for fun i bought a 2001.5 LE 2WD, auto with 311k miles on it. I'm pretty new to wrenching but am looking to get better.
on startup, it sputters for about 2-8 seconds and then the engine turns over and chugs along. when in D and going very slow it feels like it is lurching forward a bit vs smoothly going forward but it's not bad. At about 45 mph sometimes it feels like it's wobbling, and I thought it might be the tires or struts but then all of a sudden it goes away. I think it may be tranny related.
It has an aftermarket trans coolant cooler.
It goes into all gears smoothly and has never stalled.
when going up a steep hill near my house, it flares in 3rd when it should downshift to second, sometimes it stays in third and creeps up the hill, but it's never put me in limp mode.
today i turned O/D off and went up the hill. when it was in third and starting to slow i applied 60% throttle and it made a little whirling sound for 1.5 seconds and then downshifted. Sometimes at around 45mph on flat roads it will also flare, where the RPMs go up but speed does not. I've never felt a hard shift though.
I drained the tranny fluid, and it was still cherry red. I checked the fuel damper line for leaks and there were none. I cleaned and tested the MAF and at idle its at 1.4v and at 3k rpm's it goes to 2.26v but then drops back to 1.3 while at 3k rpm (video of it in action here: https://youtu.be/QvIa7mXs59U). This drop makes me think the MAF is bad, but i'm not getting any MAF codes.
The DTCs it's throwing:
P0300 (unspecified misfire)
P1145 (Intake Valve Timing Control Performance Bank 2)
Could it be the MAF? Or something else more obvious? Are there other diagnostic things I should be doing to rule out other potential tranny issues? How can I test to see if the tranny solenoids are actually working as intended?