Hey all, I just got a 95 Trooper Limited that has some issues. I need a muffler, the brakes are a little rough, and the suspension is pretty bouncy. It's old, and I can deal with obvious things like this that are common to all cars, but I do have a couple of more Trooper-specific questions:

The transmission was replaced in 2007, and seems to work perfectly... most of the time. Sometimes when I first get rolling it acts like it is "winter" mode, even though the light for winter mode does not come on then. What I mean is it will start out in 3rd and not downshift below 3rd. When it does this I can manually drop to 2nd or 1st and it drives fine. Yesterday it did this then magically started shifting roperly after a stop at a light, though I had "thoroughly exercised" the winter and power buttons before that. Today it did it once, and I immediately parked and shut off/restarted the vehicle, then it shifted fine. Is this common? I don't think it is the winter switch malfunctioning, since the dash light doesn't come on when the tranny acts up on its own. Shifting into park doesn't fix things, but shutting the truck off did, at least once.

The power moonroof is also not working. I bought it knowing this, so it is okay, but it would be nice to have it work. When you hit the switch there is no motor noise, and no fuses are blown. Any ideas? Motor (hope not)? Switch (no biggie)? Relay?

Researching these problems online hasn't been easy, and I haven't had time to play with the roof yet. Been too busy cleaning up the truck (looks pretty good, no rust, which is very rare here), fabbing an intake to replace the broken hose and box, and just getting used to it. The driving position and visibility are great, and I don't (yet) regret buying it. Hopefully it turns out to be a great winter car and Home Depot hauler.

Sean

 

Oh, perhaps related: you check the ATF level with the dipstick behind the engine oil dipstick, right? It looked like ATF, and it was reading well over the full line. How would I go about removing some of the fluid, or even draining it all and refilling it, if necessary? I doubt this is causing my shifting problem, though I would like to rectify it. I have done lots of basic work on my own cars for 15 years, but I have never touched automatic transmissions, and I have not found a repair manual yet (none at Autozone, Advance, or my library, gonna look online).
Thanks,
Sean

 

the tranz fluid will read real high if moter is not running check it with every thing warmed up and moter running. dont have any exsperiance with ur style tranz(winter mode) but sounds like may be a sticking valve or actuwator i would first start with a fluid and filter change espacially if it hasint been done cense tranz was rebilt

 

o and the sun roof id pull the switch and find witch is the power wire and see if it has power and then try jumping it to one of the other wires and see if roof opens up or at least makes a noise

 

Thanks for the advice! I definitely checked the trans fluid with only a semi-warm motor, at best. I'll check it again properly. It looked clean, but I suppose a change couldn't hurt. Kinda wish I'd held out for one with a manual trans, but this will have to do. Shutting off the engine and restarting it definitely seems to fix my problem though, after the trans got wacky twice out out of 6-7 starts today.

That's what I figured with the roof, too. I just need a little time to get at it and fiddle with it to get to the cause of the problem, I guess.

Thanks again,
Sean