Transmission will not shift past third gear?

MOONWIZARD

MEMBER
2011 CHEVROLET MALIBU
3.6L
V6
2WD
AUTOMATIC
277,000 MILES

If the car has been sitting for several hours, it will shift fine in manual mode. After driving for a few minutes, it will not shift past 3rd gear. The fluid has been changed and that helped for about a day. How do I know which sensor to try first? I don't have the money to do a lot of hit and miss repairs. Is the pressure control sensor the most likely problem? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

1 Reply

JACOBANDNICKOLAS

MECHANIC
109,709 POSTS

Hello,

Like you, I don't like to replace things until I know they are bad. Here is what we need to do. The vehicle's can-bus needs to be scanned to determine what codes are present.

CAN stands for controller area network. Basically, the different modules are tied together via a few wires. This type of scan will retrieve codes regardless of the module storing them.

Here is a video showing how it's done:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/can-scan-controller-area-network-easy

Also, there are a few different transmissions that were used on your vehicle. See pic below. If you know which one it is, let me know. If not, could you provide the VIN number so I can try to determine the one used.

Let me know.

Joe

See pic below.

Image (Click to make bigger)