Hey this is my first post and hope you guys can help me out. Today as we were on the highway we noticed a constant winding noise so i look down and notice were at 55mph at about 6500 rpm. the car won't shift out of 3rd...car has 138k on it and it's an automatic. the car never had rough gear changes or anything like that so it's kinda weird. Could this be an electrical problem?

 

When was the last transmission flush? I am going to bet that you either don't know or didn't have one. Get it flushed if you did not have it within the last 90000 miles. You are probably low on fluid. You can also check a sensor that is on the transmission that can get dirty or loose, but I don't know where it is so um... well we will start with that is very likely a low trans fluid issue.

 

Thanks for the reply i'll get it checked out tomorrow. Hopefully that's what it is.

 

Man it is a 96 so the whole sensor thing is not too likely, it is more for the tiptronics. Yeah I would say your transmission fluid is low esp. if it was never changed in the 10 years your car has been around

 

Sounds like your tranny is in limp mode. When the ECU senses there is something wrong it will go into limp mode to self preserve.

You are either low on fluid or there is something else going on. If you have no records of the tranny being service at all you will need to take it slow because there are going to be all kinds of gunk in there and a totally new fluid change will clean and released them all at once. Drained only half of the tranny fluid and refil it so you don't shock the system into releasing too much gunk that caused the tranny to go into limp mode. Go for a short drive and see it everything is OK. Once that is fine for a couple of hundred miles go for the whole filter and gasket flush. The filter and gasket kit is fairly cheap. The 5 speed AT kit is $26.08 and the 4 speed AT kit is $16.49 at my store.

If it stays stuck in 3rd then check your shift linkage and tranny plug for the ECU.

 

that sounds like limp mode is what happened. we're gonna get the transmission flushed on wednesday. Any one know how much this should cost?