Hey everybody!! So, I've owned this Catera for about 6-weeks now, and I've grown to like it. Way better handler than my Continental, but way less power, too!!

Anyway, I pull off my street and the thing won't shift out of 1st gear. I look at the shifter and notice ALL the lights are ON, then the Trans MIL comes on and it finally upshifts. I shift to Neutral, shut it off & restart it and it basically does the same thing again, then the engine MIL comes on also. I shift to Neutral, shut it off & restart it again and this time the trans "fixes" itself. I drive the car for about 25 miles, shut it off for 5 minutes. I restart it and no lights, no problems. I drive it another 25-30 miles without concern. After about 15 minutes I start it up and it does the EXACT same thing: I pull off my street and the thing won't shift out of 1st gear. From that point forward, it is stuck in 3rd gear, trans MIL ON. I can manually shift it between 1-3; 3-1, but it doesn't seem able on its own, and all the shifter indicator lights are ON. I tried the restart trick about a dozen times with no effect.

I only have generic OBD scan capability & got the P0705 & P1700, but the diagnostic routine looks to be beyond the ability of my scanner. Any ideas, shortcuts, suggestions. Of course, we happen to be in the middle of a @$^*)(&%#! blizzard IN APRIL!!! IN OHIO!!! So trying to get under the car today seems unreasonable!! LOL!!!

Any help, ideas would be appreciated!!

HB

How many miles you have on your catera? If it's in the neigborhood of 100K, it's time anyway. Just change the transmission filter and oil.

Last year my transmission had acted on me when it had 100K on the odo. As soon as I changed the oil & filter the problem went away. I didn't have a scanner back then but I suspect the oil was at a critical level as it used to act after a hard braking or cornering or acceleration.

P0705 and 1700

One is the Transmission computer requesting the activation of the lamp, the other is somthing about "Transmission Range Switch Circuit". Omermurat can you look this part up? Im not sure which this is (i have an idea but dont want to give bad information). You said the gear selector lights were all lit up; it might have to do something with the gear selector and/or the monitoring of what gear the transmission is in.

I just looked up;

P0705: Transmission Range Sensor Circuit (PRNDL Input)
P1700: Transmission Control Module [TCM] Requested MIL Illumination

Well, it sounds like it has something to do with electronic gear switch on the gear selector shaft.

Thanks for the input! I know the code indicates, in layman's terms, that the TCM doesn't know what gear has been selected, so it defaults to 3rd & stays there.

To answer Omermurat, I've only got 55k on the clock, but have considered doing a fluid change anyway.

Also, the car sat for 3-4 hours until I drove it again and although it illuminated all the indicator lights as soon as I shifted from R to D, it corrected itself and I drove about 50-60 miles round trip without a hitch. During this trip I did not take the car out of D, but I did use the SNOWFLAKE button a number of times as I had a fair amount of stop/go during the trip. 18" of snow in less than 24 hrs...at the end of APRIL!!!

So clearly this is an intermittent problem that appears to be electronic as opposed to mechanical. I need to get a scanner that can read all the data. Although I have a Mastertech, it only covers up to 1995 MY & I'm guessing it would cost over $1000 to bring up to date. Anyboby have a friend who works for Vetronix and wants to make a deal?!?! LOL.

Thanks again, I'll try to give an update when/if I figure it out.

HB