greenhouse89

Sorry, new to the forums, I tried seeing if there was another thread about this issue, I found one that was similar, but I wasn't sure if it was the same issue. So I'll post this one here.

I started having the 'Blinking S Light' happen about 2 months ago, and initially it only happened once or twice. But lately it's been every time I drive the car. So I'll be driving along, and things will be fine, then my Speedometer will just crash to 0 and then the blinking S light will start blinking. Sometimes the speedometer will come back shortly after the light starts, other times it can take up to 10 minutes. I've had the 'Check Engine' light come on 3 or 4 times while the blinking S light is going on, but it hasn't happened in the last month. The issue I'm having with my car shifting out of 1st happens simultaneously with this issue.

I'm not sure if they're related, but from the brief research I've done, it seems they are, but the car has a very difficult time shifting out of 1st. Once it's out of 1st though, it doesn't have a problem shifting upwards. If it has a hard time shifting, it will just rev up and up until I take my foot off the gas and try again, but most of the time it will continue to just rev and rev, until finally it will very sloppily shift into 2nd. When the car has been sitting for a few hours, the first few shifts out of 1st are fairly normal, but as I drive it more, the shifting becomes more of a problem, especially in traffic, when I have to try and shift more speedily.

I haven't tried manually shifting it yet, I've read some people saying that you can manually shift it with no problem whilst having the blinking S light problems, but I just need to figure out what the issue is and if I can try and fix it myself, or if I need to take it in and have it professionally looked into. I'm by no means a "car guy", so if anyone could help me diagnose this, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks for reading and thanks for any help you may be able to provide.

gianinline

I'm not 100% sure, but it is possible that the VSS (speed sensor) is going bad, in that case it sends information to the ECU that the car is stopped, you get the speedometer showing 0 miles per hour and so, the transmission doesn't know that it has to shift.
It's not to so hard to reach the sensor and replace it, it's 2 or 3 screws and a connector.

MAD_MIKE

Locate the two wire blue connector over on the passenger side kick panel(if this is a PGM FI car), use a piece of wire and jumper the connector. Turn ignition switch to II(ON) and count the blinks from the CEL and D4 or S lights. _ _ _ are ones ___ ___ ___ are tens.
Record codes noting from which warning lights, report back here.

oneprblmcat

If you end up needing a VSS, beware of the aftermarket ones off Ebay. I had one years ago that was bad right out of the box.