Tourniquet

At least that's what I think is the problem. This may be a little long so please bear with me.

This started about 3 weeks ago...when starting from a stop and accelerating the car will jerk around about 3,000 rpms but then will be completely fine and drive like normal. This can happen anywhere from every time I stop, to once a week or less but lately has been getting more frequent. The newest problem started last night and has been going on all day today. After driving for about 15 miles and coasting from 40 mph down...the car will shudder and I have noticed the rpm's dropping sharply...anywhere from 500 below (normal for me is about 1,500 at this speed). It will shudder and the RPM's will drop, it will go back up to 1,500 and then drop again and this will continue until I give it more gas. It's worse when I have the car in reverse. The car will shudder and jerk all over the place and the RPM's drop so far they barely even register. The car has yet to stall out completely though.

Now for fluids - Transmission fluid is in the "Do not add if in this range" area and the oil level is perfectly fine...but it does need to be changed in about 500 miles.

Please help! Thank you very much.

dac122

If I understand correctly, you're saying when coasting below 40 mph your tach continues to drop with speed and can drop well below 500 rpm or near zero. If I understand correctly this sounds like a torque converter that won't unlock and/or a tranny that won't downshift.

Tourniquet

Yes, but it's not as bad in drive anymore. It's been happening the most in reverse and happened once in park yesterday.