Expert: Sean Halliday - 4/2/2008

Question
I'm not sure if my tranny is failing, or if it could be an easy fix. When i'm driving, randomly the car will drop down into the lowest gear and stay there until i pull over turn it off and let it sit for about 5-10 minutes. The car has 175,000 miles, but the engine was replaced in 01 and only has 50,000 miles on it.  Also when i got the car back with the new engine, the gear shifter was really really stiff. oh and when i put it in gear i hear a rattling noise. Please let me know what cha think.

Answer
The engine/transmission are 2 seperate units so did you change both or do you have the original transmission?.If you have the original,it sounds like it could be going out.The rattle could be many things but the only way is to have it diagnosed by a transmission shop.The tight shifter sounds like something was not right from the start.