Car is a 95 transam a4 and I'm trying to figure out what this code is/ means and how to fix it I tried to look it up but was not getting a whole of info but think this part below might be the culprit any one got a idea what this is thanks.

Amazon

Amazon

 

Ah yes... pre-1996 vehicles and the non-standardized GM OBD-1.

These can sometimes be a pain in the ***...
The 1992/1993 vehicles (and older) did not have any electronic control over the transmission (at least for the THM700-R4... and yes there is also a 1993 4L60E).
The THM700-R4 units only had one solenoid, and it turned on/ off from a ground connection and 12v+ (usually from a pressure switch on the valve-body)
This is really all that GMs OBD-1 system was intended for in terms of transmission control and monitoring.

The 1993, 1994, and 1995 4L60E units did receive additional OBD-1 monitoring, but it was not very good.
In most cases, when code 83 is present; the torque-converter gets stuck locked or stuck unlocked.

When stuck locked, this makes the engine stall when coming to a stop; and makes the shifting feel harsh.
If the transmission seems to operate properly... then the torque-converter is probably stuck off.

1995 4L60E transmissions were built two different ways.
Early 1995 units only have one TCC solenoid (just like 1993 and 1994).
Mid and late 1995 units have two TCC solenoids (this continued into very early 1996 units as well).

Not that it is relevant here; but GM was testing many of these updates on the S and T truck platforms...
You can even find on some 1994 S/T trucks, both TCC solenoids well before any other vehicle.

Usually code 83 only would only show-up on an early built 1995 unit.
This unfortunately is not guaranteed. Code 83 can still show-up if the PWM TCC solenoid is present and faulty.
Late 1995 units will usually have code 90 show-up for TCC faults.

The late 1995 units were the first year model transmission to have the torque-converter gradually lock and unlock by adding an additional solenoid to the transmission.
This is the TCC PWM solenoid. The link you posted is also the solenoid I am speaking of.
This solenoid allows to lock-up clutch of the torque-converter gradually apply and release.

I will need to know the "ID" information that is stamped into the case of your transmission to know how the trans was originally built.
When these vehicles get to be this old... the transmissions usually have been rebuilt by now...
Who knows if someone updated the transmission or not during a rebuild.




The "ID" information should be stamped into the case near where the tail-housing bolts on.
Just as in the image above... you should be able to view this from under the vehicle.
The transmission cross-member/ mount may make the "ID" difficult to see.

There is also a slim chance that your transmission case has the "ID" stamped on the passenger side of the case instead.
The "ID" would be just above the oil pan, on the passenger side, and towards the rear of the oil pan.
Look at the two images below.



Let me know the "ID" and I will look up the Julian-Date of the build...
We will see if the transmission ORIGINALLY used both solenoids or not.

You will have to be prepared to remove the oil pan to continue diagnosing the transmission.
Powering on the TCC solenoids manually and measuring the solenoid resistance should be the next steps.

 

In short your trans has either a PWM TCC solenoid (like in the Amazon link) or you need a non-PWM TCC solenoid. The switchover to the PWM occurred in the middle of '95.
Vorteciroc has "Top Secret" documents which will determine which it is from your ID.
Now, if the transmission is removed, you can just look for the "PWM" stamped into the pump cover.
To replace solenoids, there is NO need to remove the trans; only pan needs to be dropped.

 

Thank you guys for the info and the nice writeup vorteciroc I've been searching for the last couple days on this. other than a few threads with little info I have found not much thanks for exsplaing it so well. I'll try and get that coed for you tomarow its suposed to be dry. And from the door tag the car says it was built in March of 95.

 

mine was on the passanger side above the oil pan I belive it says 4kcd233j.

 

Very interesting!

So... There are two things that I did not expect.

I expected that you would have a 1995 transmission that was rebuilt... WRONG LOL!

Okay, so the two things that the ID tells us is:

-It is not the original transmission for your vehicle.
-It is a 1994 unit.

So, originally that transmission would not have the PWM TCC solenoid.
However if the transmission was ever updated... it may have the PWM TCC solenoid.
The transmission should have a bad TCC apply solenoid/ wiring/ PCM.
You will have to troubleshoot/ diagnose this yourself... We will guide you.
Solenoid:



If the solenoid itself is bad... they are available in two different ways.

-From GM; it will be sold as an internal transmission harness with TCC solenoid (1994 specific)
-From the aftermarket; sold as a TCC solenoid that you have to splice into the original internal harness.

 

Thanks for your reply I was hopeing this would be less complicated but it is what it is. So where is the best place to start should I pull the pan first and see what's under there. Also how would I go about testing the solenoid. Also if it's a 94 trans and has not been updated and my pcm was not flashed for a 94 would that cause issues as well. And if I were to replace the solenoid. I would do the whole harness as I'm not much good at soldering what would be the part # for the harness a solenoid. sorry for all the questions I really appriciate the help.

 

To start:

I would do this with the vehicle/ engine COLD.

If your transmission oil-pan has a drain plug... remove it and drain the oil.
Otherwise carefully remove the oil-pan, expecting to get splashed with ATF.

Take photos of the wiring-harness inside the transmission, and the solenoids that connect to the wiring.
Post them here, so we can see what is actually on the valve-body.
I expect to find only the TCC apply solenoid... but we will see if it was updated or not.

We will continue after I can look at the photos.

 

Here are the photos it looks to be fairly clean on the inside so thats a plus let me know if you need more photos or need to remove more stuff.

 

Okay, so the 1994 unit is still configured as originally.

That begs the question... was the PCM ever changed???

The 1995 PCM with a 1994 transmission is going to look for the PWM TCC solenoid and set a DTC when the solenoid is not found.

Your transmission only has the TCC apply solenoid... the one in the photo of my last post.

 

I'm not sure although the guy I bought it off of seems to have been a hack I've found several things on the car that were not done right and have had to refix them. So I'm guessing he did not get the pcm reprogramed. If it's not been reprogramed will it be throwing that coed the whole time since it don't have the right tcc and will the tcc even work if the pcm is not correct.

 

How long have you had this car... and how long has the DTC been set?

A PCM and transmission mix-match will set a code and stay.

From the looks of the wiring harness in the transmission... that trans has not been rebuilt in a long time; or it has never been rebuilt.
The guy may have grabbed a junk-yard unit and swapped it in; when the original transmission died...

 

I'm not sure how long the dtc has been there. As for how long I've had the car long story short I bought it 5 years ago never drove it much becouse it had opti issues. ended up haveing some financhal issues and selling it to my brother who got the opti sorted out and put a new flex plate on becouse it was missing a lot of teeth. he had it for 3 years and hardly drove it so I bought it back to make street/strip car out of it about a month ago been trying to sort out all of its issues be fore I go mod crazy. all in total the car has been driven maybe 1500-2000 miles in the last 5 years. I've recently taken it on a couple 2hr plus trips and it seemed to run ok. although it felt like it did not always want to down shift if i was in 4th and went wot. So with all this mix matching what are my options to make this right. Could i swap a 95 valve body with the correct solenoids and harness in to the 94 trans and it be ok or is the 94 to diffrent to go that route?

 

I do not know what is available now-a-days for reading Pre-OBD-2 PCMs...

But Hopefully some here who does, can chime in and help us.
I would try to have the PCM read to find out the part number of the PCM and the calibration number (software on the PCM) to know which year/ type of PCM you have.

Needing to know if you have a transmission - PCM mix-match is the next step.

 

I use scan 94-95 to pull codes and it reads all kinds of other stuff to it tells you the vin and some other info about the pcm as well. I'll take a picture of my laptop screen of what it pulls up.

 

Here is all the info scan 94-95 provides me for the pcm.

 

Using the information that you just provided:

-We first look at the last 8 digits of the VIN (digits #10 through #17).
-The 10th digit is the model year identifier for the vehicle; and is the letter "S" (the letter "S" indicates the year 1995).
-The 11th digit is the manufacturing plant for the vehicle; and is the number "2" (plant digits are country specific... we will get back to this later)
-The 12th - 17th digits are the 6 digit long serial number for the vehicle.

-Next we look at the first 8 digits of the VIN.
-The 1st digit is for the country the vehicle was produced in (You have the number "2" which is for Canada. Back to the 11th digit for the plant, which is a "2" and for Saint Therese assembly plaint in Quebec Canada).
-The 2nd digit is for the manufacturing company (the letter "G" is for General Motors).
-The 3rd digit is for the brand of that manufacturing company (the number "2" is for Pontiac).
-The 4th digit is for the vehicle platform/ body line/ series (the letter "F" is for the F-Body car-line)
-The 5th digit is for the model and sub-model (the letter "V" is for a non-base model Fire-Bird; meaning a Formula or Trans-Am and may denote a convertible in some cases).
-The 6th digit is for the actual type of body/ body-style (the number "2" is for a 2 door/ coupe).
-The 7th digit is for seat-belt and air-bag configuration (the number "2" is for driver and front passenger air-bags).
-The 8th digit is for the engine type/ model (the letter "P" is for the LT-1 Gen-II SBC V8)

I am assuming that the VIN entered into the PCM matches your actual vehicle tags/ VIN.

Now the PCM calibration number/ software ID number that you have (16209471) is for a 1995 LT1 with a 1995 4L60E and 2.73:1 gears.

For this reason; I believe that the DTC you have is due to a PCM - Transmission mix-match (sadly on top of this the 1 TCC solenoid could have been damaged as well).
I am not an expert for what I am going to say next...

I believe that you can have your PCM software changed to that of a 1994 F-Body LT1, 4l60E, 2.73:1 gears.
The PCM software ID for this is #16210031.
I do not know if this will change anything with the engine control/ monitoring (we need advice from someone who does know).

So what I would recommend; is that you find a shop that can re-tune your PCM to change it to operate with a 1994 transmission and not change anything regarding the engine.

I personally have never done any custom tuning on these pre-OBD-2 vehicles (Just only OBD-2/ newer vehicles... sorry).
Again, hopefully someone more knowledgeable than me on this can chime in and help us.

 

Thanks for all your help unfortchanantly around here as far as tuneing is concerned it's ls1 or nothing no one around here will touch an lt1 unless it's got a 24x convertion. So that leaves me with a mail order tune I've also thought maybe swaping a 95 harness in the transmission and adding a pwm solenoid is that possible? It looks like right by the tcc solenoid there is a slot for a pwm solenoid all I need is this transmission to last 3-4 months longer and I should have enough cash to upgrade to a performabuilt lvl2. after cleaning the bottom of the pan it looked like there was some fine metal shaveings on it.

 

The simple answer is NO.

The transmission would have to come out and come apart.

The 1995 unit had several parts changes from the addition of the TCC PWM solenoid.
They consist of:

-New input-shaft check-ball capsule.
-New front pump half.
-New rear pump half.
-New valve-body.
-New separator plate.
-New internal wiring harness.
-New torque-converter

All of these 1995 components would have to be retrofitted into a 1994 transmission to operate properly.

As a last ditch effort... you can try a mail order tune for the 1995 PCM/ software that eliminates the DTCs/ PIDs for TCC related issues.

 

I would recommend that you give a call to Jeremy Formato of FasterProms.

I am sorry... I can not post their business information here as they are not sponsors of the forum and that is a violation of the terms and agreements here.

He is a member here, but he is relatively inactive.
member name: JeremyF

OOOO! nevermind! he is still a sponsor LOL!

Faster Proms: 813-476-7364 or fasterproms.net

Ask for jeremy... he and his father have been tuning since the 1980s (hense the name using the term "prom" from Eprom).