Questions and Answers

Shiftless Mercury Sable Q. Hello, The suspect vehicle: 1994 Mercury Sable, injected 3.8 liter, automatic transmission, 99700 miles, ABS, P/S, A/C. I have always driven this vehicle with the shifter in overdrive, city or highway. This hasn't presented any problems until now. The automatic transmission on this Sable works fine until it warms up.

After it is warm and you stop at a stop sign for instance, the transmission doesn't down shift. When I press the accelerator to proceed the engine simply races as if it is in park or neutral. Shifting the lever to drive or low has no effect. The only way I have found to get the transmission in gear is to put it in reverse and race the engine slightly. This causes a mighty lurch as the transmission engages from its free wheeling state into reverse.

I can then slide it back into forward and proceed. I also noticed that if I run the car in drive only (no overdrive) this problem doesn't appear. So I am driving this car by shifting to drive only and not using overdrive. Unfortunately sometimes I forget and put the transmission in overdrive only to be reminded of the problem at the next stop sign. I've got to be careful using the race the engine in reverse method because I have come close to hitting the car stopped behind me at the stop light. Ever heard of anything like this?

Thanks,
Tom

A. I would inspect the connector to the Manual Lever Position Sensor (MLPS) connector very carefully Tom. There has been problems with them and, from the symptoms you describe, very likely the cause of the problem.