Hi, I have a 1997 Dodge Avenger 2.5L and it's tranny started to act up. It started up fine one day but as soon as it warmed up, the tranny would just get stuck in second, but when the car was cold, the trans would shift perfectly, now it just stays in second all the time, and I already checked my tranny fluid and it still is red, no leaks, no shavings in the pan, some people told me its a solenoid, but I need a second opinion, im not trying to spend big bucks on this car when I still got school to pay for comming up this august. I hope it is probobly something just as simple as a solenoid. This car has been good to me for a year with just basic preventative maintenence, this is the first time the car has crapped out on me like this, I hope you guys can give me some tips, thanks. Also do you know any good places in NJ to go for them to look at my trouble codes my check engline light threw up from the tranny? It seems to come on only when the tranny started to act up.

There was another guy with the same problem and he solved it by cleaning his relay, so I decided to check my relays also, there are 3 relays on my firewall that I decided to check, the socket that hooks up to the relays all look horrible like they are black and gritty, I was thinking to replace the relays but in the condition the sockets are in, maybe they still wont have a good contact, maybe thats the problem after all?

OMG lol I feel soo dumb! I actualy got a bit peeved and made sure the connections to all the relays were fine and smacked them a bit, and now my tranny works fine! LOL I even changed my oil and filter first when the prob occured, but now that the tranny works good, it even shifts firmer and faster then b4 lol. I still need to deal with the relays since they seem to be burnt looking in the sockets, do I need to cut off the sockets and get new ones? Maybe I should just get them from a junked venge?

 

They get gunked up ...You can get new 30A bosche style relays and sockets and replace them or just get out the Electrical contact spray and a set of needle files and try to clean them up ... Use some die electric grease on them to prevent future troubles

 

Ok now there is a problem... it seems like the relay is only the tip of the iceburg, I cleaned it and the socket, but someone just told me that was some sort of paste that helps keep a good connection or whatever. The car seems to work fine until I get on the highway and hit third, when it gets into third it goes into neutral instead, and as I slow down, it hops back into limp mode...Every time I mess with the relay it works fine, then it just goes back into limp when it hits 3rd, I even got a new relay and still the same issue. Now I read this on another forum http://www.automotiveforums.com/t196775.htmland I wanted to know is this true? Thanks.