Wet under the Hood and then the transmission goes wierd!?

[suznal]

2005 ZXW (wagon)
Car runs fine, no major complaints – until it rains.
Car will operate just fine in a shower, but as soon as I hit standing water (enough to make a decent splash) the tranny (automatic) slips. It will go in and out of gear – I end up barely driving 10mph!
Sitting still, in drive or neutral, the engine idles fine.
Sice this only happens after driving through water deep enough (2 inches) to make a splash, I’m assuming that something is getting wet and confusing the heck out of the car. After an hour or so of sitting and drying out, the car is fine.

What do I need to check – I’m thinking a sensor? But which ones should I look at? Or perhaps there is another problem?

PLEASE HELP!

[Sponsor]

[sailor]

Disassemble, clean, and grease (dielectric type) all the wires that go to the tranny - it's electronic, so any bad connections (exacerbated by water) will cause issues....

Luck!

[suznal]

Thanks,
I’ll give it a go. By the way - dielectric type grease, why can I not find anyone who knows what it is? I’ve called three auto parts stores and they have no clue!

[Chris_HT]

minimum wage employees that's what it is, most of them can't even use their own computer catalog, let alone any technical knowledge about cars - I used to get frustrated at 'autozonelike' stores but now I just go there and ask for specific part numbers.


..ok I still get frustrated, the autozone close to where I live will always have 1-2 ppl on counter, and all others just walking around trying to look busy or will just stand there in plain view and chat about whatever it is that isn't related to their jobs, so often I need to wait 20 minutes in long line just to pick one part :/

[scott7278]

Originally Posted by suznal

Thanks,
I’ll give it a go. By the way - dielectric type grease, why can I not find anyone who knows what it is? I’ve called three auto parts stores and they have no clue!

Tell them to look around the cashier counter - they always have dialectric grease in single-use packets. From there, they can find the bigger bottle (hopefully).

It's also known to those guys as bulb grease.

[suznal]

Originally Posted by sailor

Disassemble, clean, and grease (dielectric type) all the wires that go to the tranny - it's electronic, so any bad connections (exacerbated by water) will cause issues....

Luck!

OK, I was about to tackle it this weekend, but I received conflicting information about using the grease on the connectors.
I was told that if i grease the pins and re-connect, if the pins don't make actual metal-to-metal contact that it could screw things up even further. I did some looking around on the internet and found information backing this up.
Can I disconnect the connectors, clean up the contacts, put the grease on the pins and re-connect without a problem?

[Now534]

They will still make contact. Go ahead and put the grease in. If you put to much in it will be just a little stiff to push in but it is pushing the excess grease out in any available openings. We use it all the time at work in lights and harnesses and what not.

[suznal]

Thanks Now534
Do you put the grease on the pins or do you spread it on the female half of the connecter?

[Now534]

Sorry for the late reply i normally just squeeze a little across the connector so it pushes it in. Then just connect it.

[whynotthinkwhynot]

Grease won't affect the electrical connection, it will just prevent water from getting in there and making cross connections or affecting the electrical. Use as much as you like. You can purchase bottles of the stuff. It's typically somewhere near the RTV, glue, brake anti-squeal, anti-seize, etc.

You can also use it on battery terminals- inside and out- to prevent corrosion. That's an old trick, except we used to just use whatever grease was on hand. Most grease is non-conductive.