Possible Tranny issue

Ok so ive had my car about 15 months, and haven't really trusted the transmission most of that time. But ive always thought the 3.8 couldnt put out enough power to do any serious damage anyway. I get on it sometimes, but nothing too crazy, no launching, no dropping it into gear at high RPM's, no burnouts, and ive always kept it under 5k.

But anyway, over the last few months its felt like it gotten weak. it takes more RPM's to achieve the same acceleration, 2k rpms is still 60, but it feels like i need about 500 more rpms than i used to when taking off from a stand still, and i gain more rpm's before i start rolling.

So the other day i get going up this long slow hill, one of many i deal with every day, im in 4th coasting down the one side, and get going up the other. im doing about 40, and at 1600 rpms. once i start going up the other side, naturally my car wants to downshift, but this time it acts like it cant get into third, and is bouncing back into 4th, basically making my car shutter. it did it about 8 times in just a couple of seconds. so i manually dropped it into 3rd and gave it some gas, and it cleared up. then today on the same hill it gave me two little shutters.

to be honest it felt the same as when you dont give a manual enough gas to get rolling and it bucks a little, but this is in an auto and im donig about 40.

Enough tranny fluid? how does the fluid look?
J

yeah man my buddy had a 3.8 like yours and, same thing with the same gears even and it was the tranny fluid.

Ill check it to make sure, i serviced the trans about 11k ago, but it also did a similar thing about 8 months ago, but much more severe, it was a coil going out. ill keep an eye on that too, but it hasnt thrown an error code yet.

oh was that the other problem you had you mentioned a while ago?

no, ive mentioned a weird humming sound, but im pretty its coming from the rear end. it sounds like normal gear whine, but only happens under certain conditions.


But anyway, i drove to school today and decided to check my tranny fluid before class. so i hop out, pop the hood. but when i pull the dipstick, it bends down and the tip gets into a slot on my alternator and the teeth tear the thing all to shit. it broke about the bottom 3 inches off an mangled it to hell. the rest of it is bent and wont go back in the tube, but regardless, didnt get to check my fluid.

So i went down to the dealership and ordered another, ill have it friday.

ok so i took it to my mechanic, he called it "torque converter shutter". basically, the TC is locking up before it should, and then disengaging, making the car kind of buck. could be bad fluid, could be a solenoid, but considering it only happens at certain times, and theres no check engine light, theyre going with bad fluid.

i serviced the tranny about 12k ago, but that doesnt effect the fluid in the converter so theyre gonna hook it up to a machine and flush it tomorrow.