My automatic '85 Fiero has been giving me some issues after a small, "accident". I don't know much about vehicles so bear with me. Here's the scoop. After this, "accident" I had to replace something with the steering and put on the spare wheel cause the back right wheel popped, but I switched it with the front right wheel so the spare is on the front right now. I thought that would be all that needed replacing so I took it for a spin, and it just wouldn't shift to second. I left it for a while because I was quite busy at the time and tried it again recently. I looked over a few things and started it up and took it for another spin. This time, I revved it up to 85 km/h (Bad idea to do in first, yeah I know.) And voilla, it shifted. After it shifted to second, it worked fine. I left it for another four or five weeks and just today took it to school to work on it at our auto tech shop. On the way over, I was planning on just driving 40km/h but I got on the highway and revved it up to about 60 and once again, it shifted. So then I sped up to 100 and got to the school fine. I turned it off and got my teacher to take a look at it and he said to clean some part out or something. So then I took it for another loop and this time it shifted to second at 50. Then I pulled over for a minute and turned it off to check something. Started up, drove around a little and to my surprise it shifted again, but this time at around 40-45 km/h. Does anybody know what's going on here? Also, I don't know if this is connected somehow, but my battery has been draining quite often so I've just been disconnecting it while it's sitting around. Help, please.

Check your shift cables, detent cable (kickdown cable). No grinding noises?

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1986 SE V6, stock, auto. GT Trim and Body panels.

Have you checked the fluid level?

ya your kickdown cable! its up next to your throttle cable.. pop the sides of it, pull it out of the bracket. next on the bottom of it, there is a silver thing.. push it in HARD, and while pushing that, pusth the actual cable (like the tan piece) INTO that piece.. (push the cable away from the throttle body) let go of both, snap it back in, reconnect and let us know how it works!

i had the same problem a few days ago.. worked GREAT!

Make sure that it actually IS shifting into second at those speeds and not straight into third. Because of the high stall torque converter on these cars, when the torque converter lock-up swwitch engages, it sometimes feels like it's shifting into higher gear, which, if the car is still missing second, you might think is third gear. The TH125C is known for blowing a tiny plug in the the valve body for second gear that (of course) requires splitting tee case to get at. (ie tranny removal and replacement) You can test this by putting the car in L2 and seeing if you can get it to shift up. Or, when slowing down just downshift manually into L2 (not too fast) if it stays in third when you downshift or doesn't shift up from first, you've got a major tranny problem. I hope this isn't it. If it is, I would suggest doing a 4T60 swap instead of a rebuild.

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If you can't be good, be good at it.

I have yet to try these, haven't got around to working on it lately since it's been raining and I've no garage. But I should probably inform you that this "accident" involved me hitting a stump... Yes, idiot, I'm aware. I hit the stump with the front right wheel. And as soon as I hit, I stopped. So could I have maybe knocked/pulled something on the bottom of the car? I was told by a friend of mine that's a mechanic at a GMC/Pontiac dealer here that the T.V. cable needed adjustment. I tried pulling it off and not having it wrapped around the thing, but then it wouldn't shift at all.

quote Originally posted by Valkyrie: I have yet to try these, haven't got around to working on it lately since it's been raining and I've no garage. But I should probably inform you that this "accident" involved me hitting a stump... Yes, idiot, I'm aware. I hit the stump with the front right wheel. And as soon as I hit, I stopped. So could I have maybe knocked/pulled something on the bottom of the car? I was told by a friend of mine that's a mechanic at a GMC/Pontiac dealer here that the T.V. cable needed adjustment. I tried pulling it off and not having it wrapped around the thing, but then it wouldn't shift at all.

do what i mentioned to do in my previous post. that IS adjusting the TV cable.