[Beagle RC Air]

2009 4cly 6 speed with 7200 miles. Left for trip Christmas morning and car would not upshift past 2nd gear. Manual shift nonfunctional also. Engine warning lite in dash on as well as security lite on. Tried it again this morning and it started to shift again after driving it a short distance. Engine warning lite still on.
Going to try to get it in to dealership Monday, just wondering if any others have had this experience,,,,,

 

[Silver LTZ]

Never heard that one, might be a simple sensor or it needs the TCM updates....shouldn't be a big deal. Let us know.

 

[green03malibu]

Yeah, I'm gonna have to agree. I believe its something electrical.

 

[bballr4567]

Call onstar and have them read you the code.

There is an error for sure going on and you shouldnt drive the car AT ALL until you figure it out and get it taken care of.

 

[malibudragon]

Mine did this a couple months after owning it.. The dealer replaced the computer and the cars battery was tested bad to and they replaced it to.

 

[Silver LTZ]

Call onstar and have them read you the code.

There is an error for sure going on and you shouldnt drive the car AT ALL until you figure it out and get it taken care of.

Onstar can read codes? I had no idea....

 

[bballr4567]

Onstar can read codes? I had no idea....

Yup! In fact its one of the selling points. Car gets an error code and you call up onstar and they tell you it. Ive never tried it but I have seen the commercials for it.

 

[Jcol]

Could be any number of things however knowing the code would help narrow things down. Another possiblity is that the car could be in "limp mode". My GMC truck did this once and I assume the Malibu has a similar feature. Basically limp mode limits power from the engine and stops the transmission from up shifting beyond second or third. When this happens it means the computer has detected a problem that it considers serious and limits the speed of the vechile. This allows you to get home or to a garage, but by limiting the speed it protects the vechile from further damage that driving it at normal speed might inflict. Let us know what the dealer finds, good luck.

 

[E_Net_Rider]

2009 4cly 6 speed with 7200 miles. Left for trip Christmas morning and car would not upshift past 2nd gear. Manual shift nonfunctional also. Engine warning lite in dash on as well as security lite on. Tried it again this morning and it started to shift again after driving it a short distance. Engine warning lite still on.
Going to try to get it in to dealership Monday, just wondering if any others have had this experience,,,,,

Anxious to hear fix.
At about 4000 miles and cooler weather, morning temps below 50 degrees, mine shifts strangely for the first few times.
Going into third gear has a big hesitation and feels like it was kicked into neutral for about a second before RPM drops and it fully engages.

 

[bballr4567]

Anxious to hear fix.
At about 4000 miles and cooler weather, morning temps below 50 degrees, mine shifts strangely for the first few times.
Going into third gear has a big hesitation and feels like it was kicked into neutral for about a second before RPM drops and it fully engages.

Normal for the car. Until the fluid gets warmed up some it will shift like that.

 

[Beagle RC Air]

To the dealer today, it is much warmer weather and everything worked normal with no engine warning light. So after they checked it over they said it was bad pin on one of the connections. Service writer could not come up with anything else. Time to check with Onstar in the morning for error code.

 

[E_Net_Rider]

Normal for the car. Until the fluid gets warmed up some it will shift like that.

I don't see how you figure that slipping of the third gear clutch is normal.

Such issues on older RWD trannys with high mileage were deemed as needing a rebuild. The main difference is that the ones I had experience with were slow to engage when cold. The expected reason was internal leakage and parts would expand when hot helping to seal leaks.

 

[Macleod52]

I don't see how you figure that slipping of the third gear clutch is normal.

Such issues on older RWD trannys with high mileage were deemed as needing a rebuild. The main difference is that the ones I had experience with were slow to engage when cold. The expected reason was internal leakage and parts would expand when hot helping to seal leaks.

Is it slipping, or slowly engaging? There's a difference. When the temeratures are near or below freezing the car will rev higher and shift slower then when at operational temperatures. The intentionally have this set up to prevent extra wear and tear on cold start ups. Given your clingyness of old cars, I would say that what you are feeling is normal with new cars nowadays. I know the Grand Am's would not shift into Overdrive until the car was warmed up.

 

[bballr4567]

Is it slipping, or slowly engaging? There's a difference. When the temeratures are near or below freezing the car will rev higher and shift slower then when at operational temperatures. The intentionally have this set up to prevent extra wear and tear on cold start ups. Given your clingyness of old cars, I would say that what you are feeling is normal with new cars nowadays. I know the Grand Am's would not shift into Overdrive until the car was warmed up.

Perfectly said. The Malibu wont shift into 6th unless warmed up either or until it reaches 72 MPH (IIRC). Normally itll shift into 6th if you are gradually accelerating around 58.

 

[E_Net_Rider]

Is it slipping, or slowly engaging? There's a difference. When the temeratures are near or below freezing the car will rev higher and shift slower then when at operational temperatures. The intentionally have this set up to prevent extra wear and tear on cold start ups. Given your clingyness of old cars, I would say that what you are feeling is normal with new cars nowadays. I know the Grand Am's would not shift into Overdrive until the car was warmed up.

I would say slipping with a very slow engagement.
1 to 2 is normal. Going 2 to 3 it feels like a clutch is totally disengaged for about a second with light acceleration. On 1 to 2, tach quickly slides to lower RPM. On 2 to three it just sits at the higher RPM for about a second before it slides downward to the positive engagement RPM.
I will take a different route out of my neighborhood the next time I suspect it will happen so that I can get to a 40MPH speed limit sooner. My current route, it usually stops by time I leave the 25 MPH zone, but it has happened in the 30 MPH zone as well.

Your input appreciated. TCC lockout until vehicle warms is nothing new to me. I would have to do some digging to resurrect my knowledge of how tranny fluid temp affects other points such as pressure regulation and shift points.

 

[Macleod52]

Now that you mention it I notice the same thing in my transmission. The only thing I can think of is if 3rd gear is smaller, therefore being a little more fragile when cold. Maybe that's the reason behind the slow engage.

From what you describe I will have to say it is normal. The A6 is a totally different beast than the A4's and seeing as how GM (and Ford) are in their infant stages with A6's, they're not going to be nearly as perfect as their A4's are. This is my one major beef with this car, but unfortunately it's just something you have to accept. This tranny works differently than what we're used to and we just have to get used to it. Perhaps the next generation of A6's will yield smoother shifts (The Grand Am's was near flawless). All we can really do is hope and pray.

 

[E_Net_Rider]

You are correct in that it might be a design, but that is a big if since it does not follow normal logic and that it only seems to happen on that shift. Maybe the new fluids are tough enough to withstand the tremendous heat generated by slipping the clutch plates and maybe the latest clutch materials can as well, but again it does not make sense that it would only be this upshift.
To truly understand the shift pattern, you need to know which clutches are engaged for a particular gear. There is not one clutch for each gear. There could be as few as 3 clutches for all 6 gears, plus one for reverse. Counting in binary you will see that 3 clutches could provide up to 7 forward gears.
Although the computer designates the gear according to circustances it only initiates the action, usually. That is there is no exact feedback to the computer of the precise position of all clutches. And position is not an exact measurement of state of engagement because of the tiny tolerances that change minutely with wear. If a gear change requires release of a clutch and engagement of another, you obviously want the release to initiate first and be at such a point that engaging the other does not cause both to be making contact at the same time. That would be rough on the clutches and the gears. Such actions are usually controlled by modulator valves of specific sizes and springs of specific rates to fit the situation.
Example. As one clutch disengages, it starts dumping fluid and as the pressure drops the associated modulator valve starts to move. It may move past an orifice hole that accelerates the dumping and then moves past another hole that allows the flow of fluid for engagement of another clutch. Those holes and channels are sized so as to control flow/actuating rate. And often the clutches are associated with accumulators. These are chambered areas of specific bores that have a piston with a big spring behind it. There main purpose is to stop the feeling of slamming into a gear. That is they will allow a specific amount of slippage as the clutch plates come together. That fluid under pressure also has to be considered during the disengage phase of a clutch as well.
Computers can calculate the correct shift points from engine inputs, but the actual functioning is done within the tranny.
The main inputs from the tranny to the computer are fluid temperature and pressure sensor and may or may not be internal is a speed sensor indicating the rotation speed of the output shaft.
I seriously doubt that this situation is related to fluid temp because the fluid would not likely warm so quickly. I do not know how quickly you can check fluid in this vehicle. Older vehicles suggested at least 20 miles to ensure fluid was up to level checking temp.

Maybe colder weather will give a better indication of what is going on. It just seems unnatural that such slipping would occur in just that gear.
There is something that I don't remember the exact name, something like Joint Transmission Rebuilders Association (of America). When I get time I will look for an old manual I have to get exact name. These people know transmissions. They do major testing of failures and redesign to overcome problems. They have parts availability and manuals that incorporate those changes for a rebuild. They pass their info back to GM, Ford, etc. I am not a member with them, which is expensive, but if there is a problem they likely have a fix for it. The last manual I bought from them was several years back and at that time they provided telephone and email support. Maybe they'd answer a specific question related to this issue.

 

[slls]

The 6 speed has no clutch plates, just discs, not using parts is cheaper to build. That is why you can only use Dexron VI fluid.

 

[E_Net_Rider]

The 6 speed has no clutch plates, just discs, not using parts is cheaper to build. That is why you can only use Dexron VI fluid.

I was thinking of the two words as being the same. That is the clutch plate for a manual is actually a disc but instead of contacting another it contacts the pressure plate, a disc as well.
Each clutch should have a clutch pack, a series of discs where every-other-one splines to either the central shaft or the clutch drum or housing. The shaft is usually a series of concentric shafts, one around another. And the shafts provide the fluid flow for engagement from the valving.

I did find that this new design is unique in that it is easily adapable to other power ranges by simply adding more clutch plates, and probably by removing spacers.

http://delphi.com/pdf/techpapers/2008-01-0630.pdf
page 6 shows the engagement pattern.

It does not show the ratio/multiplier engaged with each.
I also learned that the valving is partially done with PWM, pulse width modulation, to effect the rate of apply pressure, IAW parameters.
As to slipping into third gear when cold, I still don't have enough info. I do now know the clutch changes going from 2 to 3. There is a primary clutch used for 1,2,3,&4. It might be that is the only clutch for gear 1, but I have not yet figured out the other two columns which might be tied to reverse and engine braking.
For gear 2 another clutch engages. For gear 3, that clutch disengages and a different one engages. That clutch is also used for gear 5, so I need to get up to those speeds before it quits the funky gear 3 shift. That might at least eliminate the clutch itself, but not the release circuitry of two and how it effects 3 apply.

I've posted several places and no longer remember if I mentioned that in the TSB's a TCM problem was tied to the missing diode problem on the cooling fans.