I'm new to the Saturn forum and need to ask a question about my girl's car. She has an '01 SL2 that has been maintained regularly by Saturn up until 60,000 miles. Sally(the car) is now a couple thousand over that and is having problems. All at once the car is shifting very hard into every gear. All the way down the PRND selector. Has anyone had this issue. I haven't had the time to look closely, but I think I have a guess. The trans mount? There is no CEL coming on. Thanks in advance for the suggestions or advice.

 

there are trans mounts, but a bad mount would create a vibration, not a hard shift...i would check he fluid to see if it is very dirty....

 

Check the trans fluid first. Make sure it's not leaking. If its full and the problem is in all gears its probably the line pressure solenoid in the trans. Good news is it can be replaced on its own bad news is it takes some time and is not all that easy to get too. Don't get conned into a complete valve body replacement or something like a trans overhaul. If its in all gears a good tech can scan the data in the trans and watch the line pressure to see if the solenoid can control it. What happens is the car defaults to wide open setting so instead of having 45psi in first gear you have 220 psi. That makes for a hard shift.Good luck and keep me posted.

 

hmm..excellent info, thanks rick!

 

probably needs a new transmission shift module

 

I'm a little late to help, but my Saturn did this just before my alternator died. I guess this is because the low power messed up the computer controlled trans. New Alternater and all was well with the trans.