Weird problem keeping my car in gear

Hey folks! This has been driving me crazy so hoping you may be able to help...

About a year ago my 1996 Intrepid started sometimes slipping into neutral when driving. All I would need to do is pull the gear selector stick back a bit to make it go back into drive. It didn't happen too often so I didn't worry about it.

Now it is getting worse. On the dash of this car it has a series of lights that light up for the gear your in (when in Drive the light below D lights up, so on..) but what has started happening is sometimes when driving all the lights will come on at once, the car will act like it is in neutral, and you have to stop the car, turn it off, and start it up again.

This only seems to happen when accelerating and I think it is happening when the car would usually shift into the next gear.

You can usually feel when it is about to happen because you can feel a slight hesitation or two in the acceleration before it happens.

I am ready to fix this but do not know if it is a sensor, cable, filter/fluid, whole transmission, or what. And due to many bad experiences with repair shops I do all my own work if at all possible.

Thanks for reading and I appreciate any help you may have.

Tom

here are a couple of possible solutions: if your check engine light is on, you could have a faulty gear selector switch. If that isn't on, the next alternative could be a bad shifter cable. There was a TSB a few years ago for the shifter cables going bad on Chrysler LH vehicles, so you can pick up the cable from your local Dodge/Chrysler dealer.

here are a couple of possible solutions: if your check engine light is on, you could have a faulty gear selector switch. If that isn't on, the next alternative could be a bad shifter cable. There was a TSB a few years ago for the shifter cables going bad on Chrysler LH vehicles, so you can pick up the cable from your local Dodge/Chrysler dealer.

Well your just helping with all my problems :)

OK, the check engine light is on. I guess they key trick does not work on the '96 because I tried the on/off thing and never got any blinks. But the light is on when I run.

I did have the code checked/cleared at Autozone a few months back and at the time they said the code was for emissions or something or another. So I had them clear the code and the light came back on about a day later.

I am not sure what a TSB is though. I know we got something in the mail from Dodge recall a few months back... (feeling really dumb here) something about how it can shift itself out of park or something. But I didn't take it in, mainly because the car is old, higher mileage, and I could just imagine all the crap they would "offer" to fix for me. Dealer prices are the worst at least in my area.

Is the cable a difficult fix? I ran out today and picked up the Haynes for my car from the library so I'll look it over when I get home but just curious.

Tom

Dude you have to get the vehicle scanned for codes and check all the inputs and outputs to the trans and the controller you may just have a bad ignition switch very common on these cars

Hey folks! This has been driving me crazy so hoping you may be able to help...

About a year ago my 1996 Intrepid started sometimes slipping into neutral when driving. All I would need to do is pull the gear selector stick back a bit to make it go back into drive. It didn't happen too often so I didn't worry about it.

Now it is getting worse. On the dash of this car it has a series of lights that light up for the gear your in (when in Drive the light below D lights up, so on..) but what has started happening is sometimes when driving all the lights will come on at once, the car will act like it is in neutral, and you have to stop the car, turn it off, and start it up again.

This only seems to happen when accelerating and I think it is happening when the car would usually shift into the next gear.

You can usually feel when it is about to happen because you can feel a slight hesitation or two in the acceleration before it happens.

I am ready to fix this but do not know if it is a sensor, cable, filter/fluid, whole transmission, or what. And due to many bad experiences with repair shops I do all my own work if at all possible.

Thanks for reading and I appreciate any help you may have.

TomHey Tom,

I had a very similar problem with my 95 Intrepid. Turns out that the the wiring for the relays and sensors ran down near the exhaust manifold. Over time, the plastic coating on the wires had fused together and were slowly deteriorating. I had the really bad ones replaced, cost me about $75.00, but ran great afterward. Took about three trips to the shop to figure this out because the computer they run the diagnostics through can't detect the problem unless it's happening while it's hooked up.

Hope this helps.

Mary F