My fiance does not have the traction control option on her 2LT... At least she said she has NEVER seen the traction control light on the dash come on.

I know my 2LT has it because it does come on on occassions when it kicks in (like in 1st gear low).

So, I do not think her car has traction control.

Anyway, after 3 days in the shop, they cannot duplicate the transmission slip at all. Very temperamental and seems to come and go at random.

They are looking at that front end rattle again (after going in to the dealership 2 times before and the issue has never been resolved under warranty yet).

 

Traction control is standard on the 2LT, I'm pretty sure in all years.

 

I thought it was on all 2LTs as well but my fiance said she has NEVER seen the TC light come on in her instrument display. I rarely drive her car so I figured she would remember seeing it come on.

On my 2006 2LT, it comes on almost every time I put the car into 1st gear low, like when driving in the snow at low speeds. She also uses the 1st gear low, when driving in the snow at low speeds but claims to have never seen it light up in the dash display. She also owns a 2006 2LT but does not have all the same options (no OnStar / no running boards / no heated seats / no roof rails). So it made me wonder if the traction control was optional on some 2LTs.

This transmission slip occurs very random but when her HHR is in regular drive gear on her automatic transmission. The "Service Engine" light was coming on when she was getting the tranny slip but after a while the light would eventually go off.

 

later models are different with the intro of ESC, but I think I recall from the Chevy website for 06 2LTs, ETC was standard if equipped with Auto & ABS.

 

Then maybe there is a problem with her traction control.

She just started to notice this problem over the last comple months and really bad for 2 - 3 days last week. Bad enough to jerk you head when it was shifting.

Now all of a sudden, her HHR will not recreate the problem.

 

Had a 01 sunfire with ESC and when the light would go on the TQ converter lock up would would go off,, the trans would shift hard( and at a higher rpm) and sometimes stall at a stop light. If you shut it down and restarted most times it would clear. Car really acted stupid...ran a scan and it pointed to the TPS...figured it was a wiring issue(connector) because after wiggling it everything was good for awhile but would eventually come back.
Had the part but never had it changed before selling the car. Had the 2.2 in it.

 

Sounds like a bad TCC. Take it to a different dealership.

Are you sure she has a 2LT? The way its equipped sounds an awful lot like my 1LT. I thought the rails and heated leather were standard on '06 2LT's.

 

No, leather was not standard on the 06 2LT. My wife and I test drove a few back in 06 before purchasing the 06 I had. Most were cloth seats.

 

Sorry to bring back an old thread, but if you have an auto transmission and are feeling this hard "kick" during the shift, it's not slipping. It sounds to me as if it's happening when you see a service light and the car is shifting. This is actually the transmission going into a sort of "protection mode". What happens is the ECU cannot read the traction control input parameters, so it puts the transmission into a protection failsafe mode. This mode commands high line pressure and shift speed. It's the safest type of shift that an auto trans can perform because it minimizes the actual slip and shortens the most demanding part of the shift.

Chances are it's a harmless quirk caused by a lack of traction. As a side note, this can also happen if you get a check engine light for other reasons. Most notably, if you've recently installed an intake or changed an air filter and are getting "off" MAF sensor readings, the car might throw a lean code. For some reason, these cars like to go into that transmission protection mode on certain codes. Lean code is one of them.