Shop Cleared Code But Car Stopped Working Again

First of all, let me ease your mind a bit, I don’t think it is the torque converter. If it was the converter, it is highly unlikely your Chevy would be moving at all.

And, clearing the codes really has nothing to do with the operation of your car. The codes are stored in the engine’s control unit (ECU) to be read by OBD-II diagnostic readers. When they are read, they provide technicians with a history of issues that have been found. Some of them are momentary blips while others are longer-lasting. The longer-lasting codes may even flash to the engine light on the dash, alerting you to the fact something is wrong. This only happens when there is a major issue confronting the engine. Otherwise, the codes are stored for reading. When they are cleared, nothing should affect the operation of your Chevy as list is only information stored to be read. The one issue where the codes impact you now is finding the cause of your engine’s intermittent problem. If the codes had remained listed, it is likely a good tech would have been able to run a diagnostic and then print out the errors on hardcopy and from there he may have been able more easily to find the errors and pinpoint your car’s problem.

Since you have lost the list of error codes that was accumulated, you should drive over to your Chevy dealer and have them run an OBD-II diagnostic so you can generate a comprehensive error code map of what the problem might be. Admittedly, this could be a bit dicey because the codes have been cleared and unless new error codes have been generated quickly you may lose part of the error map, the part that takes time to generate. However, you mentioned that someone had suggested a solenoid or sensor failure and I would have to think that there is something to it.

Believe it or not, most of today’s transmission problems, unless they are shown to be wholly mechanical, are often due to faulty electronics, a solenoid failure or a sensor failure. I can’t shake the feeling that your Chevy has had a sensor failure and as it has the subsystems linked together by the CAN (car network) are the problem.

Or, it may just be something as easy as the solenoids that control gear choice. If they fail, then your car can easily act in the manner you describe.