2001 T & C tranmission Problems.....

[jbsam5]

My T & C is starting to have a shifting problem. Some times it will shift into drive and some times it will not. The RPM's go high and you can tell that it did not go into drive. This van does not have overdrive. It's a 2001 V-6 3.3L. I have about 125,000 miles on the van. Could it be a sensor? I keep the transmission changed ever 65,000 miles. The tranny oil looks and smells good.

Thanks for your help,
jbsam5

[TCGrove]

I'm having the identical problem on my 2001 T&C 3.8L with 119,000 miles on it. I changed the oil and filter around 100K. It ran fine for the past year, then started not going into drive once you backed it out of the driveway. You have to put it in park and back to drive. Now it's starting to have a "bump" when down shifting as you slow down. I'm planning on changing the oil and filter again tomorrow and add some Trans-X Slip Stop & Leak Fix. I've been told it might be the the "shifting valves" (???) getting sticky. I'll let you know what I find.

[Vats]

I have a 1999 and had similar problems in the past. What I found was the input and output speed sensors were dirty, i.e they had some metal particles stuck to them after removing them and cleaning them it seems to fix them as the metallic pick up seems to skew the readings as they are magnetic sensors.

Try it ands see.

[TCGrove]

Interesting you should mention build up on the sensors. I just changed the oil and filter. I found a grayish sludge built up on the magnet in the pan. There was also a little bit hanging from the filter that was also ferrous. I'll bet the same stuff is on the sensors. After changing the oil and filter the same bump or hard shift occurred when slowing down. I'm going to clean the sensors tomorrow.

[hundahunta]

Originally Posted by TCGrove

I'm having the identical problem on my 2001 T&C 3.8L with 119,000 miles on it. I changed the oil and filter around 100K. It ran fine for the past year, then started not going into drive once you backed it out of the driveway. You have to put it in park and back to drive. Now it's starting to have a "bump" when down shifting as you slow down. I'm planning on changing the oil and filter again tomorrow and add some Trans-X Slip Stop & Leak Fix. I've been told it might be the the "shifting valves" (???) getting sticky. I'll let you know what I find.

sound like a front pump and converter issue

[TCGrove]

I pulled out both sensors this morning. The input sensor was clean and the output sensor had a tiny bit of grayish material stuck to it. Not much though. This did not fix the problem. It still has a hard shift or "bump" when slowing down to a near stop. Hundahunta may be right that it's a pump or torque converter problem. The problem with it not going into gear has been very intermittent but the hard shift it about 80 percent of the time you slow down.

[ByronP]

Hmmm, a dodge minivan transmission.......I smell a rebuild in your future. They have a couple of design flaws that cause them to start crapping out about 100K.

[TCGrove]

One thing about living in a small town. Everybody knows everybody, and I work with a guy knows the local person who rebuilds all the transmissions for the dealerships. He said that the not going from reverse to drive and the "bump" shift makes sense. He said it is the seals starting to go in between the 2-3 shift point. He said something about the oil reservoir for the reverse to drive shift is filled during the 2-3 shift point in Chrylser transmissions for some odd reason (or something along those lines). He said it will get worse, and the only fix is a rebuild.