My girlfriend has a 1990 pontiac sunbird (automatic) that drives fine on short trips, but after 30 minutes on the highway, and you go to stop, it is like the transmission does not switch to 1, and kills the engine. Any ideas? (it jumps a little like stopping a manual and forgetting to press the clutch). Fluid levels are goos and fluid looks clean - help!

the transmission could be overheating. does it smoke at all?

Transmission has no smoke at all, fluid looks clean and fine, engine wise all seems well and correct temp. Blog on another site suggested torque converter solonoid. May try that.

your tranny is probably goin bad.
i would get it checked by a auto repair shop.

Yeah I was going to say torque converter. My 89 beretta did the same thing. Just unplug it and your good to go.

I had the exact same problem. I would drive my Pontiac Grand Am for a little while..and then randomly I would get to a stop sign or light or just have to slow down for a school zone and the car would die. We did lots of things that didn't fix it. Finally, I got sick of paying mechanics to NOT fix my car...so I went on the internet to research. I studied the problem out...narrowed it down to the transmission, finally decided that I should start asking questions about that...found out that it was a little part called the Transmission Selinoid...the part itself costs about $15 dollars to replace...but the cost of having someone install it ends up being about $500-$700...totally not worth it...we just unplugged the selinoid...and now it works fine. I talked to the mechanic...he said that unplugging the selinoid won't cause any problems to the vehicle. The only difference we should see is that the "CHECK ENGINE" light comes on and off...and he said we might see a decrease in gas mileage, though I haven't noticed that at all...so...there you go...try that...I hope it works!

My girlfriend has a 1990 pontiac sunbird (automatic) that drives fine on short trips, but after 30 minutes on the highway, and you go to stop, it is like the transmission does not switch to 1, and kills the engine. Any ideas? (it jumps a little like stopping a manual and forgetting to press the clutch). Fluid levels are goos and fluid looks clean - help!


hey larry yer problem may be caused by a torque converter lock up selinoid that is sticking as the transmission warms up

haha yea. that problem is a pain in the ass. i have a 1989 pontiac sunbird. and not too long ago i had the same problem. i stalled out so many times in the wrong places. so, i finally took it to my mechanic, and found alot of things wrong that were effecting my performance but, all he did was simply unplugged the clutch(torque) converter. worked fine...never had a problem since. good luck

-chi3fpontiac