Ok, kind of a weird problem. No codes, 01 trans am.

The car will take off in 3rd gear and then hit fourth when starting with the car in overdrive. The computer is commanding 1st. If I manually put it in 2nd it will start in second then it goes through the rest fine.

But..... sometimes it will take off in first and run exactly how it should.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I already plan on getting a built trans but would like to figure this out first.

 

Sounds like Solenoid A is stuck in the OFF position.

 

After reading some other stuff it kinda sounds like it.

Have you seen them work kind of intermittently? It did it about a week ago then it was fine till yesterday.

 

I have seen them stop working after they get some heat in them. Example after being driven 40 miles or so, after cooling off work fine until another long drive.

 

Right. The plunger sticks within them. Since the coil still works, you don't get a code.
Cheap and easy to replace; about $12 each and you only have to drop the pan.
I recommend replacing both - if one is bad the other may fail soon too; also you won't replace the wrong one as it is easy to get them confused when you are upside down with ATF dripping on you.

 

Well you guys nailed it. I swapped out both shift solenoids and she woks like a champ now.

Thanks for the help!

 

Yay!

Always nice to see a transmission fixed without needing a rebuild.

 

Well... I thought it was good. I put 200 miles on it since I replaced the solenoids, woke up this morning, started off in first gear and then the first time I stopped it started taking off in third again. After I got off the freeway it was the same until 3 blocks from work, it started going into first again.

 

If replacing solenoid A fixed the problem and now the problem is recurring, would it be possible the harness is bad and maybe it's shorting out or otherwise hurting solenoid A?

 

Could be. I checked all the wiring while I had the pan off, everything looked good but who knows.

 

Did you ever figure out what was causing the problem?