My new 03 Saturn Ion shifts hard into drive....

2003 SATURN
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JXP8181
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Well I just bought a automatic Ion with 46K miles and I noticed sometimes when shifting into drive from park I get a clunk noise and the car shakes a bit for a second. The car does drive fine and most of the time it shifts between park, neutral, drive without problems.

I am wondering what kind of problem this could be? I have not called Saturn yet because I wanted to do a bit of research first.
May 5, 2006 at 7:28 AM
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PEPPERMRJ
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2003 and 2004 Ions used a 5 speed Aslin auto. You will find the same tranny in some Saabs, Opels, and the Nissan Maxima. It had a few minor issues with shift logic. 2005 saw it replaced with a less sophisticated but smoother shifting 4 speed auto used in the Cobalt.

For most it is not an issue. It is most prevalent at startup. The Ion revs fairly high at startup and should be give 30 seconds or more to idle down before shifting into gear. If this "Shift flare" is more prevalent a Saturn dealer may be able to update the firmware, which should improve things somewhat.

Good luck and let us know. :)
May 5, 2006 at 11:12 AM
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JXP8181
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I just got back from the Saturn dealership and everything is running the way it was intended. I did notice it had a tendency to do it at startup. Thanks for the reply!
May 5, 2006 at 3:53 PM
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