slow reverse

New here, just acquired a 96 SL2. Has 138000 miles and been run pretty hard.
Was a gift for the daughter though. Anyway car had a cracked radiator tank,
needed a good going over oil, filter, trans service etc. Just finished it
yesterday. New rad, new oil & filt, new trans filt (from saturn dealer), new
trans cooler return line, fresh fluid. CAr is very slow to engage reverse.
When it does slams pretty hard. Drive engages fine. Ideas?
Larry

 

Did they/you fill the trans fluid properly? First thing to check is the
fluid level by following instructions in the owner's manual.

Bob

 

Yeah Bob I did that. I am an ex-technician but have never owned or worked on
a Saturn before many others but this is a foreign little bugger to me. Odd
thing.....I went out today to pull it into the garage to look everything
over and everything seems fine. One strange little beastie to me. Oddly
enough too the manual says trans fluid and filter change should be 4.2 qts.
but it took all of 5. Old fluid was not burned btw either.
Larry

 

....do a Google newsgroup search on "valve body" and you'll get lots of info.
There used to be a suggested fix (other than replacing the part) over at
www.saturnfans.com...

 

Larry:

My Saturn dealer told me it was a bad valve body. They replaced it and
it didn't fix the problem. It turns out that the input shaft was loose.

 

Were you having other "issues" or just this one symptom? I went to a trans
shop yesterday who told me he'd pressure test it but was confident enough in
the VB since he's had 3 of them in recent rapid sucession that all did the
same thing. This thing is throwing other DTC's like locked converter, locked
in 2nd speed, no 3rd. It had a slew of them I didn't write down. I may just
buy a VB at the dealer and do it myself.
Larry

 

Larry:

I was having other troubles, too. It was revving very high before
shifting, and downshifting at strange times. The transmission wasn't
throwing codes, though. Also, it had to get warm to start acting strangely.

 

Dang I have done lots of research on this and What sucks is the dealer or a
good trans shop is the only way to check it. And even then the deal says
its one thing and its something else. These tranny's are crap. I have
same symptoms:

No reverse or harsh engage. Won't shift into 3rd or 4th sometimes when
warm. Same trouble codes mentioned about no second or thrid gear. Sad
thing is it could be the shaft nut or bushing or the valvae body or teh
clutches or any damn thing you can think of cuz these transmissions suck

 

Luckily I have a Mitchell On Demand system available to me and it has TSB's
in it. I decided to look into them and voila there were most all the
symptoms and most of the algorithyms pionted to the upper valve body. It was
$190 at the dealer so I bought one figuring even if the trans needed
building at least the builder would be that far ahead. So I did the VB and
the vehicle runs just great now :-D Wife and daughter ran it all over town
and declared it great!
Did the Valve cover yesterday too and was pleasantly suprised to find the
engine quite clean inside, no cam wear, and a TIMING CHAIN!!!! Still left to
do a tune up, check brakes and a set of tires and I have a pretty good
little beater A little tune up advice on this. Does the throttle body
and AIS on this vehicle get gummed up and require cleaning? Otherwise thanks
for the help on the other stuff to all.
Larry