4l80e hard shift from 2-3 gear.

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Mildphil

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I'm having this strange issue with my truck where at certain rpms and temps (ambient and trans) it shifts very hard into 3rd gear. If I take it real slow, it doesn't shift too bad. Also when the truck is still cold, it shifts normal. 1-2 shifts fine, just feel a slight disturbance when they shift, but 2-3 make the whole interior shake, it is very unpleasant. 3-4 is like butter, the only reason I can even tell it shifts is because the rpms drop. 4th-TC lockup is also pretty smooth. So with all that being said, does anyone have an idea as to what the issue may be?
 

Mildphil

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Possibly a dirty or malfunctioning shift solenoid?
Just did a little bit of googling and found something interesting. Sometimes I throw the car in reverse and nothing happens or it is very delayed, I usually have to throw it back in park and then reverse again. This has only happened a handful of times though, maybe 3-4. It sounds a lot like a solenoid now that I think of it (but does reverse even have a solenoid? Hmm). My dad's old Odyssey used to have a similar issue with shifting and I replaced two of his solenoids. If I can definitely prove it's a solenoid, I might as well replace them all while I'm down there.
 
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Mildphil

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Just ordered the 1-2 and 2-3 shift solenoids, hopefully I'll be able to install them this weekend. I'll keep the thread updated but any additional input is appreciated.
 

df2x4

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The junkyard 4L80E that I swapped into my red truck has had the no reverse issue you describe a few times, but it only happens to me if the truck has sat in storage for a week or more. It never happens when I'm driving it regularly. Always works fine if I go back to park and try it again. My first thought was maybe the torque converter is draining back into the case a little when it sits and needs to fill with fluid before it will engage, but I have no idea if that's the case or not. Shift linkage is fine. My mechanic advised me to try going to neutral first and then reverse next time I pull it out of storage to see if that prevents it from happening.

Don't mean to hijack your thread but I've read that reverse is usually what goes first in a 4L80E and I'm curious to hear what others have to think about this. Does your reverse issue happen after sitting or does that not seem to matter?
 

Mildphil

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The junkyard 4L80E that I swapped into my red truck has had the no reverse issue you describe a few times, but it only happens to me if the truck has sat in storage for a week or more. It never happens when I'm driving it regularly. Always works fine if I go back to park and try it again. My first thought was maybe the torque converter is draining back into the case a little when it sits and needs to fill with fluid before it will engage, but I have no idea if that's the case or not. Shift linkage is fine. My mechanic advised me to try going to neutral first and then reverse next time I pull it out of storage to see if that prevents it from happening.

Don't mean to hijack your thread but I've read that reverse is usually what goes first in a 4L80E and I'm curious to hear what others have to think about this. Does your reverse issue happen after sitting or does that not seem to matter?
Very interesting. I have shifted from neutral to reverse too and that works good. It's only happened to me a few times and it seems to be random. Last time it happened right after I was driving. I was parked, put it in reverse, and nothing happened. Then about 3 seconds later it dropped into gear and started rolling back as normal, very strange. The other few times I needed to go out of gear to fix the issue. Hopefully this doesn't get worse as time goes on. Keep me updated if you find out anything new about it, I'm interested to find out what's going on.
 

Mildphil

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Solenoids came in today. Going to try and install them this monday-tuesday when my shocks and reusable gasket come in from rockauto (currently have a cork gasket).

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Tomcat58

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I'm having this strange issue with my truck where at certain rpms and temps (ambient and trans) it shifts very hard into 3rd gear. If I take it real slow, it doesn't shift too bad. Also when the truck is still cold, it shifts normal. 1-2 shifts fine, just feel a slight disturbance when they shift, but 2-3 make the whole interior shake, it is very unpleasant. 3-4 is like butter, the only reason I can even tell it shifts is because the rpms drop. 4th-TC lockup is also pretty smooth. So with all that being said, does anyone have an idea as to what the issue may be?
What year is your truck ?
 
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