. A few weeks later I was also getting a banging noise (like someone hitting the bottom of the car with a rubber hammer) when I was coasting. When this happens, if I hit the break it stops. After dealing with this for a while I brought it to the shop that put the cam car to get it looked at. This happened about 2 weeks before the warentee on my torque converter expired and I wanted to address it before I was out of luck. After letting him take it for a drive he found that it would lock up only about 10% of the time when I was going over 45 miles and hour. When it would lock up, it would lock and unlock causing the car to jolt back and forth (which was probably the reason why i heard a banging under the car while coasting). Instead of taking out the torque converter and then shipping it out to get looked at, we decided to replace the lockup solenoid in the tranny. After the install, it ran 100 times better. The throttle was very reponsive and it locked up quickly and when it should. The shop kept the car for a couple of days and and drove it around and all of the issues that it had before were gone. I picked up the car and drove an hour and a half straight the next day with no issues what so ever. The following week I drove another hour and partly throught the drive I was in bumper to bumper traffic for a while and then when I finally got out of it and got up to cruising speed it started doing exactly what it did before. RPM fluxuations, banging and rough idle. I checked the tranny fluid before and after the solenoid was put in and it was pink and not burnt. I have always had idleing issues and i found another thread that said the throttle positioning sensor could cause problems with the transmission not locking up or shifting oddly. Other intermitent issues makes me think that this might be so. Sometimes when I start my car it will idle high (1200 RPM) and not settle down to the tuned 900 RPM). Other times it will idle reallt rough (500 RPM to 1100) until it drive it for a bit and then it idles fine. Can this be the case or should I pull the converter out and get it looked at? I appologize for the long post, just want to give as much info about the issue as possible. Thanks for the help.

 

Ya have to fix the obvious issues first, every time. And don't procrastonate.... All that banging and intermittent operation of the converter clutch is not good for the clutch lining itself.

Get someone who has experience to look at it and go from there. A TPS can and will cause a myriad of driveability issues.

g

 

Thanks for the response. I might try replacing the TPS because it is relatively cheap in comparision to taking the converter out.