Aight.. I had a problem with my tranny before being stuck in 4th gear.. A buddy of mine took the pan off and there was way to much tranny fluid in there... He flushed it and refilled it... Was running fine.. However he told me that He thinks my batterey isnt powerfull enough to run my amp for my subs because when he hooked the power up to the amp it made it so my tranny wouldnt shift.. So he left it unhooked... Now I have the car for about 5 days driving it like normal, and the tranny is stuck in 4th gear again... So what Im wonderin is.. How much power does the tranny cel need to shift the car? If I got a bigger battery would that help the shift problem>?

I have a 98 GST Spyder(Auto), about 103,000 miles on it.

The tranny was shifting fine till today.. I put it in park at the bank and when i put it back into drive it went straight to 4th.

 

The transmission goes into failsafe/limp in mode (which is 3rd gear actually) when it detects a problem. Failsafe/limp in is designed to allow the car to be temporarily driven for service, without having to strand the driver. If you shut off the engine and the problem is not redected upon restart- there's a good chance that normal operation will resume until the problem is redetected. With that being said, i don't think your buddy has a clue what he's talking about blaming it on the battery.
YOu shouldn't drive your vehicle too much while locked in 3rd gear as premature wear to that clutch pack will result during stop and go type driving. Have it looked at by someone more qualified.

Good LUck!

Joel, CA

 

The thing that gets me is it went into the safe mode when you hook up the power cable to the amp... I don't know a lot about transmissions but it strikes me wierd that it affects the tranny when you hook up a power cable... The only thing I can think of is something wired wrong, sending bad readings to the computer.. I dunno.. Thanks for responding tho.

 

Is the power cable to your amp running directly from the battery, through a fuse, to the amp? There is definately a wiring problem going on affecting the TCM- but to say that the battery isn't strong enough to supply both is incorrect (provided that everything is hooked up correctly).

Joel, CA

 

Ya it is hooked up directly to the battery(with a fuse). Im hoping the code its giving will be able to pin point the problem...

 

So your next step is to retrieve that trouble code is.. be sure to post it here!

Joel, CA

 

Hopefully Ill be able to get it after work tomorrow... Ill keep ya updated.

 

Well what I got from the computer was a p1500, and a p1600 code.. One for a voltage issue and another for an internal transmission problem... Didnt give any detail on what it was... Does anyone know much about this "Limp" mode and how it works and if you can turn it off?

 

Could it be the input and output speed sensor on the trannie? Would that cause it to go to limp mode?