I just bought an 02 montero sport. One owner 74k. Immaculate! Looks damn near brand new. Test drive was near flawless and only needed minor fixes. My wife drove it about 130 miles yesterday. When she got in to town she noticed a lag shifting from park to drive. It wasn’t doing this on the test drive or during the week. I got home to look at it and it does it in reverse too. Would this be the valve body acting up after only 74k? I’ve been told the trannys are tuff as nails on these things. It’s my first one and I already love it! 3.5 liter v6 by the way.

 

Well maintained transmissions should and do last much longer than 74k. Obvious things to check - trans fluid level and condition. Without knowing what's there and how old it is, it's difficult to be certain. It could be as simple as low fluid or wrong trans fluid. Monteros are partial to Mitsubishi SP-III fluid.

 

Fluids are at level and clean. Of course there’s no way to tell if it’s the correct fluid or not. I’m not very familiar with The montero. I’ve been told that they’re pretty solid vehicles. So I was somewhat disappointed with a sudden transmission issue with such low mileage. Thanks for the information.

 

So jus a quick update. I tried running some trans tune on the advice of a mechanic. That made no difference at all. The next planned step was a complete flush. The fluid looked fine with good color so we speculated that the previous owner may have tried to go the cheaper route and run fluid other than SP III. So, yesterday while on the way to the mechanic my wife had the rear wheels completely lock up. Luckily she was only driving about 15mph when it occurred. I even took pictures of the skid marks because I knew it would be hard to believe. When I got there, I put the truck in neutral and pushed it off the road. I put it in drive just to see what reaction I would get since I figured that the tranny was already shot. After the same hesitation I had been seeing, I was able to drive forward with no noise, grinding, locking tires, as if nothing had changed. I called a tow truck and took it to the mechanic. I'm waiting to hear back. He had never heard of anything like this either, no one I've talked to has.

On a side note. does anyone know how to edit the title of this thread? I guess my phone auto corrected my initial entry and I didn't catch it before I submitted it.

 

Sorry to hear you having serious issues as you described. Can't even suggest where to start (besides what you are already doing - working with a good mechanic).
Please keep us posted as to what your findings are.
Don't worry about the title. We are OK with the valance body woudn't be the first time.