Tranny question-96 SL2 auto

[Silent Bob]

Going to look at a 96 SL2 today in the backwoods of Aces neighborhood. Talked to the guy this morning about the car and it has a tranny issue. It's an automatic and only gets up to about 20 mph and apparently doesn't go in reverse. So basically it sounds like it's stuck in first gear to me. Could this be the valve body? Seems to be a good deal on the car, just don't want to spend a lot of money to fix it up. ALso thought about swapping to a manual since I have all the parts on my car that isn't going anywhere . Any other ideas of what could be causing this issue?

[Jeremy]

Make sure the VSS is plugged in.

[GTI]

1st gear goes up to 38 so that doesnt sound like te problem to me. Could be torque converter related maybe?

[slowion2]

if it only gets up to about 20mph and is stuck in first it could be the solenoids or valvebody, but I"m thinking maybe unplugged or bad VSS, what RPM in first is it at when driving?

[Jeremy]

but I"m thinking maybe unplugged or bad VSS, what RPM in first is it at when driving?

If its 4k, then its the VSS. We forgot to plug in my friends VSS and it wouldnt rev passed 4k.

[slowion2]

yeah that's what I'm thinking, same thing happened to a guy on here when we worked on it

[Silent Bob]

Well I looked at the car today. Fucking clean car, need to have the front bumper repainted but no biggy. The people weren''t home to let me run it so I'll have to ask them for the details on that stuff. Would the VSS keep the car from being able to go in reverse?

[therealm0rh0us]

dont think so
wouldnt be surprised if there were more than one problem
when you get to it throw it in reverse cold if it works and then goes away when it warms up theres a relly good chance the vb is in need of replacement