Just a report on this situation after allowing some time to see if the "fix" works. It turns out that we decided the first thing to check would be to flush the transmission since that was not done for over 25,000 miles. To my amazement the folks who drained the trans said it was 3 quarts overfilled! They said the symptoms we had could be caused by too much fluid. I wondered why it would not overflow but apparently there is room for that much trans fluid to be sealed in without burping out. Anyway after the flush and adding in the correct amount of fluid the symptoms have not returned, although my son still does not completely trust the car. Even so I think this simple mistake was the main problem. Why didn't the extra level show up on the trans dip stick? I thought I did check it "hot" but ultimately I did add the extra on more than one occasion thinking the trans was leaking and probably the trans was not hot enough to give a correct reading on the dip stick, but I find it amazing that I could not see the extra three quarts on the dip stick!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder