Hey all,
This is my first crack at this, so hopefully I'm not doubling something that someone has already started. I checked through the forum fairly thoroughly, and I don't think there's a thread on this topic...

I have an 07 XLS V6 that I've owned for just over a year. Current mileage around 88,000km (55 000ish miles) Bought it from original owner in excellent shape. Shortly after purchasing it I noticed that it does this weird slipping thing: very occasionally on an upshift it will seem to miss the next gear and rev way up before it finds the next gear. It's usually on the 5-6 upshift but sometimes on the 2-3, 3-4, and 4-5. It's very periodic, but most prevalent when doing highway driving - merging after an on ramp or after 1st traffic light after coming off of the highway.

Dealership seems to be totally lost on this as I've had it checked 4 times and they can never duplicate the problem, so they can't fix it. Here's what they've tried:

1. Check for software updates for the ECM - no change
2. One tech thought it was a bad rear brake kit that was causing the rear brakes to drag occasionally - no change after repair.

Today I finally convinced the dealership to try a Transmission Flush (at my cost of course $125). Seemed ok on the way home, but as it sometimes doesn't do it for weeks, and then it'll do it like crazy for a while, I'm not holding my breath yet.

Dealer's been pretty good, but can't figure it out.

Any ideas?

 

if the fluid hadn't been changed out till now, it probably should have been done anyway.

keep us posted

 

Take it to a transmission specialist must have advertising that shows he knows how to work on a Mitsu. Better Idea take it to the dealership as well get both side of the story then make a choice Happy Holidays fellow gearheads.

 

So I checked in my owners manual, and under the severe maintenance schedule, Tranny fluid should be changed every 48,000km (30,000 miles). So the first time I brought it in with this problem, the dealer really *should* have told me to change it, as it had never been done before. I had about 75,000km on it at that point.

I think living in Canada automatically puts me in the "severe maintenance schedule". In the manual it says "Please note that the "severe Maintenance Schedule" best describes operating conditions in Canada and is the recommended maintenance schedule".

I've now put a couple of hundred km's on it since the dealer changed the tranny fluid and shifts have been MUCH crisper, almost completely eliminated the hesitation on start/stops and on merging (similar symptoms as other people mentioned in other threads). So there's definitely something to be said about changing the fluid. Haven't had the "slipping" symptoms I mentioned above either, but because it's always been intermittent, I'm not willing to call that solved yet. I'm doing a 7-800km road trip next week, so we'll see how she does then.

Bottom line at this point... if you're having transmission hesitation and sluggishness, change the trans fluid. Definitely worth it.

 

Well, I've put another 2000 km on in the last few weeks, including lots of variety of city & highway, and have not had the jerking/slipping happen again. So I guess with our Outies we need to make sure we change the tranny fluid regularly, and if you're having any sort of oddness coming from the trans, that's the first thing to try. I plan on changing it every 40 000km or sooner from now on, just as a precaution.
Wish the dealer had thought of this before I had to suggest it!

 

The dealership I bought ours from said that 30k miles was the "recommended", but he normally sees the fluid finished 40k to 45k miles. I took it past them at 45k and they said that it may have a bit more life, but they are 30 min away and we just changed it out then. I'm about to turn 90k miles, so I'm due for my 2nd change.

Glad it works well for you!