Thread: Check Engine Light - Wont downshift, whine coming from engine

Here are my symptoms: Start car. Coolant light is on. Once engine warms up, the light goes off and then there is a slight burning smell. Shortly after that my car starts shifting hard when going up thru the gears. 2 times after that, my check engine light comes on and my car will not downshift. Today while driving all the same symptoms, but no check engine light, but the car started to whine. Husband put in park and revved. Still whining. He is going out now to put it in nuetral and check to see if it still whines. Any suggestions??

Originally Posted by brandibissell

Here are my symptoms: Start car. Coolant light is on. Once engine warms up, the light goes off and then there is a slight burning smell. Shortly after that my car starts shifting hard when going up thru the gears. 2 times after that, my check engine light comes on and my car will not downshift. Today while driving all the same symptoms, but no check engine light, but the car started to whine. Husband put in park and revved. Still whining. He is going out now to put it in nuetral and check to see if it still whines. Any suggestions??

First thing I would do is find out why the coolant light is on. Could be linked in the PCM program to protect the transmission from damage since it thinks that the tranny fluid would be overheated.

Terry

basically what my tranny was doing but it just wouldnt shift out of 2nd

I don't know why my coolant light is coming on. It has been doing that for several months. But it is always on right when you start the car. usually for the first 5 to 7 miles. I have been monitoring coolant levels. I do have a small leak around the upper intake externally, but coolant levels have been full. Radiator full and overflow proper level. so low coolant doesn't seem to be the issue. Temperature gauge is running normal. Has not over heated. Oil and tranny fluid look perfect. The hard shift, not being able to downshift and the whining seem to be somewhat random. Although none of these symptoms have ever happened in the first 10 minutes of the car driving when the motor is cool. The first time I took it to Auto Zone it read 4 codes: P0102, P0742 (this is the one that scares me), P0171 and P0300. I had them clear the codes. (We did replace the MAF sensor a few months prior, that is probably why that code came up). I drove the car a full week after they cleared the codes approximately 7 miles each way to work and back. The next time the check engine light came on, I had it scanned again. It had the same symptoms as I listed earlier. The code that came up this time was P0171 twice. Since then my check engine light stayed on for a couple days, was gone and then came back on this morning. I drove my car for a little longer periods today. Once the engine was warm, it started to shift hard again and the engine whine. I shut the car off for about 10 minutes and then left again. There was no more whine. The whine sounds like it is coming from the transmission. I am hoping that there is another issue that I am not aware of. Is there a possibility it is just the computer?? what are the symptoms of having a computer go bad? I hate playing the guessing game and do not want to put a lot of money into it. Please help.

The car is running great as it always had other than random issues above. I don't understand why it can shift properly and make no noise and then instantly shifting wrong and making noise, then the next day it is all well again.