Pimpala

hello everyone! just joined the forums. I'm 17 years old and drive an impala ls with 409,000 km. It was passed down to me from my dad.

This car has been flawless never had any problems with this car and it still owns ricers from red lights.

I have a question about the transmission shifting hard when going into third gear though. It has never had any other problems except for oil leaks and I had the transmission fluid tank thing replaced a little while ago. Now it developed a really hard shift when going into third gear. All the fluids are check and it doesn't do it in any other gears. Sometimes it will drive totally fine and not jerk or anything but other times it shifts really hard. Any ideas as what could be wrong?

Thanks for any help and I apologize for the long thread lol.

EvansBlue

Could be the TCC, but if its just solid and firm, I wouldn't worry about it too much. However, if it is slamming the gear, it could be problematic.

Pimpala

It's actually quite a big slam when it shifts. The whole car shakes. But this happens randomly I haven't been able to note when it happens and when it's fine. Although when it does happen it happens for my whole drive until the car sits for a while and I cold start it and drive off. After the cold start it will either drive normal or shift hard again.

capucine

I PIMPALA. yOU ARE QUITE A LUCKY GUY TO HAVE LOGGED ALL THAT MILLAGE WITHOUT MUCH PROBLEM. i WAS NOT SO LUCKY WITH MY 2003. IT WAS NOTHING BUT PROBLEMS AFTER 50000miles.

Pimpala

Thanks capucine. I understand what you mean. My uncle has an 03 impala ls as well and we bought both of our impalas around the same time. He wasn't so lucky because he started getting problems around 100k miles while i have been lucky with great reliability. This car has made me respect the Chevy 3.8 ALOT.

gotstylez

could need a tranny flush( not just a change of fluid a FLUSH). my truck was shifting hard into 2nd gear. flushed it and now its smooth. just my 2 cents tho..

Pimpala

I think it might just be the TCC going bad. I did some research and might get that checked out. Thanks for the help guys!

EvansBlue

Look for the OBD code P1870.

Pimpala

Will do. might stop by part source or something.

capucine

Ello again Pimpala. My impala was a 3.4 engine. There is not much differences on the rest of the car except the engine.Yours is a 3.8. I never had any problem with the engine except that piston slap noise when starting cold but read the rest of the story. Here are some of the problems that I went throught with this car. Brake pulsations problems every 15000kilometers. I dont count how many sets of rotors I replaced. Steering shaft problems. They installed a new shaft that lasted aprx 20000 kilometers. On the second one they repacted the tube. Passlock security system problem. The module on the ignition switch was the culprit. 400$ I spent there. Exhaust resonator blew up. It was rusted. These resonators are supposed to be made of stainless steel.Engine thermostat went bad. A big job to change on the 3.4. Heater fan resistors had to be replaced. The fan would not run on the first speed and second. Rubber deflector had to be reglued on the firewall near the cabin filter. One morning I found a ton of water on the passager carpet after a rain. Tie rods on both sides and the big bushings on lower arms had to be replaced. The transmission solenoids went bad creating delays at start up on green lights and transmission was going on high pressure mode creating hard shifting on all the gears.I did not replaced the intake manifold gasket because when I heard that there was severals thousands of impala with this problem I switched to another type of brand of dexcool.. My car had 160000kilometers or 100000miles and most of my driving was highway. Oil in the transmission was replaced 3 times including the filter. I did not bother to have the transmission repaired . Instead I bought a new Uplander 2009 and to tell you the truth the van has been problem free up to date with 19000 kilometers. I liked the ride on my impala. It was very cheap on gas but I could not take anymore problems.