Hey guys,

Curious to hear your thoughts before I take this thing back in for service tomorrow. It's been to the dealer 2x already for trans problems.... and tonight, I think something finally broke.

Problem that's been occurring for the last 5 months or so (of my total 6 months of ownership) is that the first left turn of the morning, or first left turn of the evening (after the truck has sat all day)... I would catch a false neutral on the 1-2 shift. It would hesitate long enough to allow the engine to rev up a bit before it would SLAM into 2nd.

Took it into the dealer and complained. They found nothing wrong and couldn't duplicate the issue.

Then, starting last week, the truck (also when cold) when coming to the first complete stop, would go into neutral instead of 1st gear. Try to accelerate away from the stop and the motor would rev up before BANGing into 1st.

Tonight, pulling out of the parking garage at work, 1st stop as I hit the end of an aisle - and once again, neutral. It revved, I lifted off the throttle and allowed the motor to return to idle. Hit the gas again... still neutral, then BANG. *REALLY* harsh. Now the check-engine lamp is on, and it takes the truck a good 2-3 seconds to engage drive. My buddy has a scanner so we pulled the codes... P0700 and P0846.

Any ideas what is going on with this thing? Truck is an '04.5 LLY, not quite 30k on it in 6 months of ownership. With only 6k left on the warranty... I'm thinking it's time to dump it if they can't guarantee me that they fixed it. There is nothing more that I hate than wondering if my car is going to strand me on the highway one day - that's why I don't drive Chryslers anymore! ;)

Any input is appreciated. Hopefully the dealer will let me drop the truck with them in the morning.

846 code refers to the D shift valve. Basically the pressure switch manifold is not seeing what it wants to see from the D fluid. Could be a switch problem, sticking valve, or if this were an older truck with the old nsbu's, I wouldnt count that out.

Wow that was fast - thanks :)

I'm betting that since I've had some funky problems in the past, the chances of it being a faulty sensor are slim. Hopefully they find something with the valve and fix the problem.

Could be low on fluid or defective o ring on pressure switch manifold. Sometimes o rings are not seated properly. I have flipped them over and solved problem.
mike

Problem found.

On Mike L.'s suggestion (thanks Mike) I pulled the trans dipstick today after returning from lunch. Truck and trans warm, truck running.

Pull dipstick, wipe it down, reinsert, repull dipstick... and there is a teeny tiny drop of fluid on the last 1/8" of the stick. About 1" below the COLD line, and WELL below the HOT line. I did it again just to make sure. Same result.

The truck goes in almost once a month for an oil change (I drive a lot), and it's already been in twice for trans shifting problems, and they've never found anything wrong. I'd say THIS is wrong. I've never been under the truck, or inside the trans. But the dealer has - about 2 months after I bought the truck, I had them flush the fluid and swap out the trans filter. They also "check and top off all fluids" each time the truck is in for an oil change or service work. The truck doesn't leak.

My guess is that when they flushed the fluids, they didn't put enough fluid back in it - and now that it's getting cold out, the low trans fluid is starting to have an effect. And obviously, they either lied about "checking all fluids" - or they don't know how to read a transmission dipstick. I am not happy. What kind of damage could I have caused to the trans, pulling a 10k trailer while 1-2 qts low on fluid for the last 20,000 miles (even though trans temp never neared overheat levels)? Would it be unreasonable to demand (calmly) that they extend the warranty on the trans, free of charge, to make up for this?

Grrrrrrrrrr........

EDIT: PS - truck would have gone into the dealer 1st thing this morning, but I overslept and had an important meeting at work (doh!) I'm leaving early and going straight to the dealer from the office tonight... I'll let everyone know what they say.

Solution confirmed.

Left work early to take it to the dealer yesterday afternoon. The service writer knows me, and begins to write up the ticket, and comments "So it's low on fluid, huh? That's odd... though that won't cause it to jump out of gear. I'll get one of my guys to take a look at it." Hmmm, ok fine. I smile politely and go take a seat in the waiting room.

About an hour passes, and the service writer returns.

SW: Well it seems you've got a bad pressure sensor in the transmission. It's throwing a code. We're gonna have to order the part, we don't stock it.

Me: Ok, great. What about the fluid level?

SW: Oh, uh, yeah, right. We still need to check that. We just hooked it up to the computer.

The single KNOWN problem... low trans fluid... and they didn't investigate that first? Ok, whatever, I'm not going to say anything. I got a kick out of their deduction that I must have a failed sensor. Isn't it possible, just possible, that the reason the pressure sensor was setting a code, was because there was low pressure due to a lack of fluid? Ok, whatever, I'm still not going to say anything... I mean, what do I know, right?

Another HOUR later, the service writer comes back.

SW: Well we checked the fluid, and you are right, it *was* a little low on fluid.

Me: How many quarts low was it?

SW: Quarts? Oh, no no... it wasn't THAT low. This transmission has a large fluid range, and while you were definitely outside of the range on the stick, it was just slightly so. It barely needed half a pint.

Me: Really? Because when I checked the fluid level in the garage at work, there wasn't any more than a drop on the tip of the stick.

SW: Oh no, there's fluid in it. Like I said, you were right, it was low, just not THAT low. Definitely not low enough to hurt anything. (There goes my chance to ask for a warranty...)

Me: Uh huh. So can you tell me HOW it got to be low?

SW: Oh it probably just burned some of it off.

Me: RRRRReallly? No kidding - burned it off? Can you do me a favor, and make sure you write EXACTLY that on the service ticket?

SW: What? Well, er, uh, um, yeah, I can write that on the ticket for you - sure.

Me: Thanks. I just like to keep extremely detailed records of the service work done on my truck. It makes my life a lot easier if everything is printed directly on the ticket.

So I have to take my truck back in next week for them to replace this "faulty" sensor. Though it doesn't need it. I could repeat the 1-2 shift problem every morning as I exited my subdivision... been able to repeat it for a few weeks. This morning (now that they filled the trans up) the 1-2 shift was perfect.

BURNING off the transmission fluid. That's a new one.

Solution confirmed.

Left work early to take it to the dealer yesterday afternoon. The service writer knows me, and begins to write up the ticket, and comments "So it's low on fluid, huh? That's odd... though that won't cause it to jump out of gear. I'll get one of my guys to take a look at it." Hmmm, ok fine. I smile politely and go take a seat in the waiting room.

About an hour passes, and the service writer returns.

SW: Well it seems you've got a bad pressure sensor in the transmission. It's throwing a code. We're gonna have to order the part, we don't stock it.

Me: Ok, great. What about the fluid level?

SW: Oh, uh, yeah, right. We still need to check that. We just hooked it up to the computer.

The single KNOWN problem... low trans fluid... and they didn't investigate that first? Ok, whatever, I'm not going to say anything. I got a kick out of their deduction that I must have a failed sensor. Isn't it possible, just possible, that the reason the pressure sensor was setting a code, was because there was low pressure due to a lack of fluid? Ok, whatever, I'm still not going to say anything... I mean, what do I know, right?

Another HOUR later, the service writer comes back.

SW: Well we checked the fluid, and you are right, it *was* a little low on fluid.

Me: How many quarts low was it?

SW: Quarts? Oh, no no... it wasn't THAT low. This transmission has a large fluid range, and while you were definitely outside of the range on the stick, it was just slightly so. It barely needed half a pint.

Me: Really? Because when I checked the fluid level in the garage at work, there wasn't any more than a drop on the tip of the stick.

SW: Oh no, there's fluid in it. Like I said, you were right, it was low, just not THAT low. Definitely not low enough to hurt anything. (There goes my chance to ask for a warranty...)

Me: Uh huh. So can you tell me HOW it got to be low?

SW: Oh it probably just burned some of it off.

Me: RRRRReallly? No kidding - burned it off? Can you do me a favor, and make sure you write EXACTLY that on the service ticket?

SW: What? Well, er, uh, um, yeah, I can write that on the ticket for you - sure.

Me: Thanks. I just like to keep extremely detailed records of the service work done on my truck. It makes my life a lot easier if everything is printed directly on the ticket.

So I have to take my truck back in next week for them to replace this "faulty" sensor. Though it doesn't need it. I could repeat the 1-2 shift problem every morning as I exited my subdivision... been able to repeat it for a few weeks. This morning (now that they filled the trans up) the 1-2 shift was perfect.

BURNING off the transmission fluid. That's a new one.
I can fix your problem....find a dealer that is competent!

WOW

Well at least it's fixed

I would first demand extened warantee, go balistic and then find a differernt dealer. Also would make sure you get your spin on trans filter changed(duno when and if they did it on your truck?) Did I mention I would go balistic???