Help-Transmission shifting problems

[mariettabridge]

Hi Everyone- I was wondering if any one has any ideas or has experienced the same problem I am having.... I have a 2004 Gulfstream on a W-22 chassis. Today after I left Tampa, I am going down the interstate and the trans starts going in and out of overdrive, it is doing this all the time as long as the overdrive button is on. You really notice it around 60- 70 mph. It feels like an old car I used to have when the trans started going out, but when I turn the overdrive off, this stops, obviously now its not able to keep shifting in and out. This probem has me concerned, it just started as I was going down the road. I pulled off and checked the fluid to make sure it was ok. I have no transmission fluid leaking and have no slipping of the transmission. I just have this shifting in and out of overdrive all the time. It is not like it is the exact same speed that it does it. I could understand this if I was in the mountains, but this is on totally flat ground. I have contacted workhorse, but they have to wait until mon to find a service center. Sorry to be so longwinded, just trying to describe the problem, any help will be appreciated. By the way, I bought this coach new and only have about 12,000 miles on it now.

[mariettabridge]

Hi Everyone- I was wondering if any one has any ideas or has experienced the same problem I am having.... I have a 2004 Gulfstream on a W-22 chassis. Today after I left Tampa, I am going down the interstate and the trans starts going in and out of overdrive, it is doing this all the time as long as the overdrive button is on. You really notice it around 60- 70 mph. It feels like an old car I used to have when the trans started going out, but when I turn the overdrive off, this stops, obviously now its not able to keep shifting in and out. This probem has me concerned, it just started as I was going down the road. I pulled off and checked the fluid to make sure it was ok. I have no transmission fluid leaking and have no slipping of the transmission. I just have this shifting in and out of overdrive all the time. It is not like it is the exact same speed that it does it. I could understand this if I was in the mountains, but this is on totally flat ground. I have contacted workhorse, but they have to wait until mon to find a service center. Sorry to be so longwinded, just trying to describe the problem, any help will be appreciated. By the way, I bought this coach new and only have about 12,000 miles on it now.

[edgray]

mariettabridge: WELCOME to iRV2.com We are glad to have you, just sorry your first post is about a problem.

You did the right thing calling WCC first. The good news is that you will do absolutely NO HARM driving your coach with the OD turned OFF. You may burn a tiny bit more fuel, but that is a small price to pay for the convenience of getting to a shop near where YOU want to be. It sound to me as if there is a software glitch between the ECM and the TCM, which will probably be fixed easily.

Good luck, and please come back to let us know how this played out. Again, WELCOME!

[mariettabridge]

thanks for your reply, i am hoping that it is as you described, i just cannot fathom that it could be something major. i have been looking about trading up, but keep on staying with my w-22 because i have had no problems and really do not feel like starting over with a new coach with all the little problems you have to work thru

[mariettabridge]

edgray...

just wanted to let you know that the workhorse service center said we checked out ok, said they could find nothing wrong. they think i am hearing the two cooling fans in the engine compartment kicking on because it is so warm where we are. I guess I will have to go with that for now. thanks again

[BellaBo]

If your transmission is shifting your rpm's should change too. If infact it's the fans the rpm won't change much.

[edgray]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">they think i am hearing the two cooling fans in the engine compartment kicking on </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
NOPE- you won't hear the TWO fans you can see in front of your radiator. They are too small and are electrically driven. They will only come on when your A/C is operating and the engine is at normal operating temp.

Having said that, what you WILL hear is the engine-driven fan which pulls air thru the radiator to cool the motor. IT does cycle on and off as the collant temp rises and falls, and IT makes a noticible "roar". This is completely normal, and is not a cause for concern.

As Steamerman posted, IF you are shifting in and out of OD, you will/should see the RPMs change (about 200-300 rpms) at each shift, but that won't make the noise difference that the fan clutch engagement creates.

[mariettabridge]

after reading the above posts, "please forgive me, I am not in any way a mechanic", I did not figure that what I am hearing is the 2 fans you mention, i have also hear the "roar", i was familar with that, when it was doing the shifting thing, it was raising the rpms as you mentioned. All I know is that they said they could find nothing wrong with anything and that there were no trouble codes set in the computer. i know on my way back from the service center, i drove for approx 40 miles and did not have any shifting problems like before. we will be heading home in 2 weeks and i will post on any more issues.

[rvten]

Driving on real windy days will also do this. Where you are it gets real windy. Going over over passes can cause this also.

[edgray]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">i drove for approx 40 miles and did not have any shifting problems like before. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
That is good news. Hopefully whatever the issue was will not reappear. please let us hear how your trip home went. ED

[Aldev]

After having read your problem and thinking about what happened to me, I would check with an Allison shop. My problem was when I was driving with the cruise control on and I would go up an incline the transmissiom would downshift and the rpm's would go way up. I would then kick the cruise control off and the trans went back to normal. I thought that this was normal when going up an incline. To make my story endless, my trans went out at 25k miles and after my 3yr warrenty. I was stuck in Blythe Ca. for a week and finally got a trans out of Detroit Deisel in Phoenix. My extended warranty covered $3000. of a $4500 dollar bill. Nowing what I know now, I should have taken it to an Allison repair shop and had it checked out, but being old and naive I didn't. So, follow my advice, if you have any more problems, have it checked by an Allison shop. Nothing worse than being stuck in the middle of the desert in the middle of summer. As those other guys wrote, let us know what happened!
Al DeVinaspre
2002 Bounder 32H

[Bob G]

I too had a problem with an intermittent trans shifting problem. It lasted for 5 years. All the obvious things were checked and nothing worked. To make a long story short, it turned out to be an intermittent break in the wires from the coolant temperature sender to the computer. The computer would think the engine was cold (-39 degrees) and go into a warm up mode. There are 2 sending units on my engine, one for the computer and one for the dash gage.

I found it by monitoring with a scan gage (Autotap) while the problem was occurring.
The moral is "think out of the box". Who would think about checking the temp sender for a trans shifting problem.