2006 Pontiac Grand Prix: harsh or hard shifting

7 of the 239 complaints about the 2006 Pontiac Grand Prix describe harsh or hard shifting.

owner complaints: 7
of this car's complaints: 3%
typical mileage: 65,000
recalls: 0

Is there a fix? 30 service bulletins cover this area of the car. See below

Harsh or hard shifting by model year

2008
2
2007
7
2006
7
2005
5
2004
10
2002
1
2000
3
1999
4
1998
3
1993
1
1990
1

What owners say

Filed Jan 19, 2016 · Steering, Transmission · OH

Steering: clicking noise when turning transmission has a light slip into 1st and sometimes hard shift into 2nd had this looked at in 2013 while it was still under warranty and the dealer didn't want to acknowledge there was a problem. This should be under recall since more people have this same problem.

Filed Jun 29, 2014 · Transmission · 100,000 miles · MN

The initial issue that I noticed was when I was driving at 70mph at about 2000 rpms the rpms would jump up about 300 rpms when I would drive at a steady speed, just flat ground. It got worse and more frequent as a month went on, so I then brought to a gm dealership and they decided to do a transmission service (fluid and filter) and inspect what they could, everything "looked good". Now since then this issue has been resolved but the transmission slips and slams into gear, when I am in stop and go traffic or hitting a lot of stop lights, engine temp. Does seem to get a little high, even my mechanic thought so. When it slips it feels as if I hit a giant pothole and the engine/transmission is going to fall out. But this problem is so intermittent no one can pin point the problem, I have had three different mechanics look at this issue and one transmission shop. I have all of this and can't seem to resolve the issue, and not to forget to mention since I have owned the car since 2006, it has never shifted smoothly from first to second gear (when I accelerate from a stop light/sign). I like gm, but when this issue is all over the internet and gm hasn't done anything about it, I am starting to second guess my decision on vehicle manufacture.

Filed Apr 12, 2014 · Transmission · WI

The transmission on my 2006 pontiac grand prix gxp began to"slip around the 70,000 mile mark and has continued to do this today at 85,000.car has been driven like a granny since I noticed the slipping of the tranny and it revs to 3200rpm before shifting into 2nd gear.also upon starting the car and putting it into drive,occasionally there is a clunk to the transmission.

Filed Sep 24, 2012 · Transmission · 110,000 miles · NE

2006 pontiac grand prix gxp. Total transmission failure at 110k. This is a family vehicle which was purchased new. All service maintained, never even close to being abused and this transmission should be well within its life. As I have read, these transmissions are basically(supposedly) a beefed up version of the transmission used in the 3.8l models. It is same as used in the impala ss, where many many failures have occurred. Completely failed at 110k. Took into dealership on a monday, they ran diagnostics, test drive it twice could not find any issue. Vehicle towed in 24 hours later, with a complete trans. Failure. It started all of a sudden, would not shift properly, hard shifts, then would skip gears, then would not go into reverse, then would not engage at all. This is a very serious issue that deserves a recall. Only real option is to replace with a factory rebuilt transmission. Obviously gm will not do a voluntary recall, they are making too much on the sale of rebuilt transmissions.

Filed Apr 27, 2011 · Transmission · 65,000 miles · PA

My car slams into gear from a dead-stop. It grinds very loudly when then tcc is applied. Shifts hard and shakes very violently, sometimes to the point where it is almost undrivable. Gm dealer refuses to acknowledge the problem because they don't want to fix it. They claimed the grinding noise is a tick or rattle caused by timing chain for the displacement on demand when the engine goes from 8 to 4 cylinders. The tsb only states it would make the noise when going from 8 to 4, not 4 to 8. My car only makes the noise when I'm on the throttle, so it would not be going into 4 cylinder mode. Gm are a bunch of lying dirtbags who don't want to fix the problems they cause. They compromised the reliability of this transmission to make it shift smoother. I'm a member of an online forum of just the ls4/4t65e-hd fwd cars and there are over 138 people with these cars who had or are having transmission problems/failures. Why hasn't there been some kind of recall yet? This is certainly a big enough problem to warrant a recall!

Filed Feb 18, 2011 · Transmission · 64,000 miles · PA

Transmission shudder at cruising speeds. Delay when leaving from dead stop. Car slams into gear hard. Grinding/crushing sound.

Filed Jan 3, 2008 · Steering · 17,707 miles · OR

2006 pontiac grandprix with 25000 miles developed excessive noise from front of car. Rack&pinion was loose & steering stub shaft worn out. Vehicle steering still makes noise and wanders.clunking noises from both tire areas,outside edge of tires have chunkes missing around whole tire.power steering now making noise again,vehicale takes very long time to recover from normal road bumps .local dealership tells me cannot duplicate costumer complaint,front-end checks out. During the last year front suspention noise has increased and control and stabilaty is considerably worse.also developed clunking noise from transmission and transaxle area recently.