Expert: Roland Finston - 6/22/2011

Question
I have a 01 Cruiser that just had the input and output sensors replaced (11 days ago). The same thing started happening. Driving the cruise control light comes on and the car starts bucking. Sometime even stalling. I checked for codes and got 1684&1685. Battery disconnect and SKIM key invalid. One person said transmission shot. Any ideas?

Answer
Hi Richard,
The 1685 is not keeping you from running the engine so I would set that aside.
The 1684 might be due to poor interfaces between the battery cable clamps and the battery posts or a loose connection of one of the ground wires at the far ends of those cables that are  attached to the - post battery cable clamp (one grounds near the - post, the other grounds near the starter motor on the engine.
When you say that you checked codes, did you use a plug-in reader which could access the memory of the transmission controller? Did you earlier get codes for the in- and out-put speed sensors and if so by what means? Be sure that you are seeking codes with a reader that can communicate with the transmission controller. Let me know if you get codes in the P0700's and P1700's as those are the relevant range for transmission issues. Interesting to me as that the '01 PT manual doesn't show there to be an electronic type transaxle in this vehicle. I had thought that the electronic transaxle wasn't put in until the '02 model but maybe yours is a 'late build '01'?
Without other codes, I would check out the battery connections for now and look for some new codes until they appear. Autozone will do a free readout.  
Roland
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