New car, New Forum, New member to this forum

Well, as it obviously states, I bought myself a new car, 2000 Galant ES.....

....and that Galant has completely captured my heart, but it has a transmission issue so I found myself a new forum.....

....and then I joined that forum. Which brings me to this intro!


Now, cheesy BS out of the way, Im already digging this forum and getting insane amounts of ideas for little tasteful tweaks I can do to this car. I've always loved the look of these cars, but just recently got one of my own. I bought it for dirt cheap from my wife's co-worker with a dead battery. Swapped the battery and finally drove it for the first time the next day. I already love the car, but it is not without its problems. Ill search and try to find out what I need to know before expanding on the issue, but I will at least provide pics of the little beauty. Ill save the price I paid for after the pictures.....it may get me banned....I got it really cheap.




https://www.flickr.com/gp/159807006@N07/38v006




All that for $300.

Current registration and smog too. *!!!*

Great pickup. Although if it does have a tranny issue that will bring the total $$ invested way higher.

The codes read Shift Solenoids C and D. I hope it remains that easy. Obviously a big fluid change since I cant really verify the age or type of fluid currently in the car. I like the amount of technical info on this site. I hope to learn a lot.

Welcome to TGC! Great color! Solenoid failures usually signal the end of the transmission too, if that's the case, you can find a manual trans for cheap nowadays, convert it and never look back.

Thanks!

When I clear the codes, it drives and shifts smoothly like its brand new. Then, after a few miles, regardless of trans temp and driving style, it jolts really hard into 3rd gear and gives me a CEL. I could be accelerating at the time, in stop and go traffic, or cruisng at 60mph. I clear the code, it drives completely normal again for a few miles. I have parked it and refuse to continue driving it like this, I dont want to break it for good.

This leads me to believe that mechanically its fine and capable of performing as it should, its just an electro-mechanical (solenoid) issue. Obviously, you guys have seen this more than I have, so I will absolutely be keeping an eye on the transmission once its fixed and Im driving it again. Id love to manual swap it. I miss having a fun handling manual car around, even though I have plenty of fun in my other cars.

Guess since this is technically my intro thread I could tell you guys about my other cars....

Daily Drivers:

2003 Toyota Tundra TRD
2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid (Wife's car)

Project/Toy cars:

1963 VW Beetle (fun car, runs great)
1968 Mustang 289 (Project barn find, numbers matching, 90K original miles.......FREE and runs!!!!)

This Galant is for me to commute to and from work in since my truck is a gas hog. Its a 72 mile round trip and the truck will do that 3 times before its dry thanks to half that trip being stop and go. 26 gallon tank at $3.25/gallon......to hell with that mess. Give me the 4 cylinder Galant! Gotta make it right first though.

Unfortunately the stock automatic transmission is not highly regarded, and should be viewed with the same suspicion one views a dude wearing a suicide bomb vest. IE It's not so much a matter of if it's going to explode, but when... The manual transmission is more fun, more fuel efficient, and more durable, it's really the ideal choice, particularly since at this point it's been tried and tested, so you're not having to be the guinea pig.