SmokeyZ

Whoa! So I get in the car today and start it... and it lurches backward about a foot as soon as the engine starts !!! I immediately stomped on the brake, so I don't know how far it would have rolled... but it sure made me ****!!!! It didn't make any weird noises, like the parking pawl skipping or anything. I've never even heard of anything like this before. It's an auto trans, and it was fine the rest of the day. Never had any problems out of it before today, and just the one incident. It shifted into reverse fine and drove off fine.

I have a sloped driveway, nothing too steep. I never use the e-brake but it doesn't take any undue effort to shift it out of park, so I'm comfortable with that. I know it was about a foot because I painted a black line on the driveway that I line up the back tire with so I don't bump my Jeep (I get in tight cuz some punk kid walked across the nose one day instead of going around spider-webbed it real nice ).

Any ideas?

Thanks!

SmokeyZ

Anybody?!

OneShoe50

Has it done it more than once?

I've experienced it before, maybe not a foot, but have felt the car move on start-up. There are a couple of things I have thought about, it happens if the car has set for a week or more without running, so it may be possible the torque converter lockup hasn't disengaged and for a moment it's like starting engine in a manual trans car while it's in gear, then stepping on the clutch.

So, with that said, I'd check the trans fluid level, maybe parking on an incline affects it also. If you find/hear something different, I'd like to know too.

SmokeyZ

Thanks for the reply, OneShoe.

Nah, happened the once and only (thankfully). It's driven daily and the fluid looks and smells fine. I'm guessing the incline probably had something to do with it, but strange nonetheless

Which brings up another issue- I searched and found a couple threads where it sounds like others have had this situation: often, but not always, when I put it in Park, it'll roll forward instead of rolling back on the parking pawl, even on the incline... Now that's weird!! Didn't seem to be a good answer for that one, either. And I recently replaced the trans mount, so that rules that out...

Anyway, thanks for the ideas. Maybe someone else has encountered it??

Injuneer

Have you verified that the shifter cable is adjusted correctly? Have you verified that the neutral lockout switch is working?

SmokeyZ

Well, honestly can't say I've checked either, but thanks for the idea. I'll be playing in the driveway today, so I'll double check 'em.

Thanks!