Gen 1 Occasional Trans E

[RCodePaul]

My buddy is the original owner of an '02 LS V8 with 68,000 miles. He put almost all of his miles on surface streets in town. On the rare occasion he drives across town on the freeway, the exact same thing happens every time. Even though the engine runs without a miss (no coils YET) and the tranny shifts normally, smoothly (no quirks or jerks YET) every time he exits the freeway, comes to a complete stop. Then accelerates away from the stop he gets the "check transmission" warning and the indicator goes to E.
Turn off the car. Restart the car, drive for a month in town, no errors, no misses, no goofy shifting. NOTHING.
Any clues?

 

[pektel]

Has he checked to see if there have been any stored codes?

Mine did that for a little while, then I had to replace my solenoid block.

 

[RCodePaul]

The CEL clears after a day or two so he hasn't taken it to have the code read. He is assuming the error code isn't stored. Is it?

 

[joegr]

The CEL clears after a day or two so he hasn't taken it to have the code read. He is assuming the error code isn't stored. Is it?

Yes, it's stored for several drive cycles. However, not all code readers will read the transmission codes.

 

[jrand]

some ppl here are goign to s_hit themselves bc they disagree; but if i were him i would disconnect the battery to clear the tranny specs and do a drive cycle and follow battery reconnect procedure found in the owners manual (for free) before tearing it apart and doing the solenoid. if a disconnect and proper break-in (follow the manual, do a drive cycle) doesnt cure it then he probably has the solenoid problem. check for codes before disconnecting battery, bc that will clear them for sure. ive never had an E so i dont know off the top of my head if that throws a code or not, but a wrench light or a CEL will definitely have a code. many intermittent&situational tranny problems are the result of poor shift specs stored by the pcm and give the same symptoms as the failing solenoid.