My truck hasn't been shifting right ever since my serpentine belt came off, and the people at the atomotive shop drove it 6 miles without the belt before putting a new one on. They used a scanner on it and said it was shifting at the right RPM's but it just doesn't feel right to me. It seems to take too long to shift, and double shifts too.... and there for a while it even seemed to shift too many times as well. Would the loss of a serpentine belt cause this?

 

No, there is nothing that would connect the serpentine belt to the trans.

 

Thanks for the answer. So does anyone have any ideas as to what would cause it to act in such a way?

 

Well, the first thing you should do is never take your truck back to the incompetent morons that drove your truck without a belt for 6 miles. For starters, the water pump runs off the belt. You had no coolant circulating for those 6 miles. You are lucky if they didn't overheat the engine and blow the headgasket.

Anyone who works in an automotive shop that would do something so utterly ignorant is probably incapable of hooking it up to a code reader correctly.

 

Actually, the morons went out of business the day the belt blew (by the way, they put it on wrong and that's why it came off).... but one of the two owners continued to help me with a few things they didn't fix right while my truck was there (some of their mechanics weren't very good, in fact, I was spotting things they missed and bringing it to their attention... and I'm a girl with very little know how). Anyway, I've had this truck a year now and I've played hell trying to get things right.... and I blame the mechanics, not that it's a Ford (you Chevy lovers who are probably thinking what I think you're thinking). Now I worry about taking it to have the tranny checked out for fear of more incompetence. I've just had waaaaaay too many goof ups with mechanics in my life time and I'm now at wits end. I probably shouldn't have written this... but I agree with Andym and got carried away.

 

There's no chevy lovers here. Even if there were, they'd be too afraid to speak up.

About the only thing I can suggest is try to find a mechanic you can trust. In general, stay away from the chains like Midas, etc. They exist soley to make as much money as possible, so they lend themselves to ripping people off. Try and find a guy with a small shop who owns the same place he runs. He'll stand by his work, because he NEEDS the repeat business to stay alive. The chains rely on massive marketing budgets to draw in new customers because their current customers don't always come back.

Once you find a shop, walk around to some of the businesses in the area and ask about their reputation. People who work in the local shops will know, because they're more likely to either bring their cars in there or talk to people who are waiting for their cars to be fixed.

Hope that helps...

 

Well, I can sympathise with the owners, good mechanics are very hard to find. That he was trying to help you out after going out of business tells me the guy was probably trying to run a respectable shop but couldn't find the help.

Regardless, you still have a problem. You didn't tell us what year and model truck you have but if it has a serpentine belt and can accomodate a scanner then its sure to have an electronically shifted transmission. That being the case, and the fact that you said they did other work on it, its very likely that something else they did affected the transmission. Lots of electronics on the engine affect the transmission. The throttle position sensor, manifold absolute pressure sensor, coolant temp sensor. Also the speed sensor and their are a number of sensors on the transmission itself. They may have done something with one of these that resulted in the transmission not working properly.

By the way, you can't tell if the transmission "is shifting at the right rpm" with a scanner. You can tell if the transmission is shifting when commanded by the computer and you can tell if the sensors are reading normally, but shift rpm is a fuction of throttle position, load, speed and temperature.

Good Luck with it.

Steve
'95 Clubwagon XLT

 

I hate to say this... but it's the small shops that have been doing me in. One of them put on a new water pump and didn't check/test it, and shortly after I left the place it overheated and cracked my block. The owner merely blew me off ... so I took him to court and I won around 800 for a new engine (this was a few years ago). This last shop was run by two buddies, one of which really wanted to be a chef, (yes, a CHEF) so they shut down the shop (for money reasons too). The guy who continued to help me was the guy who told me that the truck was in good shape when I was having it checked before buying it, and yet it wasn't ok, so I'm wondering if his kindness was because he was feeling guilty about it.

As far as his scanner verdict, it was hard for me to believe him, (especially since he had lied so many times before), and also because I could hear the difference. So that's why I came to these rooms. I appreciate your input and I guess my next mission will be to try and find a reputable tranny shop.

By the way.... my truck is a 94, F-150, 4.9L, 300 straight 6.