Hi everyone,


First I want to apologize for my post's length but I'd really appreciate your help!!!


Just to start off, I used to have a 93 Saturn SC2 and when it died, I had loved the car so much, I decided to keep with Saturn but opted for a bit more room and got the SL2. So on Sunday, I purchased a 2002 Saturn SL2 equipped with auto transmission and has 65k miles on it.


It drove perfectly while I test drove it (or seemed to). I switched in and out of each gear about 10 times looking for any hesitation or slippage and found nothing. I started commuting to work in it (about 45-50 minute drive each way) and when I get into the parking lot, I'm a perfectionist at parking and if my car isn't perfectly straight when I pull in, I back up and fix it again and again until I'm finally late. Anyways, the third day of driving it, it started this thing where I'll have my foot on the brake, shift to reverse, pull my foot off the brake and literally can count to 2 or 3 before the car bucks backwards. When I first get in the car (leaving the house to work and leaving work for home), the reverse gear never does this, it only seems to do it after it's been driven for awhile. Any ideas why it might do this?


I've checked the tranny fluid, it's nice and red, it's got some dirt specs but I don't think it can ever be completely clean. The car idles around 700 rpm and everything else acts normal from what I can tell, there's no vibration, uncommon noises and is averaging 28mpg so far for 40% city and 60% highway. All I've done so far is replaced the air filter because it was absolutely disgusting. I plan on changing the oil and filter this weekend.


Any help would really be appreciated. I just don't want the same thing to happen to this saturn as my last one. There was no warning, I just got in it one day and it wouldn't go in reverse, I took it to a transmission shop and during their test drive, they were driving 60 mph and instead of manually shifting from overdrive to drive, he went too far and went into neutral and blew out my remaining gears. When I took it up with the manager, he said the driver was too much of a professional to have done that, so rather than paying $300 to rebuild one gear, I had to pay $1200 to rebuild the whole thing. I REALLY hope this one isn't going to need anything like that!!

 

VALVE BODY, and don't take it to some dumb azz at a tranny shop. Take it to your nearest Saturn dealer.Edited by: sw2cam

 

+1. Common issue with S car trannies. And stay away from clueless f*%$s.

You can also do a search on the term "reverse slam" in any Saturn forum and come up with an entertaining yet troubling array of attempted solutions (some which seem to work for some people).

Derf

 

i am a saturn tech and i rebuild the saturn valve bodies and i sell them,i have one if you want to buy one,
Chris 1-610-570-3224