98 Kia Sephia with "confused" tranny?

[mratican]

I have a 98 Sephia w/the auto trans, 116K. All was good - had driven about 70 miles, city and highway and it was ticking along as usual. Then hit a traffic light, and when I hit the gas, it slipped - took a second to "catch" first and start rolling. Continued to operate fine once out of first (2nd thru 5th) and at highway speeds. Reverse was also slipping "catching" itself.
When I restarted the car after being parked for about 15 minutes - I put it in drive, and it started right up - until it hit second, then acted as though it couldn't decide if it wanted 2nd, 3rd, or to slip. I drove it slowly around the parking lot and it appeared to figure itself out. I left the lot, drove the last 130 miles (mixed, highway and city) without further problems.
Any ideas? There's no dipstick so I'm assuming this is a sealed tranny. I've been told there is an electronic control module for the tranny which may be the problem.
Thanks for any help.

[Juggalotus]

Since you say this is a sealed transmission, you might want to go to Autozone or any auto store, and ask them to hook up "MODIS" to you car, this is an instrument that will help you figure out what could be wrong with your transmission, and/or anything else that could be causing this problem.

[Mspectra]

your sephia doesnt have a sealed transmission, just a badly located dipstick as you can see in the picture below check your level, do you have a check engine light on your cluster if so it may be your transmission control module located behind the driver side panel behind the steering wheel

[joebob]

I had a similar problem with my transmission. The O/D light would blink on and off permanently.

Today I got my car back from the shop. Turns out the gears were all worn out, so in the end it was actually a mechanical problem.

The mechanic replaced all the gears and now the tranny is working wonderfully.

MSpectra, somos compatriotas

[Mspectra]

Hey joebob donde estas en honduras?

[madjay73]

I am currently having the same problem with my 98. It was doing great and then all of a sudden it started slipping like you said yours was doing. and that darned O/D light flashes and the check engine light stays on. Those stupid lights have come on before but I never had a problem with the trans or engine untill the trans started to slip on me tonight.

[kiaracer]

if those lights come on, there's a problem. they don't just come on. the gears in these transmissions are made soft and they wear out soon after the transmission is over the 100,000 mile mark. i had a problem with the differential gears in mine. they had a lot of play in them. when the transmission was taken apart there was teeth in the bottom of the tranny that had been sheared off of the differential gears. i would get the codes read at autozone or somewhere first to find out exactly what the problem is and then go from there.

[brsexton]

Did any of you change the transmission fluid every 30k miles? I wonder if lack of service caused these issues, or if it is indeed a weak transmission?