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3rd Gear Issue

2K views 29 replies 11 participants last post by  mberisha 
#1 ·
Okay for starters my car has 56k miles and I have had my PISSNUOFF short with UUC bushings throw installed for a couple months now.

My car is starting to give me quite a bit of trouble downshifting into 3rd gear, which it never had issues with before. If im doing about 65-70 on the highway and want to downshift to 3rd to pass someone (or accept someones challange on the highway haha) it will not go into 3rd anymore.

It doesnt grind or anything, if i push extremly hard it will go into gear. Its never had this issue before nor has it ever had the common issue of not getting into 1st either.

It really only seems to do this when downshifting from 6th to 3rd or 5th to 3rd, it will go 4th to 3rd like butter.

ALSO tranny fluid was changed at 42k
 
#6 ·
If i double clutch it still does it. If i REALLY push it will go into 3rd but it doesnt feel very good pushing it that hard. I have never bleed my clutch, but when i bought the car at 42k miles they did change the clutch fluid.

Maybe like a month ago or even less i sucked out the dirty clutch fluid in the reservoir and put some fresh fluid in, was i supposed to bleed it after that?

Im gunna head outside and take the shifter knob and boot off to see if theres anything going on with the UUC bushings, im hoping its something simple like that.
 
#7 ·
Wow.....Just removed my boot and the top bracket above my shifter. My bushings were fine and still in place. The 2 1/4-20 bolts that were supplied with the PISSNUOFF shifter that replaced the rivets were there, but the locknut and nut underneath were gone on both bolts. Im thinking this may have been the culprit.
 
#8 ·
The white plastic peice that clips onto the white pivot ball seems kind of loose, It isnt falling off but it isnt super tight. I dont remember if it was this way when i first installed the shifter or something got messed up when these nuts fell off.

Anyone remember if that white clip that goes over the pivot ball is kinda wobbly or is it supposed to be pretty tight?
 
#11 ·
doesnt matter where the revs were, it just wouldnt go in unless i pushed it way harder then i should ever have to. I think the nuts and lockwashers i found missing may have been the problem, i have yet to take it on the highway tho.

bleeding will make a big difference in how your car shifts.
All i did was replace the clutch fluid in the reservior, i didnt do a full clutch fluid change. Are you saying i was supposed to bleed my clutch after only replacing couple ounces that are in the reservior?
 
#13 ·
All i did was replace the clutch fluid in the reservior, i didnt do a full clutch fluid change. Are you saying i was supposed to bleed my clutch after only replacing couple ounces that are in the reservior?
if you haven't done it since purchasing the car - don't know how long you have owned it - bleed out all of the old fluid (as stated above) and replacing it with new fluid will really improve the shifting of the vehicle. It made a huge difference in my car - I was at the point where it wouldn't go into first OR reverse.

It's not an easy job, as the bleed screw is located in a difficult to reach location, but it is well worth doing. you will also get rid of any air that has been sucked into the clutch over time from out mysteriously evaporating clutch fluid.
 
#14 ·
I have owned the car for less than a year, the clutch fluid was changed by the dealership when i bought it and has never been low from evaporating clutch fluid.

Since getting the nuts and lock washers back on, I was driving my car all day today. It actually still locks me out of 3rd gear, but only at highway speeds when i am in 5th or 6th gear cruising and want to downshift to 3rd. SOMETIMES if i rev it up and then push into 3rd it will go. Deff doesnt seem right i can drop right down into 4th from 6th with no rev or anything it just pops in.
 
#16 ·
This sounded like the same issue I'm having with reverse which I'm pretty sure is the uuc bushings being a very tight fit (I've bled the clutch and my transmission is new) I find it goes half way usually and I have to really smack it in to engage all the way. But your highway speed aspect sounds like something else, if I were you I'd definitely bleed it first and see what happens. Good luck I hope it isn't a serious transmission issue.
 
#17 ·
Il give the clutch bleeding a try. Although i see this ending up with me having to once again bring it to the caddy dealer, short throw shifters dont effect any warranty do they? How do you go about bleeding the clutch? I have decent mechanic skills but most of my experience is on ATV's not cars.
 
#18 ·
Bleeding the clutch yourself does involve some risk in that a few forum members have broken the bleeding screw, which requires dropping the transmission to repair. On the otherhand some dealers are not particularly reasonable in terms of what they charge to bleed and flush the clutch system. (Mine is though). Finally, if you have a dealer do it I simply would not mention the aftermarket shifter since most dealers will not recognize it on their own.
 
#19 ·
How much does your dealer charge u for a clutch flush and bleed? I do have a CPO warranty. i dont know if i should just bring it to them and have them deal with it, seeing that I have the short throw and they may blame it on that if they did notice it.
 
#22 ·
Bleeding the clutch does suck, but it helps. And when you see the condition of the fluid you bleed out of there, you'll be happy you did it. I have 2 suggestions for ya regarding the bleed:
1) get a Motive "power bleeder" or something similar
2) use Amsoil brake fluid for the new stuff
 
#25 ·
I'l deff have the dealer do it if its 50-60 bucks. Even if it was 100 just saves me the PITA to do it.

My clutch fluid was flushed about 14k miles ago and the fluid in the reservior is actually pretty clean still. Hopefully this does the trick though il hafta call the dealer for pricing this week.
 
#26 ·
I had 3rd gear downshift issues as stated, didn't matter if I bled the clutch or rev-match. I might not have bleed right the screw just falls out everytime I try to bleed it and can't get anything to come out from the top until its just about wobbled out. I took the car in since its still under power-train warranty as I was also hearing whining in 4th, 5th, and 6th. I just got word they are putting a new trans in, so hopefully that takes care of any whining and also fixes 3rd gear issue. Also I had issues at times with reverse lockout not fully engaging so that should be fixed as well.
 
#28 ·
Got the new trans still shifted like crap, would get locked out of gears like 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and rev. I muscled it for about a month with the pisnuoff short shifter(probably compounded the real issue). Anyway I finally bought the creative steel motor and trans mounts. I haven't installed the motor mounts but I did install the trans mount as it states on their website and a few random threads on there that is can help fix shift issues. Also reading the threads about shimming stock trans mount to raise the trans so the aftermarket ds coupler would work right also seemed to get me thinking that the stock trans mount might be sagging. Well after installing the trans mount the car now shifts perfectly. I don't know if the linkage was at a bad angle with the short shifter/sagging trans mount or what but its so easy to find any gear now and shifts as I would expect with no resistance. For anybody having shifting issues with a short shifter I would take a looks at the cs trans mount. The difference between the cs and stock one is huge in size and strength. I will post a picture if anybody needs. I posted a picture on the ls1 and cc forums already.
 
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