I drive a 2009 pontiac vibe (essentially a toyota matrix) and under the right circumstance the vehicle will upshift right after you put on the brake causing the vehicle to surge ahead for a moment due to the upshift. It only happens at around speed of 25-35 MPH. This is obviously not a pedal issue but a transmission programming and or solenoid valve issue in the transmission. The car has been reprogrammed per the tsb for harsh shifting. I will admit that some of the harshness has gone away but the upshift issue while slowing down still remains. From what I have read many others have had this issue as well, even after the reprogramming of the transmission (check out genvibe.com, you will find other owners suffer from this as well). The issue is especially noticeable while coming down a hill and it happens to me almost daily because I go down a large hill outside of my house daily. I am very careful while going down this hill to have my foot on the brake at all times as the car can upshift at anytime causing a brief forward surge. There are always children waiting at the bottom of the hill for the school bus when I leave in the morning so I am concerned for there safety more than mine at the moment but as I said, I am always extremely aware of the issue and very careful while descending the hill. I would be willing to demonstrate this issue to anyone if needed.
2009 Pontiac Vibe transmission complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 13 of 13, newest first, as owners wrote them.
2009 pontiac vibe. When the car is in drive and the car is stopped or nearly stopped, the engine races to 7000 RPM. This causes the vehicle to suddenly move forward into an intersection. To regain control I must shift to n and continue to apply the brakes as hard as possible. This occurs at random intervals. After I turn the engine off and back on it seems to work ok till the next time. I took the car to the dealer three times. The first and second trips to the dealer they said they found no trouble vehicle met specs. No parts replaced. The third time the dealer kept the car for two weeks, the car was returned on feb 19 2010. The dealer performed a two modifications to the vehicle. 1. Accelerator modification, and 2. They removed the driver floor mat. Today 02/22/2010 the car malfunctioned again, causing a near collision.
Car has the accelerator problem and the brake problem the odometer reads that the car is traveling 50 MPH and the car is really doing 42 MPH, the passenger seatbelt turns off with passenger.
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