1999 protege trans problem

[Thomaswh3]

i have a 99 protege 1.8 with an auto trans . The car has 118000 miles on it . When I first start it in the morning I can back out of the driveway and when I put it in drive it will hesitate a few seconds before drive will engage . Sometimes the o/d light light starts flashing . If I turn the key off and restart the engine everything is ok . It will shift fine all day until it sits overnight . Thanks for any advice .

 

[slavrenz]

What does your transmission fluid look like? Is it all brown and burnt or still a clearish pink? Have you ever changed the fluid & filter before?

 

[Thomaswh3]

The fluid and filter was changed at 100,000 miles . It still looks good .

 

[concept]

When you back out, do you leave it in reverse or neutral? How often do you change the tranny fluid? I change my MX6's auto tranny fluid every year or two and at 145,000 miles, it's still perfect. However, I used to back down my driveway in neutral and the tranny would act up at times. Once I kept the tranny in reverse while backing up, the problems went away.