GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I have a problem with my 2003 Vibe AWD, automatic, (NOT a GT) that the service department of the dealership that I bought it at can't seems to understand. The car had about 30000 kms on it when it started doing this. It seems to shift down when the RPMs get too low which is fine but when it gets back up to speed it stays in the lower gear for way too long. Eventually it will shift back up but not until it gets up to about 5000 RPMs. That problem did not happen before, it used to shift back up at about 3500 RPMs. The problem mainly happens when on a highway and going at about 100KPH (55 MPH) and starting up a hill. The other situation is going along at about 80KPH (45 MPH) and accelerating to pass someone it will not shift back up until I take my foot right off the accelerator in that case.Has anyone else experienced this problem?

sounds normal to me. the car will shift at higher rpms on a hill or when you are excellerating quickly. you get more power in the higher revs, if it shifted constantly at 3500, the car would be super slow.when the car recognizes that you are going to resume cruising, it will upshift for lower revs.

You're right it shouldn't keep shifting up and down but I think it should shift up before 5000 RPMs. It certainly did shift up before that RPM in its first 30000 KMS.

no way, 5000 is right around peak horses, sometimes, it will shift at 6500 or so if you really mash it! i too have the awd, it seems very tempermental about shifting. its all in how you press the gas.

There is probably a combination of load, speed, and throttle that the engine should upshift at, and it's good that it downshifts for more power when you press the gas pedal , and upshifts when you let the throttle back off. I assume that after 30000 km you have a pretty good feel for how the downshift and upshift behaves. It is odd that after 30000km, the upshift behavior changed. Not sure what would cause the change, unless you're suffering from genvibitis, which is a psychological disorder that causes people to try to accelerate hard all the time after reading posts about CAI's, superchargers, and other performance mods at genvibeThe owners manual calls for replacing the transmission fluid at about 100000km, so you're probably not close to that yet. Be sure to check the transmission fluid level though.