I've been a manual tranny guy all my driving days, and the TL is my first auto (strange choice, I know, but I'm getting older, in traffic more, the auto is so much better on my tortured back, and the drive-by-wire gives me as much fun as I need), so I'll say up front: please forgive my ignorance.

My TL has about 3k miles on it now, and the tranny seems to be behaving a bit differently now than when it was new, though admittedly, I might just be hypersensitive after reading some of the posts here.

Most noticably, where she used to transition gears almost imperceptibly, it seems like transitions now--especially between 1/2 and 2/3--are a bit more lurchy than they were when I first got her.

I also feel like at about 2k rpm--especially in 1st--there's what I would describe as a noticeable lack of whatever power I used to have at 2k rpm. Nowhere else on the RPM spectrum though.

And once--once only and only for a fleeting second--the tach was at 4k and the car wasn't behaving like it should in 4k, almost like in neutral: that was about 500 miles ago. It hasn't happened again. And the stickshift hadn't slipped out.

Also, it seems there's a bit of a hum in the gas pedal, an almost imperceptible (totally imperceptible if you don't drive it every day I would think) vibration.

Last, I did the slip it out of gear thing I saw on another post here, to see if another small vib. stopped. and it seemed to, though it could've been road or tires.

So what do you think? Failing, or hypersensitivity and a single anomaly? If you think it's failing, is my description sufficient enough to raise the eyebrows of a mechanic. How likely are they to take such a desc. seriously, or do they just wait for it to fail completely? Are there other tests to do or different ways of stating the issues? Or am I just going to have to wait until I'm stuck by the side of the road, if it comes to that?

 

You will get lots of opinions here in the forum, but I feel the best thing is to let an experienced mechanic at the dealer drive it and see what he thinks. You can go with him and point out all the conditions that you don't feel are right. I have found many times that a good mechanic can feel or hear things that I cannot.

The hum in the gas pedal could be the exhaust resonance thing, and the vibration that disappears when you change gears could be the same thing, or the tires, or a combination of both.

For the gear transitions being lurchy, are you driving a little more aggressively now that the break-in period is over and you can appreciate the power of the TL?

 

It may be that your break in oil is not as clean as before...resulting transmission transition not as smooth. When I change my break in oil that 2k, right away I
notice much smooth engine and transmission shifting.

 

you changed the auto tranny fluid? cause if you changed the engine oil i can't see how that affects the shifting of the tranny.

 

No just eng oil only....sluggish engr ,IMO, indirectly effects transmission

 

ummmm....o.k.

 

You might want to think that one through...

 

Ron A, thanks for the solid advice. I'm gonna' get my oil changed and my tran. fluid and see if it makes a difference. AFTER I have a mech. drive it.

 

You're welcome.

I hope you will consider this solid advice also.

Do not change your engine oil until the MID tells you to do so, but not too much earlier than 15% oil life remaining. There are additives in the oil which assist the break-in period and most knowledgeable people will agree, and have in this forum, that you should go by the MID recommendations.

Do not even consider changing the transmission fluid. The owner's manual does not give specified milage/time data for changing transmission oil (or any other fluids, for that matter), but it does say that under severe onditions you should change the transmission fluid at 60,000 miles, so even if you are driving under severe conditions, you would have a long time to go before you would need to change the tranny fluid.