A few days ago running Baby Hemi around town when suddenly pulling out of a light it was like the tranny had burned up. Look at the dash and got a check engine light. Popped the couple of blocks over to Autozone & had a quick scan done. Yep, there it was, the Trans Shift Solenoid A was reporting as bad.

Okay, off to the dealer. 2 hours of labor and $327.00 alone for the kit to fix it. Scheduled an appointment and nursed her home for the time being. Had to manually shift it between 2nd & drive. Baby Hemi could not downshift herself even after stopping at a light. Put her in drive and she's in 5th. Not a good sign at all.

Today I was taking her back to the dealer to get it done and I guess Baby Hemi doesn't like the dealer poking around in her private tranny spots there behind her filter and playing with her valve body. Why?

Well, she suddenly had a massive change. I accidentally put the shifter in 1st leaving a light and as I sped up I moved it to 2nd. No shift right away and then a few seconds later it happened. Okay, all is as it should be... Kinda... I move her to drive when I get around 35 and again no shift right away but rather a shift about 10 seconds later? What? I'm manually shifting and the auto tranny is over ruling me? With a shift solenoid out?

I had an idea. Next light I stopped long (about 30 ft or so back) and left her in drive. Gently touched the gas and Baby Hemi moved forward perfectly. This isn't how she's supposed to act with a broken shift solenoid. So when the light changed I started out with her in drive and drove as normal. And lo and behold she shifts all her gears without a 2nd thought. I give her a good punch and the Hemi growls to life as she downshifts and launches. Yeah... That's my Baby Hemi. Time to play and have a little work out don't you think... So off we went. 35 miles to the dealer and lots of growlin' and shiftin' the whole way as I test out this miraculous recovery.

Dealer hooked up the scanner and killed the c/e light. We take her out and run her through the paces again, no c/e light comes on. Just a happy Baby Hemi thrilled to be out playin' in all this snow. I actually think she was upset that I had her parked for the whole ice storm we had here.

Cost: $89.00 to turn off a c/e light and rescan her after the test flight.

Results: One happy Baby Hemi and one estatic owner with a fat wallet still.

Has anyone heard of cold or anything affecting this shift solenoids? Dealer couldn't find even a minor sniffle in her when we did the test flight and rescan.

 

Ice Ice Baby..... Hopefully it was just a hic-up in a electrical connector..

 

((that was difficult to read))

What is a "baby Hemi"?

Nevertheless, simple answer. You have a FAILING solenoid, not a FAILED solenoid. Replace it sooner rather than later. All that shifting is NOT good on the setup for 5 miles, much less 5 days.

IndyD