Question about TQC behavior

[LowLincoln]

Hi,

As some of you know, I acquired a 97 LSC earlier this week and I am very happy with it.

However, there is one annoying thing. During normal acceleration, from a stop, light to light, etc, the torque converter, in my opinion, locks up wayyyy too early for my taste. When I reach about 25MPH, it bogs down the engine so it can lock. 3rd/4th gears also kick in way too early before I even reach 45 MPH.

Does this sound like a normal behavior for the 97-98's?

 

[NoLimit95]

Hi,

As some of you know, I acquired a 97 LSC earlier this week and I am very happy with it.

However, there is one annoying thing. During normal acceleration, from a stop, light to light, etc, the torque converter, in my opinion, locks up wayyyy too early for my taste. When I reach about 25MPH, it bogs down the engine so it can lock. 3rd/4th gears also kick in way too early before I even reach 45 MPH.

Does this sound like a normal behavior for the 97-98's?

The bogging issue isn't normal but depending on your acceleration, gear changing can happen at different speeds. As for the 3/4 into OD, try leaving the OD off if you're in town and going to be at speeds below 50 and see if there are any changes. I would say that the accumulator spring for 1/2 may be broken but that wouldn't cause any bogging down with the engine. That could be vacuum line being cracked, cracked coil boots or a number of things. Are you getting any CEL light during driving.

 

[LowLincoln]

No CEL's right now. Earlier in the week I did but that was because one of the coils went bad on me. After fixing that, the CEL went away after a day.

I kind of doubt it's an accumulator spring. It feels like it's just part of the programming. The shifting feel itself is perfect. Not too sloppy or too harsh. I think the trans may have been rebuilt at some point in time. It's only the timing of the shifts. It's awkward how the shifting happens earlier than it should, IMO.

When I turn off OD, the TQC still locks or partially locks at 25MPH which is really annoying when I am still trying to accelerate in traffic.

 

[Roadboss]

One thing you can do to improve your driving experience is to push the button on the shifter when you are driving in town light to light in traffic. This will prevent the transmission from going to 4th gear, and you get some benefit of a little engine braking too.

The next thing I would suggest is to evaluate the transmission fluid and see if it is nice and red in color. If it smells and is brownish it is time to drain the transmission and the torque converter, check the springs in the accumulators, and replace the filter, filling the trans with new Mercon V. Adding a transmission cooler will also help the trans to live longer and reduce some of the cooling load on your coolant system.

 

[chicken]

pull the batt cables and relearn the pcm. if some lil old lady drove it to the store once a week or something the car will learn the driving characteristics of said driver. pull the cables for a few minutes and open a door to wipe any power left in capacitors then hook them up and drive it like you normally would, it can take a little while to relearn everything but in a few days it should be good to go

 

[Psychostang]

What you are experiencing, is normal. The computer is programned to upshift at the earliest moment. I bet you are experiencing this under light throttle settings. It does this to try and save gas.

 

[chris2523]

What you are experiencing, is normal. The computer is programned to upshift at the earliest moment. I bet you are experiencing this under light throttle settings. It does this to try and save gas.

my 93 does this.
3rd around 25 and 4th around 35.