Hello,


I have a 2nd hand Mitsubishi Lancer GLXi '96 A/T car. Acquired it on 2002, everything seemed fine until this problem started several months ago.

I'm driving an automatic transmission car. This problem sporatically happens while driving around 45-70 kph (28-43 mph?), my gear downshifts while I'm gradually stepping on the gas pedal. Instead of changing to a higher gear and accelerating faster, the transmission downshifts in a sudden resulting to engine braking and it causes my car to dramatically reduce the speed. I'm only using the "Drive" or "D" shift and it happens even on a non-steep or leveled road. The "overdrive" switch is always ON as usual and when this happens in a sudden, my RPM rises very high and looks like the transmission switched to a lower gear instead of progressing to the higher one. It never happened to me before as I have said.

I've noticed often times this happens after refilling gasoline then driving my car. And its very dangerous as it makes my car stop suddenly while speeding up in a highway and makes all of us inside jerk forward. Luckily there's no vehicle tailgating me on that particular scenario.

I badly need your advices. Thanks in advance.. :)

I believe that converts to the Galant here in the US?
For that model, the manufacturer has an updated Transmission Control Module for a harsh shift concern.
You would be doing yourself a favor to let a Mitsu dealer check to see if your car needs that update.

My Lancer has 1600 cc engine 4 cylinder 16-valve..
I am thinking of a conservative step first by replacing my transmission fluid and fuel filter... hope this would fix my issue so that I would avoid spending a larger amount of money.. any more suggestion or comments?