Hi guys! I've been wanting to get my hands on a 300 for awhile but haven't really had an oportunity to buy one. I judt came across one for sale though and I am wanting to get your opinions on it!

It is a '90 with only 52 k miles. But apparantly there is a problem with the transmission. It will run fine in 1st and 2nd gear, but will not shift into 3rd and 4th. The car is selling for $1500 only.

Now want I am trying to find out is if you guys know of a common problem that these cars have that might cause this? Or is this just a case of needing to replace the trans?

Any info would be great from you guys as I am wanting to buy this like tomorrow!

Thanks for any help!!!

This is the add BTW:

http://honolulu.craigslist.org/oah/cto/1439427711.html

 

if everything else is good, a bad tranny is a small problem for that price. it's scarcely repairable though. i mean, it can be done, but it's unlikely that you could get it done for less than a used tranny would cost. 3rd and 4th gear synchros go out on pretty much every one of these cars, but not until over 150k or so usually. so if they went out that early on this one, that probably means someone drove the crap out of it and it might not be as good as advertised. give it a look over though and see how it runs. it's up to you. new trannys can run roughly around $300-1000 depending on age. used that is.

edit: i just realized that this is an auto trans. disregard this post cause i don't know anything about autos. just left it up to show you to include important info like this in your main post.

 

It definitely could be something simple that's keeping the trans from working right. A bad connection at the trans computer, bad inhibitor switch or shift solenoid or a bad connection in between. If you go look at the car you can flash the auto trans trouble codes out by doing a little sequence with the ignition and the shifter. This might tell you what's wrong.

These transmissions are computer controlled and work well (IMO) when everything is right but if they have a bad connection or sensor they can really freak out. A bad connection at the computer caused mine to do a 1-2 shift that snapped my neck then completely disconnect when trying to go to 3rd. Cleaning and reseating the connector totally fixed it.

 

Until I saw this, I was about to tell you to research automatic transmissions before responding.