hey my name is carlos and i own a 95 mitsubishi galant. the car has 104,000 miles and has an automatic transmission. a few weeks ago the transmission started acting up on me. whenever i put the o/d on, the rpms drop and then shoot back up when i press down on the gas pedal but i get no power. it feels as if something was stripped. this problem occurs whenever the car shifts gears while on o/d. the car works fine when the o/d is off but i can not go above 50 mph without the rpms shooting pass 4000. i had a mechanic test drive it and i was told that it was the transmission shift solenoid. a part within the transmission. for the past weeks i've looked for this part without any success. i've been told that i need to acquire a new or used transmission which would run me anywhere from 400 to 700 dollars. and on top of that the installation of this transmission could cause me anywhere in between 1000 to 1500 dollars. i really like the car and i feel like i could get a couple more years out of it but i do not if it's worth fixing. If you've come across this problem before, or anything similar please comment. any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

I like to start with the basics. Have you had the transmission flushed? I have found that when an automatic transmission isn't happy, a new filter and ALL of the fluid changed will do wonders. It's also the cheapest place to start. You can change the fluid/filter yourself, but there will be something like 40% of the fluid still in the torque converter.

 

i did some research on having the transmission flushed. The car belonged to an old couple and i seriously doubt they ever did anything to maintain the engine or transmission. a lot of the articles i read recommended that if a car had not been regularly tended to and had high mileage the transmission fluid should be left alone. this is because the large amounts of sludge built up would come loose and in most cases this debris would block valves and galleries, ultimately causing a total engine failure. as u can tell skeptical about this process. if u have had any experience please share

 

What do you have to lose if youre going to replace it anyway?