Car Experts ? about 2003 Monte Carlo SS

smonroe86

smonroe86

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hey sorry been out of the loop forever. Ever since I started taking my career in to my own hands, now look all of a sudden I am an NCO hahah... With as my first sargent says DUMB A$$ soldiers. Any ways awhile back I traded in my ol 05 grandam and bought a 09 dodge jurney SXT and now I am already pushing 6,000 miles on that thing.. Damn I drive way to much.

So now I am looking at getting this really nice monte carlo, well they tell me that the Torque converter clutch circuit stays open but its no big deal. Now I don't know anything about this kind of stuff. So I was wonder if we had any car experts in the area?
Thanks
 
I had thought of gettin the new monte ss but since they're discontinuing the model i don't wanna, and because of the Displacement on Demand technology
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Believe it or not....

GM has 8 brands here in the USA, Toyota has 3.
WHen it comes to reliability surveys from JD Powers ...the VDS - Vehicle Dependability Surveys.
GM usually only gets an award for 1 or 2 vehicles.

The monte carlo has been a consistent winner for GM 3 years in a row at least that I know of.
That would be at least 2003 to 2005 since they do these surveys 3 years after ownership.
 
it depends on what "open" is. Im not sure how the circuit works, but the tcc is a big deal. If the converter doesnt "lock" that means higher transmission fluid temps, decreased transmission life, and of course a drop in gas milage
 
Oh & smonroe86, thanks ALOT! Lol, i had been pretty dead set on an F150 in spring & since I seen this thread the monte has come back to haunt my desires lol,
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Open means it's not a completed circuit, a break in the wire, or the part itself is bad. I know on the older GM's when the conv. would stay locked up and stall the car we would unplug them and they ran fine, and yes it affected your gas mileage a little.
 
I find it unlikely that there is any wide spread issue with the lockup converters.. issues like that find their way on to the campaign list pretty quickly..

Not saying it is not possible but taking one guys word for it (unless he works for GM proper) is probably not in your best interest..

As the drive train for that car is probably in dozens of cars, not just the one so even less likely to be an issue..
 
BusaWizard said:
Open means it's not a completed circuit, a break in the wire, or the part itself is bad. I know on the older GM's when the conv. would stay locked up and stall the car we would unplug them and they ran fine, and yes it affected your gas mileage a little.
Click to expand...

I wired a switch on my old chevy... Flipped it on to lockup the clutch when cruising...
 
omslaw said:
I wired a switch on my old chevy... Flipped it on to lockup the clutch when cruising...
Click to expand...
I still have a breakout harness I built for testing lockups when I was at GM.. hit the switch and kill the car.. TH125/200 were the worst offenders.. (at least then)
 
Hmm yea I don't know anything about this kind of stuff thats why I asked first. I didn't want to waste money on something thats going to hurt me in the not to long down the road.
 
Depends on the condition of the rest of the car and what they want for it. Providing it doesn't have a bunch of other problems too, the worse case scenario is a new transmission. If the tranny is in good shape, fix the electical problem that's keeping it from locking up and your good to go.
My play would be, "if it's not a big deal, you fix it, and I'll buy the car for the listed (or bargained to) price".
 
If the problem is a constant, the check engine light will be on. More than likely code P0720 will be stored in the memory. I have fixed many of these transmissions with the same problem. The big down side is the labor. The part will only run about 30 bucks, but the trans has to be pulled and the side pan removed in order to replace the solenoid. If the code number is something different you may be looking at a possible trans rebuild. There are some seals internally that will leak and set other torque convertor codes. I would suggest getting it checked before you buy it.:beerchug:
 
stlbusarider said:
if the problem is a constant, the check engine light will be on. More than likely code p0720 will be stored in the memory. I have fixed many of these transmissions with the same problem. The big down side is the labor. The part will only run about 30 bucks, but the trans has to be pulled and the side pan removed in order to replace the solenoid. If the code number is something different you may be looking at a possible trans rebuild. There are some seals internally that will leak and set other torque convertor codes. I would suggest getting it checked before you buy it.:beerchug:
Click to expand...

+10000000
 
BusaWizard said:
People didn't want to be bothered remembering flipping switches so we just disconnected them.
Click to expand...
as I recall the 2 biggest issues were the TPS cable adjustment and the brake switch adjustment.. I think it paid 3/10ths for the cable adjustment :)
 
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