Weird tranny slip - is this normal?

[swc69]

Hey all,

I have another thing that drives me nuts that I wanted to ask about. Here's the situation:

I'll be cruising in 3rd gear (O.D. off) at around 40 MPH.
I give it about 1/3 to 1/2 throttle to accellerate.
The tach will jump to maybe 2600 RPM for about 2 seconds, and then drop back to 2200RPM.
It doesn't seem to be changing gears at all, its like there's some stall RPM built into the tranny.

Is this normal?

When I combine this behavior with the dead spot I have at 3200rpm in the power band (in a separate post) it becomes a very dis-satisfying driving experience: add throttle, car start to accelerate and goes to 2600RPM and then oozes back down to 2200RPM, add more throttle, car downshifts, starts to accerlerate again until until it hits 3200, then bogs down, then takes off again.

Its behavior I might put up with on a 30 year old muscle car, buts its not acceptable for a brand new car.

I'm trying not to rant. Is this something that everyone else has?

Steve C.
2003 300A
Superchips Micro Tuner

[FordNut]

Does your Superchips programmer let you change shifting characteristics? The behavior sounds like the stock shifting pattern, kind of mushy. It's probably due to the clutch locking and unlocking in the torque converter. Should be fixable with some re-programming. Mine was much better after I chipped it. Not sure how the SCT works for changing the tranny parameters (lockup, shift rpm, pressure, etc.)

[Go Mifuni]

Mine does the same thing. I will be putting in my chip within the next few weeks when the threat of snow is gone.

[CRUZTAKER]

Mine regularly did this before the chip install. It's all in the programming.

[jspradii]

Hey all,

I have another thing that drives me nuts that I wanted to ask about. Here's the situation:

I'll be cruising in 3rd gear (O.D. off) at around 40 MPH.
I give it about 1/3 to 1/2 throttle to accellerate.
The tach will jump to maybe 2600 RPM for about 2 seconds, and then drop back to 2200RPM.
It doesn't seem to be changing gears at all, its like there's some stall RPM built into the tranny.

Is this normal?

When I combine this behavior with the dead spot I have at 3200rpm in the power band (in a separate post) it becomes a very dis-satisfying driving experience: add throttle, car start to accelerate and goes to 2600RPM and then oozes back down to 2200RPM, add more throttle, car downshifts, starts to accerlerate again until until it hits 3200, then bogs down, then takes off again.

Its behavior I might put up with on a 30 year old muscle car, buts its not acceptable for a brand new car.

I'm trying not to rant. Is this something that everyone else has?

Steve C.
2003 300A
Superchips Micro Tuner
How many miles you got on that tranny? I had just over 40,000 on my 300A when I had it "bullet proofed" and the overdrive belt was pretty well burnt up. I could tell when I did power downshifts to 3rd from OD. I could smell it. If you don't have a lot of miles on it and haven't abused it too badly, it probably is just the shift points.:up:

[studio460]

swc69:

I have that same 3200-3400 RPM "dead spot" and have made a number of posts regarding the topic a while back. Most here blamed it on the stock shift programming. Now, I finally have my SCT ProRacer tuner and software but haven't a clue (yet) how to manage the shift tables. I can recognize some of the changes Chris from SCT made to my car's EEC when I drove my car to see him at SEMA, but the car still seems to upshift too quickly into high gear and doesn't seem to heed the programmed table! For example, Chris had changed the defaults in the "trans_shift_schedule34" table, and upped all TP values from 0-300 to minimum MPH values of 50 MPH, and the car still upshifts at <50 MPH!

[swc69]

I'm pretty confident that its not just a sluggy soft shift as someone suggested. Maybe I'm wrong - but it feels more like a slip than a shift.

I think I'll try a dealer relash first and see if that helps.

Steve C.