'98 2.5l v6 venge

hey all...comin home from class today and well basically the title says it all. once i take it out of park and start out, it's in 1st gear. but once it hits 2nd, it sticks. i can get it into 3rd but that's if and only if i hit about 65 and it HAS to shift up. but it won't do it on it's own.

that really covers all the symptoms. so. let me know how bad i've got it. *sigh*.

 

is it auto or stick.....im assuming auto cuz you said IT has to shift up.....u positive its shifting......is the check engine on.......if the check engine is on then im assuming u have the avenger curse.....the speed sensor is out.....very popular for our cars.....bout a 150 fix 4 parts and labor......if it does shift but shifts hard take it to a tranny shop n have it flushed n filled.....how many miles on it.....dodge recomends a flush n fill every 70000 miles

 

yeah it's throwing a check engine light. it is auto. i ended up dropping it off by a transmission place on wednesday, and they didn't call me till a few minutes ago and the guy told me he tried a new computer/solenoid/etc, and it didn't solve the problem. he told me he's fuled out just about everything but the actual transmission itself. which supposedly is going to cost me $1400. so i told him to hold off for now, and i'll call him on monday.

so i check up on this thread and looked at your post and that does make sense.

keep in mind that the car works fine for 2 or 3 minutes after every startup, then screws the fsck up. i don't see how that could be mechanical because all it takes is to turn the engine off and turn it back on.

i'll see what i can find out.

 

Sounds like you need new tranny fluid. Look at your tranny dip stick and note the color and consistency. Note everything about it and post back.

I say fluid because, you stated that it WILL eventually shift up at higher speeds, which means higher RPMs too.

 

well it ended up not wanting to shift at all when i was taking it to the shop. it is possible that it is the trans fluid, but that still doesn't explain how it works just fine after any startup for 2-3 minutes then messes up. like i said all you have to do is restart the car and it's fine. so i don't know.

 

well the guy i've taken it to said that the first thing he checked was the speed sensor itself and ruled that out. he still doesn't have me convinced though. what should i do? i really don't want to pay $1400 for something i'm not even sure about.

 

Ok, this seems to be the most forgotten/missed thing to check, so I'll have you check it too.

Swap the relays on the firewall around, just make sure to mark them with a marker or something...i.e. 1, 2, 3..maybe 4.

 

alright. i'll see what i can do, i just gotta get my car back from the trans guy. that'll be the first thing i try once i get it back.

edit: so i called around a bit and described my problem and it seems that everyone wants to say that it's going into limp mode. but they all quoted around $1400 to rebuild. if i'm not mistaken, limp mode is where both shift solenoids are off, which means 3rd gear. my car gets stuck in second. but then again it depends on how it's configured. so that could be accurate.

my cousin in law owns a dodge dealership around here, i just gave him a call and he got me to talk to one of his transmission guys and he says he couldn't really help me without knowing the codes the engine is throwing so i called the guy back at performance trans [where it's at now] to see if i could get the engine code it was throwin and he told me he'd call me when he gets it hooked back up to the computer. so basically i'm just waitin on him to call me back. *sigh*

i want my car back.

edit 2: got it back from the guy and on my way home i found that if i use the OD off switch, it works fine. (first second and third gear) and as soon as i put overdrive back on, it flips to neutral and as soon as you try to acellerate, boom...limp mode. it's really starting to scare me that this guy might be right.

 

Limp mode for us is 2nd gear.
...and if it can shift 1-3 gears with O/D off, then I wouldn't think it to be the mechanical side of the tranny, more so the electrical side. I could be wrong though since it's hard to diagnose over the net.

Have you swapped the relays around yet?

 

no not yet. i'm going to try it on the way to class. however i don't specifically know where those relays are.