1997 Saturn SL1 gearing down & slamming

First of all thank you so much for your donation. You said that your car gear's down in traffic what does that mean?Also go to a auto part's store like auto zone and have your code's read. Let me know what the code number's are.

I can't really tell you anything untill I get some question's answered like the code's you just gave me also when your car gears Down in stop and go traffic?What do you mean by that?Do you mean it shifts hard or down shift's and won't shift after that?Also does your transmission delay then bang into reverse?Does the car upshift hard at all?You have to bare with me here since I can't test drive your car and have to just go on what your telling me here. Let me know so I can tell you more.

I'm a factory trained saturn tech I have worked for saturn for over 16 years.I was even a team leader and shop foreman and also a factory trained EV1 electric car tech Also hybrid trained Without knowing symptom's and code's that you had I would be an idiot for telling you what I thought was going on with your car. In all those years I have worked for saturn I have learned to never assume anything if you do it can bite you in the butt and it has.I could have just given you a list of everything that goes wrong with these car's but that wouldn't have helped you much. Now that I have the code's and some of the symptom's I have idea's now. Also you need to check your transmission fluid if it is gray then you have something metal grinding up in the transmission. Typically that would be the output shaft bearing and output shaft that get ground up. But without tear down wouldn't know. What I would do is when the car get's hot and doesn't shift I would take a scan tool that is very expensive not your average code reader and buzz all the transmission actuator's to test the actuators the wire's from the computer and the computer itself.I would also look at the each gears slip monitors if they were under 200 then I wouldn't worry about any burnt clutches. They have a problem with the harness going to the valve body sometimes. If all was good I would perform a line pressure test on the transmission at idle I would first read pressure with the line pressure fuse in and with it out this check's the pump in the transmission. If that was good then I would remove the valve body then I would air check 1st gear 2nd gear 3rd gear 4th gear clutch piston's to make sure they were holding and not bad. Then I would air check the reverse servo piston make sure that it holds and move's. If all that check's out good then I would remove the transmission's end cover to see if the input shaft nut was loose if it was then I would replace the nut and torque to spec. It's common for them to loosen up on the later year's but not the early one's. With the air check you can't catch the loose nut so it has to be visually inspected. If it's left loose the input shaft can walk side to side and damage and warp the clutches on the input shaft I have seen that happen. Also a loose input shaft nut can damage the end cover by the 1st gear clutch pack grinding into the end cover seen that happen too.A loose input shaft nut can also cause a delay in reverse or no reverse at all. If everything holds air then the internal seals are good if the input shaft nut was really loose then I would also inspect the clutches on the input shaft for damage.I would replace the valve body if the pump checks good and seals hold a loose input nut won't cause all those gear code's you have. Also saturn has had a lot of problem with the pressure regulator in the valve body's.