I have a '96 Ford Contour. 175K miles. I'm have an odd problem with the car and it's shifting of gears. Automatic Transmission. When I first start the car, it runs and shifts through the gears just fine. After the car warms up, a mile or two, or if I just let it warm up in the garage for 5-10 minutes, it doesn't want to shift gears - like it's stuck in neutral.

I drove it around the block today (2 miles). Worked great until about the 1/2 way point, then it began acting up and not engaging any gear. If you stop the car, turn it off, let it sit for a few minutes, start the car, shift the car into 1st gear, it'll go for a short distance and then, again no gears. I was listening and experimenting and it seems to shift from 1st to 2nd, but that's it before it just looses all "gearing" and coasts to a stop or I manually stop and turn off the engine.

Is this the transmission or am I missing something? Tranny fluid is good.

 

When was the last time the trans filter was serviced?

 

I've never heard of a transmission filter... until now. Obviously I'm not a "car dude." 1st item I'll check.