98 neon with 51k miles. was running ok had purchased for my daughter for when she got her license. it sat for about 5 weeks when i put it back on the road it now has a tranny issue. if you accelarate normally it shifts fine, once you accelarate hard or make the tranny downshift when you step on the gas to pass the shift points get thrown off. when i make a stop after this happenns it wont shift out of 1st until about 25 or 30 and 2nd until around 40. i even tried shifting manually and it still did not shift correctly. only way to correct this was to stop and put tranny in park and this seems to reset something because it will start shifting ok and as long as i don't accelarate hard or step to hard on the gas to pass it will shift ok all day long. any help would be appreciated

 

I just have the same problem with my 98 neon. I took it to the shop and they told me I need a rebuild tranny cost 1800 dollars. Then I took it to my friend and he told me my down-shift lever is rusted so when you step on the gas hard, it kick it out of gear. I will try to see if this is the problem. Go buy a tranny filter and gasket and open it up yourself to see if it is rusted. Or you could take it to the shop (one you could trust) and have them do it. My friend fix that for me and he said it cost you about 1 1/2 hours of labor, plus the gasket and fuild, you should be looking at about $120. Also, the reason why my tranny was rusted is becasue my battery is leaking, check to see if the battery is leak, if it is , then that is most likely what the problem is. I hope this help

 

Yeah mine was rusted out on my 96 lucky i has all parts from a previous wreck so i just swapped out the whole assembly, check the assembly before you swap a tranny.