'96 XJ 4.0 here coming to ya with 225k miles. Just now the transmision did something it's never done before...never even hinted at it. After sitting for about 4 hours after driving perfectly on the interstate (60 mph) I start another drive and after 5 mins at below 35mph I'm pulling off from a stop light and old girl doesn't want to shift into second, reving higher up past 2k but still no shift. Bad enough I had to pull off the road with another car behind me. After just a brief moment off I get back on and she shifts ok getting onto the interstate. After 15 min at 60 mph I get off onto 45mph roads and stoplights, and after about ten minutes the shift problem starts again.

Not knowing what else to do I pulled into a station to check transmision fluid. I get on level ground, shift it through all the gears (automatic), put it in neutral, emergency brake on and pull the stick, wipe it off and redip. It comes out showing fluid 1/3 up into the ok area, so just a little low from plum full. After getting back out on the street and doing some brief trials, what I think I'm seeing is that it'll shift into second and beyond if it's going there's not too much acceleration being put into the transmission. Going downhill seems to help but uphill gives it problems. Rolling it as slow as possible seems to be the best way to get it to shift into second and then beyond. These are just preliminary observations and I'm not sure I'm seeing a definite pattern yet.

Once you get it to shift into second it has no problem shifting into 3rd and OD

I believe I have the Aisin AW4 transmision, but I'm not entirely sure about that. Haven't added transmision fluid in years if that figures into the calculation.

Any idea what's going on here?

 

Sounds like it could be a bad transmission solenoid or frayed or broken wiring leading to them. They are on the left side of the transmission .

 

No maintenance for the Trans? Boo. Options are many for poor operation. Dirt, wear, fluid wore out of any additives, ........

 

My Jeep did the exact same thing.... I went through all the advice of solenoid change outs, fluid change outs, tcu swap....in the end, I had a reputable transmission shop diagnose it as two issues, valve body and clutch bands. I had them go through and do a full rebuild on it...see if I get another 28 years out of it...lol...I won't last that long, but what the hey.