Transmission

[Ellen]

I have a 2006 Malibu-3.5 LT-76000 miles. 2 days ago while driving, I heard a noise, the rpms went into the red,engine light and TC light came on and the car lost power. Now I'm told (according to a friend of mine who read the error code), I need a transmission. Is there a possibility it is something else? I've driven it 3 times so far-just to work and home(less than 6 miles). I use my flashers and don't go over 40mpr. Strange,it feels like its pulling on the right. Like the wheel is turning slower the then the rest. The engine light remains on and the TC light comes on intermittently. Any thoughts?

[RonNVA]

Hey Ellen,

There are some great people on the forum that can help diagnose a lot of problems, but they are probably going to need a bit more information. Can you tell us what code or codes were read? Any additional information that you can post will help improve the quality of the responses. Good luck with your problem, and best wishes for a happier new year!

[DrivenDaily]

If you're driving on the freeway at 40 mph you might want to consider taking surface streets instead. You could easily be rear-ended or cause someone else to have an accident when they overtake you at closing speeds above 20 and don't realize it, then swerve.

You could have a failed hub sensor or wiring and have no transmission issue at all. More info for our members that will be helping you would be good.

[Ellen]

Sorry, I did not ask him the code. And thankgoodness, I'm not doing any freeway /highwaydriving. All residential back roads for me!
I'm curious about the "failed hub sensor" What would be the symptoms?

[RonNVA]

I'm not sure what all of the sysmptoms would be, but I can tell you what I experienced. I had the left front hub go out on my car about two years ago. I first noticed an issue when I was parking in front of my townhouse, on a slight slope. When I applied the brakes to pull into the space, once in a blue moon the ABS system would activate and I could feel the brakes pulsating on the front. It was a very infrequent thing. Eventually, the symptom became when I would first back out of my parking space in the morning, and start accelerating up the hill the warning chime might ding and I would get an error indicator on the dash. Once again, did not happen every time, but I noticed it was happening more frequently. If I turned the car off and restarted, the error would go away. I never noticed any issues with braking. After a few of these episodes I decided to have it checked out. I had the codes read, and it pointed to insufficient speed from the left wheel hub sensor. After I replaced the hub, the problem went away.

Can you ask your friend what the specific codes he pulled were? It might be best to take the car into a dealership or shop for more diagnosis......