MalibuRich

I have a '03 Malibu w/ approximately 96500 miles on the odometer. I recently put several hundred highway miles on my Malibu and have now noticed that it is shifting gears very hard while driving in the city. Is this great cause for concern? What is (if any) the suggested maintenance for auto transmissions for the model? Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

John86

at the dealer we recommend flushing the trans. about every 50,000miles or so depending on how hard the vehicle is drove. u could have solenoid sticking in ur valve body.

SuperTexan

Hi...my 01 Monte Carlo, with a very simliar transmission as your, a 4T65E, started doing that. What had happened is that the clutches were so burned up, that the computer turned control of shifting over to the transmission, like and older car. Accompanied by the shifting hard, you might roll down the window and listen for a "whining" sound coming from the driver side of the car, from the front. Not to alarm you, but a "flush" wont do anything. If you hear the whining, you're about to drop $1500-$1800 on a rebuild. Another possibility is that your Pressure Control Solenoid is going bad, or is bad. This device also controls shifting and is located on the driver side of the transmission inside the big shiny "oil pan" looking cover on the side of it. If these go bad and are not corrected, you will burn up the transmission. Yet another thing is that your computer needs new shift program installed. Your transmission shop will inform you more in depth on all of these. These are things I was told when our Monte Carlo went South on us.

pgbiener

I recently had a hard shifting/hard garage shift problem with a 98 malibu 3100. I had recently had the top end of the motor done, and the trans worked before the repairs, so I went digging for something stupid.

Like an earlier post, the car had a whining noise from the left front, a hard klunk when garage shifting and a 1st to 2nd gear jerk that threatened to snap my head off at the shoulders. Reading the codes from the computer, the fuel pressure was low, no codes at all from the transmission controller and an EGR fault.

Are you ready to hear what the trouble was yet??? I found the map sensor to be broken and it was the cause of all the trouble. I replaced it for 42.00 including tax and the car now runs/drives/stops/shifts/etc. just fine.

I hope this helps those who will invariably follow in my footsteps and good luck to you all!

Paul