hello everyone, I found your forum by searching Google for some answers to my question on my 2004 Neon SXT A/T

I just bought this car a few months ago from a used car dealer. The car is in fantastic condition and had only 65K when I bought it. I have a 150 mile round trip commute to work everyday, so my 09 Ram sits in the garage!

This is my 3rd Neon in 5 years. I always thought they were a great car. This is the first Neon I have owned with an automatic trans.

When I first purchased the car I was getting 32-36mpg. My commute is all major highway. Over time I have seen a steady decrease in MPG. I did a tune up, new plugs, wires, air filter and it seems to be stabilized at 32 mpg so I'm feeling ok about that.

Here is what I have been looking for answers on: on one section of my commute there is a small "mountain" road that I need to take to get to the highway. I noticed the torque converter goes into lock up at what I would consider the wrong time. The RPM are too low at 35mph for this to go into LO in over drive. I would have to stay right in the throttle to keep up the RPM's and stay out lock up.

I had some concerns so I had my dealer do a BG transmission flush using Mopar ATF+4, and replace the filter. That made the shifting on the hills much better, but what I notice now is when I am on the highway cruising at 65-70mph with the cruise on, the rpm's will raise slightly (a noticeable 200 rpm's on the tach) at the slightest incline on the road, or even over a rough section. On some days it seems more erratic than other days but it is becoming a major concern because the commute is so long I really don't want to break down away from home I'm concerned that the flush did something to the torque converter but otherwise the transmission shifts great thru all gears.

Anyone have any experience with a condition such as this?

 

Did you ever find any resolution to this, or anyone else seem to have this issue in an automatic neon? We are having the same problem in the 02 neon we just got, and would love some insight as to what's going on. Thanks!

 

I would advise you to take it to an ASE transmission shop. They should have the proper tools for tranny diagnosis. They more then likely will want to drop the pan and see if there is anything obvious. Could be the torque converter itself. Driving around with a scanner should give someone a pretty good idea whats going on.

 

I never found the resolution to this problem. I started experiencing other issues with the car and decided to sell it. All my other Neon's were standard trans. I wasn't particularly thrilled about this one. Gone now. back to driving my `09 Ram! Not a bad thing