1996 Dodge Caravan Transmission slipping

Tiny
RFRIEND
  • MEMBER
  • 1996 DODGE CARAVAN
  • 6 CYL
  • 2WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 150,000 MILES
I have a 96 Grand Caravan with approx 150k miles. Today I was driving in the neighborhood and the transmission felt like it slipped out of gear. I think it was right after I went over one of the speed bumbs in the road, but I may be mistaken. When I got back into the van to drive, everything seemed fine. The transmission shifted through third fine and then slipped sirectly to nuetral. It jumped back down to thrid and back to nuetral again. I slowed down and it felt like it shifted down to second. The RPM's were about 3k for 35mph. I drove slowly to a gas station and cehcked all the fluid levels. I did notice that when I moved the gear shift to park that the lights appeared to move with a delay, but it may have been normal and I never noticed it.

When I got back onto the road the transmission again seemed to shift fine until it got to third. Then when I tried to slip into 4th, it slipped in to nuetral again. When I slowed down again, it had a little shake when downshifting from nuetral to what felt like second. Each time after the slipping incedent, the gear stay in second and will not go back down again until I turn the vehicle off.

The transmission was completley rebuilt about 50,000 miles ago and I instantly thought it was going out again. They only reason that I think there might be something else going on is that it start to shift fine each time I turn the vehicle off and back on again. Any suggestions?
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 AT 11:45 AM

7 Replies

Tiny
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The only thing that may or may not hav a factor is that I changed out the air conditioning compressor the previous weekend. For that I had to loosen the tensioner and slip off the belt to replace the compressor. Thats the only recent work that has been done to the van in the last few months.
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Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 AT 12:42 PM
Tiny
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Hi
Trans in "limp in mode" from what you described it maybe an input or output speed sensor. If they signal different speeds trans stays in 2 gear. Need to have trans scanned for codes. That will tell what to replace. Post codes will advise
Thanks for donate
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Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 AT 1:02 PM
Tiny
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So I replaced the input and output sensors today since they were easy to get to and inexpensive. Unfortunately it did not correct the problem. Looks like I will be going to the shop tomorrow unless there is something else I am missing.
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Thursday, August 27th, 2009 AT 8:15 PM
Tiny
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They will scan and find fault
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Friday, August 28th, 2009 AT 8:03 AM
Tiny
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Well, it was hooked up to the diagnositc machine and no faul was detected. They took it for a test drive and said without taking it apart, they do not know what is wrong with it.

They stated that it felt like it was losing pressure as the gears would slip, no matter what gear it was is, at about 3500 rpm. After it slipped once or twice it went back into Limp mode and would stay there until restarted again.
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Monday, August 31st, 2009 AT 3:03 PM
Tiny
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No fault codes just means a shift solenoid is not a fault so that leaves internal loss of pressure do to seals or manual shift valve. At this point no external fix needs O/H
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Monday, August 31st, 2009 AT 3:09 PM
Tiny
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Thank you
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Monday, August 31st, 2009 AT 5:53 PM

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