Hey All me again, girlfriend still has this car. 95 Millenia 2.5L V6. OK get ready for a list of trouble.

The CEL is on and I have not had time to take it to a dealer since hte diagnostic connector is under the hood and is most definatly not OBDII (unfortunatly). I would like to know if for this year there is a way to do a flashing CEL diagnostic. Where you perform a certain sequence of key turns or what ever and the computer acknowledges that I am looking for codes and flashes the CEL representing a certain code.

The "ABS 4w ABS" light is also on. She does have some bad breaks on this car. They pulse and vibrate the wheel when braking, not horrible but noticable. There is also some grinding in the rear meaning she could probably use some new pads and rotors all around. But would this cause the ABS light to come on and stay one or is there something wrong with the ABS controller.

The Main thing that has been going on for a while is the motor will suddenly kill at any RPM and/or Speed. It has done it at idle (a couple of times tonight actually when I was working on the most recent trouble) and my girlfirned tells me also when she is driving down the road. She describes it as driving along hte road normally (guessing at around 3000-4000 rpm 60 - 70 MPH) and it will seem to drop in rpm to 1000 and then die when you try and apply throttle. This has not happened to me yet while driving it, but i don't get to drive it that often. I believe BabyHeuy told me there was a know issue with the distributor or a coil in the distributor. So that is not high on my list to try and fix.

Now on to the latest and most annoying thing its doing now. It seems to have something wrong with either the transmission or the computer controlling it. The Hold button for the transmission works, I can manually shift it into L 2 D N R and P and it lights up on the dash. The TCS (traction control switch or sensor i am guessing) light on the dash is always in the "TCF Off" position even when you trigger the switch. I pried the switch apart and tried to jump it directly but to no avale.

When you are accelerating at normal speeds(not fast or slow but like you would normally) it shifts funny in certain gears:

1st-2nd This is the only gear that seems to shift normally. Gets up to 2500-3000 rpm at about 15-20mph and shifts into 2nd. It seems normal to me.

2nd-3rd This is where it starts to go awry. It starts second gear around 1200-1600rpm at 15-20mph and as your rpm gets up to 2500rpm it feels like it drops into neutral and revs up to 4500rpm before it finally shifts into 3rd. I have tried letting up right when it starts to rev like its in neutral and slowly apply gas, but it still goes up to 4500rpm and then shifts into 3rd.

3rd-4th After it finally shifts into 3rd gear, the rpms start at around 2000-2700rpm and continue climbing with speed and will not shift into 4th gear. If you stay in fourth gear for to long or get past a certain speed the Hold light will start to flash and the car must be turned off and restarted to turn the flashing hold light off.

Now when I checked the fluid there was some rusty colored gunk in there and I plan on flushing, cleaning, and changing the oil and filter for the tranny. But only if you guys believe that is the main culprit of the transmission troubles. I have a feeling it is but do not want to spend the money since hopefully the gentleman who bought my girlfriends old cavalier with take this in on a trade as is straight up for the cavalier.

I am hoping to get as much information as possible to give this gentleman as proof that it can be fixed and turned into a great running and reliable car. I just do not have the time, money and patience to pamper this car right now and neither does my girlfriend. If its cheap (under 100$ for the tranny problems) I will most likely make her get the parts and we will get it fixed. But if it seems to you guys ( especially babyheuy) that this is gonna be to much of a hassle. Then i won't bother and will have her drive it till she can't drive it no more and maybe one of you guys will need a spare parts car :P

Also the gas gauge only goes up to half full even when the car has around 16 gallons in it, which is roughly around full. Is this just a sticky sending unit, or would the whole fuel pump need to be replaced to fix it?

Any and all of your help with be so greatly appreciated. You guys are great.

 

bump

 

Wow!! You must have stayed up all night writing that one machina!! Where to start????

CEL is on. This could be tied into either the Hold light flashing, fuel gauge problem, or something entirely different such as why it is stalling. We really need to be able to extract any codes before trying to figure out which are it is related too. The 95 Milly was supposed to be OBDII but some did not work right. Have you tried to have codes pulled at an Autozone or other parts place that does it. Connector should be under the dash to the rear of where the gas pedal is. Might be worth a try there. You might also go to the diagnosis connector for old style which is under the hood back by the brake master cylinder. Use a jumper to short between the pins labeld TEN and GRD. Drawing at bottom giving locations of pins but are labeled on underside of cover. Turn key on and see if the CEL just turns on solid or starts flashing. If flashes then record number of long and short flashes and post up. This should give you not only CEL engine codes but also codes for transmission. Hold light flashing is telling us that a trans related code is being generated. Will probably be a P0730 (incorrect gear ratio) or shift solenoid code as you describe is starts flashing when should be in 4th but is not. The 2-3 shift flare and lack of 4th are kind of scary to hear as that usually points to slipping trans that a flush will most probably not help at all. A quck and sometimes inexpensive diagnostic from AAmco or other national transmission chain might give you the most information there.
The ABS and TCS lights are also probably related. Brake pedal and steering wheel pulsating would be warped from brake rotors. If only the pedal pulsates then would be warped rears. Grinding in rear good indication that should be checked before rotors get chewed up too badly and have to replaced (expensive) rather that just resurfaced (much cheaper). Neither of those should cause any warning lights however. Both lights are saying there is a fault in the ABS system ( wheel speed sensor, solenoid, or control module). There is a way to check for past (as in no longer being detected) ABS error codes. If it is a current malfunction then will have to be checked with diagnostic checker at dealer or brake shop. To do this go right back to that same DIAGNOSIS box under the hood. Now located the pin labeled TBS. It should be just to the right and down from the GND pin. Jumper these two pins and turn key to run ABS light should come on for 3 seconds, go off and then output any past error codes. Long flashes are tens digit, short flashes are ones digit. ie 2 longs followed by 3 shorts would be a code 23. Make sure to watch untill the code repeats just in case there is more than one.
That stalling you are talking about does not really sound like distributor/coil. When that was the culprit the engine would just shut off. Would really not notice anything except that the tach went instantly dead and then dash warning lights all came on. Not sounding like what you are describing anyway. Maybe the DTC from CEL will tell us something about that.
The fuel gauge could be a faulty sender but they are not part of the pump. There are actually two sending units as you have a saddle style tank with a big hump in the middle. There is a TSB about CEL on with DTC 1455 stored, low fuel light on way to early, or only showing 1/2 tank after filling. TSB says only applies to 97-2000 but cannot see what the difference would be. There are some checks to do with measuring height of the #2 level sender and depending on what the measurement is you would then replace the sender or the fuel tank. I have always just made adjustments to the sender to get the correct measurement and have not had any problems. Could fax you the procedure if you have one. Access plate for both senders is under the rear seat. Might also just fill the tank, disconnect each sender and take some resistance readings to see if one is stuck or broken.
Seems like your Milly has quite a few different issues that may not all be an easy fix, expecially the trans. We need codes though to start figuring out if they are small things or major problems.

 

Hey Whats up machina, I had that problem twice with the car just droping in rpm while driving, I have a 2001 Mazda Millenia and one day i was driving about 60 and it started to bogg out and then while i floored it it just died. I have been telling every one this that you need to put supreme in the mazda mellinia, even though it is more expensive you get better acceleration and you get better gas milage,but im not getting better gas milage now, for some reason it sucks but i still have a cel to check out, well what im trying to say is after i put better gas in my car it never stalled out again. I figured i needed a new fuel pump or filter but i went ahead and tried this first and its working out so far. Like heuy said you need to find out exactly which codes its throwing out, i would run a test and find out as soon as possible. Hope everything works out