Car back in the shop.

Well, when we took the trip up to Kansas City my car started shifting a bit funny. When speeding up, it would go through the gears too quickly, then when slowing down, it’d stay in a high gear too long, bogging the motor down. I was a bit worried the transmission was going out, but it never really got worse or came out of gear completely, so I babied it all the way back to Manhattan from Kansas City.

I did some research and I don’t think the transmission itself is the problem. But the torque converter clutch. This little thing sits inside the transmisson and tells the torque converter clutch when to engage and disengage, and I believe that it’s gone bad. I talked to the mechanic today after he’d had the car for a while and he seems to agree with me so far, but he’s going to “make sure it’s not something else.” These guys have been pretty honest in my past experience, and they have done excellent work. So I trust them.

So the good news is it’s looking like I won’t be spending $1000 to rebuild the transmission, probably just a couple hundred dollars to replace a $40 switch. But it’s an old car, and like I tell everyone, I expected stuff like this to creep up when I bought the car. I might spend $200 at the repair shop every few months, but that’s still cheaper than a $350 a month car payment. And what can I say? I’m a sucker for old cars. It’ll probably be the death of me.