Torque Converter Replacement vs Tranny Replacement

The torque converter is going on my 5EAT, the car stays in 2nd gear longer than needed and kind of skips 3rd. Two scenarios happen A ) When going cruising in manual mode in 3rd gear approaching a hill if I give it more than 1/2 throttle the rpm stutters back in forth around 2500-3500 an then finally seems to lock up and continue going up so I can shift to 4th. B ) On up hill climbs if cursing at 40mph (Automatic Sport) and I suddenly floor it (assuming I'm in 4th or 5th gear) it will down shift past 3rd and into 2nd which it never use to do. Got the car tuned, tuner said my tranny seems fine, it might be the torque converter may need to be replaced. He said I can replace the converter, but he said if it was real bad we wouldn't have been able to do the pulls on the highway. So I might just be paranoid, he said to just ride it out for a while, he erased a code that came up about the tranny after we reflashed the ECU as he told me otherwise it wouldn't be able to clear it as it's a TCM code, but said I should be fine. He noted if the 2nd/3rd gear keep being an issue it's probable the conveyer, but he said I could just ride it out till I blow the whole tranny.

 

So I'm trying to gauge the cost of replacing the torque converter vs replacing the whole tranny, as the tranny will need to come out any ways.

 

Lastly I don't fully understand why the torque converter is locked in 4th and 5th and not in 1st, 2nd, 3rd. As I understand the studder I get in 3rd gear is the converter locking and unlocking out of place… is that damaging the 3rd gear ring at all or just hurting the torque converter?

 

Also a RED torque converter I was told is a performance grade part, how's it differ from the stock one. As in what am I really paying extra for, will it act more like a manual with the performance torque converter, or it meant more for 5EAT cars that are putting out 400+ HP to better handle the excessive power compared to stock?

 

Thanks for the help

 

EDIT: the tranny was fully flushed when I got it a year ago because it was dirty checking the dip stick and had delayed shifting stock @ 73k, car had tranny cooler installed @ 77k and @ 84k the tranny was flushed again, the car now sits with 88.5k

PM ClimberD@HEXMOD'S he's the expert.

 

If you can pull the tranny and it needs fix'in I have a tranny guy that is right off exit 41 on rt91.

check the free ssm thread, pick up a $15 vc cable; that tcm code should still be there, and it should provide you with a better initial insight into what's really going on.