2001 Mercury Sable 2001 Mercury Sable

NICK DICOSTANZO

MEMBER
2001 MERCURY SABLE

Transmission problem
2001 Mercury Sable 6 cyl Front Wheel Drive Automatic

My sister died recently and left a 2001 Mercury Sable with 16,000 original miles. She had it serviced frequently at the nearby Mercury dealership.
I drove the car for the first time today and noticed a lot of "stumbling" in the transmission especially in low gear. When I was stopped on a hill waiting for traffic and tried to accelerate forward the slippage was significant. How could a ten year old car with 16,000 original miles have transmission problems?

My sister drove like the typical little old lady going to church.

What should I do?

1 Reply

MERLIN2021

MECHANIC
17,250 POSTS

First thing on a low mileage car but advanced age, is check the fluid and filter. The other thing would be if the check engine light is on, have the code(s) read. Always the first step. If battery was dead and or was disconnected expect to have some shifting problem until PCM
Complete a drive cycle
If all adopted memory was erased than PCM needed to compete the drive cycle to restore it all
Check tranny fluids and do a tranny filter and fluid change