Questions and Answers

Pontiac Grand Prix Shifting Problems Q. First of all I want to say that I love your site and keep up the great work. And I checked out my first hunch on the question on your site about the torque clutch converter solenoid being bad, but that's not it because my car does not stall at all whatsoever. The thing it does is it drives fine in the city streets and shifts flawlessly.

But when I hop on the freeway and the car is warmed up it shifts into the overdrive gear usually above 55 mph and will not shift out until I exit the freeway. Now this causes my rpm's to rev up at least double the normal driving condition and this has been doing this for about a year now.

Any information on this would be greatly appreciated, now I think that it might be the gear linkage but I don't know I'd rather have the problem determined already before I take it in to get serviced.

• 1994 Pontiac Grand Prix
• 3.1 liter V-6
• Automatic transmission
• 179,000 miles
• Fuel injected
• ABS brakes
• P/S, A/C and cruise
• Rack and pinion steering

Thanks a bunch,
Daniel

A. I'm not sure I understand the problem. You say it reads two times rpm at 55 mph? When it's in overdrive the rpm's should be at their lowest. This is what gives you the best fuel mileage.

It sounds like your transmission is not in overdrive but maybe third or second. I would take it to a transmission shop and have it scanned for any codes. It shouldn't be linkage, these new transmission are electronic. Could be a wire problem or a bad shift solenoid inside.