2001 Santa Fe transmission problem

Hi all,

Hope you can help me figure out what is happening with my transmission.


Here's what happened: While cruising on the highway at 65 mph in
automatic, all of a sudden, a pretty big jerk and noise heard from
below, and immediately the check engine light came on. However, I
continued driving while trying to figure out what happened, and noticed
that the transmission was stuck in 3rd gear (first noticed the high RPM
then checked by moving the shift to "manual").

I continued driving like that for another 10 miles until I got to my
exit, and then when I slowed down, I noticed that it wouldn't switch
down either (was stuck in 3rd gear even as I stopped at the light). By
going to "manual" I was able to shift to 2nd gear, and back to 3rd, but
not to 1st or 4th.

Later that day, after I got home and made a few calls trying to find a
good mechanic, I went down to the car, and took it for a spin, to my
surprise I noticed that it worked fine (switched gears as it normally
would), however the "check engine" light is still on.

Let me know if you have any idea what could be the problem here, and/or
if you had a similar problem. Should I expect this to happen again, do
I need to take it for a checkup?

Thanks,
Jon.

 

Jon I had a similar experience with my 05 Elantra. I was fortunate as
it was covered under warrantee. In my case it was a defective trans
solenoid PN 46313-39051 that had to be replaced. I know when the
dealer replaced it they had to replace some of the ATF and coolant.
Don't know if this is of any help, but that's what happened with my
Elantra.

 

It sounds like the transmission computer put the transmission in failsafe
because of some abnormality it had seen.

When you restarted the vehicle, the condition was no longer present, and
the transmission computer therefore did not return the transmission to
failsafe.

You should take the vehicle to have it checked. It's probably nothing
more than a defective input or output speed sensor.