Expert: Roland Finston - 11/2/2011

Question
Roland has been helping me with my questions, but I see he is maxed out... I have been having a couple issues with my 97 cirrus. My latest issue is my transmission. It went from being fine one day to me driving down the road, and it started acting like it was shifting between gears, to not shifting at all. Now that it's at the repair shop they think it may have water in the transmission. I didn't have a dipstick in it (I was not aware it was missing until yesterday) we checked the fluid level it is fine, cv joints are fine, linkage is fine, and it is engaging, although the noise you usually hear when it is engaging I do not hear. They said once water gets in the transmission it's useless to do a fluid change...... the transmission is shot. Is this true? Also what are your thoughts on my heating issue, are you able to see my earlier posts?

Answer
I found this in the 'pool' to which Kevin had referred it.
Let me know about any fault codes.
I hadn't heard about the water issue. Try changing out the transmission fluid entirely (power flush to remove it all so as to get rid of ALL the water), if there is truly water there. Then with all new fluid see whether it will run again.
But still, get the fault codes. It may be that the internal pump of the transmission needs replacement or something other than a total rebuild/replacement which is probably more than the vehicled is worth.
On the heat, are both of the hoses that go through the firewall about equally hot? If so, then if that is true and the blend air/temp door cable is connected then about the only reason you aren't getting heat is because the lever on the door paddle may not be connected to the paddle though but that you would notice when you were doing the cable reconnection. The only other reason would be there is no air flowing through the system and that would be the case if you had leaves/debris blocking in the air intake which is located under the grille in front of the windshield. Remove the grille screws (open the hood for access to them and then remove it. Check the air intake opening at the far right side (passenger side) to see if it is stuffed up.
Roland
PS Sorry for the delay but I just found this in the Pool.