I was going to recommend synthetic fluid so I'm glad you went with it. I switched around 2 years ago and it cleaned up my shifts and smoothed out the function and reliability of my transmission. The PO burned the last one so I'm already on transmission #2. I agree with other sentiments, the magnets were normal and the color of your coolant looks fine except for the mystery green camera tint. Your clutch plates are fine, you'd see metal flakes all over and your pan would look like a miner's gold pan from 1849.

If switching fluid doesn't work I would highly recommend looking for a low mileage wrecker unit or salvage yard transmission. Could easily get one for parts for $500 and have someone install it for much less than $2500 total. Rebuilds are not as good as OEM units anyway.

7-8 months later......

gamefreak: Thanks for weighing in. I read a lot of your posts and respect your input. So far all has been well with the ol tranny. Shifts fine, no more slipping, temperatures well under control.

I still am dealing with this hesitation when accelerating. It will do it when both accelerating in a straight line, but I think I have noticed it happen more when turning left. I mean I will be in the middle of a slow (5-10mph) turn from a stop and have it FLOORED with no response from the engine. It just sits there like I'm applying a feather to the pedal. Then after a few seconds after I straighten out it will start to accelerating hard (like it should with my foot hard down).

Another weird symptom is the traction control kicks in when trying to crawl slowly up a steep incline. It will be bone dry and it will make the ticking noise from the T/C module as well as beep at me.

So my thought is a wheel speed sensor? Like I said way back this started happening after doing the upper and lower Ball Joints last year. I mean this sensation is when it cuts my acceleration feels like it is being electronically limited, not mechanically. I suppose it could also be the fuel pump, but I'm more skeptical of that theory because I don't have any other symptoms of fuel pump failure.

Any thoughts from the peanut gallery are welcome.

- HokiePokie

Off the top of my head, the sensors that affect acceleration are: Mass Air Flow Sensor, Throttle Position Sensor, Oxygen Sensor (unlikely to be this one). Those control acceleration and throttle input as well as control how much fuel is going in. A wheel sensor/ABS sensor would affect braking more than acceleration.

I'd 2nd what gamefreak said, my 98' had a faulty throttle position sensor and would have random dead spots in the throttle pedal when accelerating/wouldn't accelerate occasionally however it went back to normal after replacing the sensor(maybe yours isn't making good contact fully when accelerating left?). I also picked up a 96' from auction that had a dirty MAF that caused it to hesitate for 1-2 seconds before accelerating though cleaning the MAF fixed it, I know its not quite the same issue your experiencing as it did it regardless of whether or not I was turning, but both of these are fairly simple to clean/fix to help narrow down the issue.

Silver and gamefreak,

Sounds good. MAF is less than 30K old. Still Ill give it a good cleaning. If that doesnt help ill look into the throttle position sensor. Would this be affecting the traction control issue as well?