2004 Sonata bucks violently trying to shift into 2nd gear
I have a 2004 automatic 2.7 v6 Hyundai Sonata LX. While sitting in the
driveway, My car idles fine and I have no problem reving the engine up to high
rpms in either park or neutral. I also have no problem shifting to any of the
gears, nor do I have a problem backing out in reverse. Driving slow in first
gear also works fine, but when I accelerate fast enough to shift into 2nd gear,
the car bucks so violently that I feel like I’m going to be thrown through the
windshield. The car never makes it into 2nd gear. I replaced both input and
output speed sensors, as well as the throttle position sensor, but that did not
help whatsoever. Any ideas? Does this sound like a bad transmission
solenoid?
Problem Solved. As a last resort I decided to change all five transmission solenoids. This was my first time working on a transmission. Surprisingly, it wasn’t as complicated as I was ancipating. To gain access, I only had to remove the battery, radiator hoses and fans, and loosen/move the ignition coil assembly (3 bolts) out of the way to gain full access to the side transmission cover. From some Youtube video, I was anticipating having to drop the subframe, but it wasn’t required for my Sonata. Upon closer inspection, I noticed an O-ring failure on one of the solenoids. The O-rings on the other solenoids looked like they were starting to go bad, as well, so I replaced all five. My car now shifts smooth as silk.
