My Protege5 treats Park as Neutral for 10 seconds or so

[p5deepblue]

Hello all. I just bought a new to me 2002 Protege5 with 155k miles on the body and 135k on the engine according to the previous owner. Much to my dismay, it is an automatic. The car looks great and it ran great when I test drove it, but then the next day it began acting up. It idles a bit rough, down below 1k rpm usually. I replaced the two plugs and wires that don't have coil packs. It stopped throwing the misfire code but it continues to idle a bit rough on and off. That doesn't really concern me. I think I can figure it out. What concerns me is the other issue I am suddenly having. Here's what happens:

Upon a cold start the car treats Drive as if it were Neutral for about 10-15 seconds. Meaning I shift from park to drive, and the car will not move right away. If I am on a hill It will roll until I hit the brakes and then it will pick up after about ten seconds. Throughout the day, It takes less time to start moving after shifting into drive, but the issue never seems to completely go away. I've had several suggestions of what it might be, from computer issues to the torque converter. I love this car and I want to keep it more than anything, but I just need to get it running well! Can anyone here offer any solace? (drive)

 

[ffocused.]

Mine does the same thing, only on the first startup of the day. Doesn't last that long though, maybe 5 seconds.

No idea what it is, I figured just high milage auto tranny. Fluid could probably use a flush as well.

 

[p5deepblue]

Hmmm. I figured I should add that the ATF is full and very very clean. I also ran some Lubetech through it and it seemed to help for about a day.

 

[p5deepblue]

It should also be noted that if the Trans is going out I don't mind at all. I will happily replace it and continue to drive the car. I would just prefer to know what to expect if that is the case.

 

[esnave09]

It's probably not your tranny going out. Don't worry about that. My friend's Civic did the same thing on cold starts. Keep in mind that her engine (as well as mine does on cold starts) was roaring at 2k rpm trying to get everything warmed up. I have a stick shift so I don't have the shifting issue, but pay attention next time that happens cuz our engines do idle really high when they first start up and it might just be a safety feature to prevent damage of some sort.

Then again, I'm sure it doesn't get as cold in Tennessee as it does here in Minnesota. Just my two cents.

 

[p5deepblue]

It's probably not your tranny going out. Don't worry about that. My friend's Civic did the same thing on cold starts. Keep in mind that her engine (as well as mine does on cold starts) was roaring at 2k rpm trying to get everything warmed up. I have a stick shift so I don't have the shifting issue, but pay attention next time that happens cuz our engines do idle really high when they first start up and it might just be a safety feature to prevent damage of some sort.

Then again, I'm sure it doesn't get as cold in Tennessee as it does here in Minnesota. Just my two cents.

This is all true. I may very well just quit my bitching and start eliminating things that could cause these issues. If you guys don't mind I'm going to use this space to list some things I need to look into yet:

-MAF Sensor
-Throttle Body
-EGR Valve
-Coil Packs
-Vacuum Leak or Disconnected Line
-ATF Flush to eliminate potential wrong fluid. Or add Lubegard.
-Last two NGK Plugs and boots.

 

[TX_SilverP5]

This is all true. I may very well just quit my bitching and start eliminating things that could cause these issues. If you guys don't mind I'm going to use this space to list some things I need to look into yet:

-MAF Sensor
-Throttle Body
-EGR Valve
-Coil Packs
-Vacuum Leak or Disconnected Line
-ATF Flush to eliminate potential wrong fluid. Or add Lubegard.
-Last two NGK Plugs and boots.

Did you ever get to the bottom of this? I only found this because I just bought lubegard and wanted to make sure it was ok in our transmission. From this thread, I'm going to have my shop clean the throttle body and egr valve (replace if need be) on top of replacing the neutral safety switch, throttle position sensor and output speed sensor.

 

[Lazy2.5]

take the car to a transmission shop. its mostly likely the valvebody. you should have the fluid/filter changed and have them diagnose what else will need to be replaced. likely not a very costly repair.

 

[TX_SilverP5]

Hey for the record, there are no codes at all when this is happening, right? That's been my experience with this so far.