2006 TL base 150,000 miles. Have done a drain/fill two times in the past 9 months am ready for my third during the next oil change very soon. The car runs and drives great, no issues at all until tonight...

I get in the car and it is driving normally for about 5-10 minutes and a few miles. Suddenly leaving a light it starts hesitating and revving without moving and eventually gets going but I take it easy and keep it under 25mph with my hazards on. At the next light it gets worse so I put it in manual mode and keep it in 2nd gear and I'm going along at 20mph until I can find a safe spot to pull over. I pull over, switch the shifter around, and now it won't go anywhere (Reverse, drive, or manual) and is just revving. I shut the car off, make a phone call, and then start it again. I put it into drive and it's back to normal. I drive slowly and cautiously another mile or two to my house and it's going through all gears and shifting fine. I wait about 30 minutes and drive to the store and it's still normal. No leaks, no weird smell, no noises, no CELs, nothing.

Any idea what could have happened or may be failing/loose/etc? It seems like the car just went crazy for a minute.

 

Trans is toast. There's likely significant debris in the fluid from something wearing or disintegrating. It will probably work normally from a cold start for a little while, then resume the same behavior when the transmission warms and the debris migrates to block fluid passages again.

It's how mine died. The trans whiffed a 3->4 upshift out of the blue and revs shot up. I limped into a parking lot and then it couldn't move at all after shifting into park. When retrieving the car later, it worked fine... Until it warmed up again. As I recall, my torque converter and 3rd and 4th clutch packs were all roasted.

 

Well I went ahead and did a drain/fill. It seemed to have been overfilled previously so I used a little less, drove it a while, checked the dipstick, and it's back within normal range. It's driving normally so far and I'm really praying it doesn't have any irreversible damage.Maybe I caught it early enough, let's pray

 

Just had a relatively similar issue over a longer period of time this past week on my 2005. Did a transmission flush recently (the issue started 2 weeks ago) and the fluid was dark and had a few pieces of metal in it. Yesterday I was driving to a NFL game and then I had basically the exact same issue as you described. How does the car run currently? I can't help but fear you'll end up needing the transmission replaced.

 

Beware the 04-06 Autos..

 

Hasn't done it since but I've also been driving it very lightfooted. I have pressure switches arriving in a few days and will see how it goes after that.

 

Changed my oil and cleaned out the linear solenoid while waiting for UPS to show up with my washers.

They finally showed up and I changed the pressure switches out. I used PS510 and PS497 from RockAuto, if you look them up you can see the other reference numbers.I /did/ notice the 4th gear pressure switch has a smaller opening, I'll post a picture later. Maybe this was a design change that'll last longer....who knows..

So far so food. Smoother, not has harsh, no slippage. I'm just gonna take it easy on her and pray lol.

 

Almost forgot...when I took out the intake to get to the linear solenoid I found that it had several tears in it! Surprised it never caused a problem or threw a CEL.

 

Ah man, should have mentioned to change the trans filter while you had the intake off. Couldn't hurt to do that as well.

For what it's worth, when I got my '06, it had a bad shudder between 2nd and 3rd gear. The trans fluid was black as night. I did a full fluid change, pressure switches, and filter replacement, and the car is shifting perfect 100k miles later (250k total). I have hope for you!

 

I did the filter with the first change last december. Good to hear! I have faith.

 

Welp...it's toast. It actually got worse. Now to figure out the next steps...

 

Just an update: Had the transmission rebuilt with translab shift kit + external cooler. Also had the rear main seal replaced as well. Been back on the road a few weeks and it's shifting great. Total: $2900.

 

That's a hell of a deal for all that work.

 

That’s a great deal to keep the car rolling.

 

Glad to hear you’re back on the road!

 

I was really surprised how long it took for the trans to relearn. It was super firm, maybe even a bit sloppy, and had me worried the first week. It's been very nice since. Way better than before.

 

Glad you did the translab shift kit, definitely helps. Did the same with mine.

 

I mean I requested it and trust the guy...I hope it was used lol.External cooler looks really nice. I'll have to get some pics to update the thread.

 

^please do, I’ve been thinking of adding one. I know there are threads on here about it. How much extra fluid did you have to add with the cooler in line?

 

I do not know how much fluid they added, sorry.

Pretty hard to get pictures of the cooler/lines with an iPhone as well. Rather tight spaces.