I don’t know if this is the best place to put this question, but I have a 2010 Chevy Equinox LT. Recently I have developed issues where I was sputtering and jerking back-and-forth in reverse only. Once I got into drive, I didn’t have many issues until I hit 25-30 then my RPM’s would go high but my speed would not increase and it would sputter and jerk again. Since then, I’ve had the issue come and go on the driving part. Sometimes I can drive with no issues at all outside of the reversing. I can’t determine what it is. Any thoughts? Thanks for reading.
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magicwebb
Sep 24, 2019
2010 Chevy Equinox
2010 Chevy Equinox
18 comments
What it sounds like to me is you are either low on transmission fluid, or the transmission fluid is so deteriorated that it's not acting like hydraulic fluid anymore. The first thing I would do is check your transmission fluid levels. Now most vehicles they have to be running and you check the "HOT" mark on the dipstick once the vehicle is up to operating temperatures. The next step would be to drain the transmission fluid, change the transmission filter, and refill it to the proper level. My theory as to why you're having these issues mainly in reverse would be: The transmission fluid is low. When you put your vehicle in reverse It moves the low transmission fluid towards the front of the transmission and away from the filter and transmission oil pump. The transmission oil pump acts just like an engine oil pump sump. Think of it as a straw, if you're drinking through a straw in a glass and you tilt the fluid away from the straw you're going to suck in air instead of the liqud, same principle with the transmission. The fluid is the transmissions lifeline, if it gets air it will cause intimated, slipping, jerking, erratic shifting ect. I hope I was able to help. If you appreciate my channel please share with your friends and family. Thank You!
Thanks for fast response! I was able to check the fluid last night and it was full to the top. I did however notice that the fluid was almost completely black. I ended up flushing out the fluid only. The sputtering/jerking has lightened up and even occasionally goes away, but it has not provided a full fix. I did not change the transmission filter on my vehicle. I can provide video of the sputtering/jerking, if I am able to upload it on here! Thanks again for reading!
You can upload a video if you'd like. I would definitely change the filter. It could be running dry and then randomly grabbing some fluid. This will definitely cause slipping and jerking.
You can record it, upload it to YouTube and then post the video from YouTube here.
https://youtu.be/pb8gkqwlf5I
@magicwebb Seeing that the vehicle is not moving I would suggest cleaning out your mass airflow sensor. You can head over to any automotive parts store and get mass air flow cleaner spray in an aerosol can.
@Nthefastlane
It's hard to tell without being able to perform any tests. I would pinpoint down to mass air flow sensor, coil pack or bad plugs and wires. Even a bad tank of gas if it happened recently after the latest fill up.
@Nthefastlane thank you again for your responses. I apologize for so many darn questions but my wife and I are extremely worried about the issue we are having. On my way home today while driving it, i noticed that if i floored it and tried to accelerate quickly that it would struggle for a moment trying to accelerate, occurring Between 20-30mph. We took it to a dealer the other day and they couldnt pin point the issue. I mentioned it could be a transmission issue and they said taking a shot in the dark that it could be a Clutch plate in the transmission (I have an automatic), but I can’t be 100% certain what is going on. The things I’ve done so far was wiped Out the throttle body by hand, changed the spark plugs, checked all transmission related fuses, changed the transmission fluid - still nothing.
The way my wife described it (chronologically, she was the one who drives this car)
first it was experiencing inconsistent RPM’s for the first few days. 4 days later, after letting it sit after work, the RPM’s began going really high and it had trouble accelerating. This is when it began having issues with the reversing.
Also, if it helps any... I had my wife put it in reverse while I looked under the hood. It appears that it is the engine that is sputtering and causing the shaking.
I'll give you three ideas of what I think it could be.
The first one is a dirty filter that is causing the transmission pump to run dry and that is where the random slipping/reving is coming from.
The second one is going to be you have a bad solenoid or the valve body needs to be completely flushed. Usually when you have a dirty filter the valve body needs to be pulled apart and sprayed down thoroughly with brake cleaner.
The third one and the more expensive deal because the entire transmission has to be removed is the torque converter. Bad torque converters when they start to go are known for intermittent slipping and jerking. But also the same symptoms with a dirty filter or the transmission oil pump not pulling enough transmission fluid will also cause the torque converter to act up because it's running dry.
Thank you so much for the responses.
So I got to drive it a little more today. I didn’t hear any whining or any other noises. The car still sputters when put into reverse, but I noticed that while the engine is jerking/sputtering, the RPM’s on the tachometer take a slight dip from slightly under the 1000 mark to about half way. Driving down flat land, it does appear to be struggling in 2nd gear (i believe. Slight shaking, feeling of slipping/hesitation between roughly 20-30mph), but no issues after that accelerating and even decelerating at a rapid pace. I hope this helps narrow it down. I’m still going to try all of these things you mentioned, you’ve been so helpful. I will definitely recommend your website/channel to family and friends.
@Nthefastlanelmost . hey, so the check engine came on! It is a bad solenoid. the car is almost completely undriveable at the second.. the code was a P0776