Hi Everyone,
I've been looking for a Dodge forum so that I can figure our an issue on our Durango (Specs Below). Originally I had an electrical problem for 6 months that would make it run rough at a stop light. After changing the spark plugs and everything else associated with the ignition, it turns out the Part Store gave me a defective spark plug. That has been the type of luck I've had with this vehicle.

Anyway, now we may have an issue with the tranny. It has come and gone and went away after I fixed these other electrical issues that were associated with the ignition (which leads me to believe at first it was a PCM or Speed Sensor issue and/or Governor). Well this past week we had our first cold snap of below freezing at night and in the low 40's during the day. During this time, the transmission wouldn't change gears between 2nd and 3rd without either slipping or releasing the pressure off the gas pedal. More the slipping than the latter. Anyway, today it was in the 70's and low and behold, the Durango shifted perfectly. I have been trying to look for a solution, but I see so many complaints on the internet that it is hard to find a solution between the unhappy owners. I know my way around an engine, but despise automatic transmissions. But my wife had to have one.

So any ideas to maybe get me going in the right direction would be great.
Here are the specs:
1999 Dodge Durango SLT 5.2 V8 Magnum just went over 100,000 miles. Fully running on synthetic (though I wish they would make a bigger oil filter for this vehicle)
Don't think the transmission fluid has ever been flushed or the Transmission filters have been changed either.

Thanks in Advance

 

The colder the weather, the longer the transmission want to stay in lower gears.Until the fluid warms up to operating temp. this is normal. So next its that colded you can let warm up and little longer or have heat on the radiator cooler or aux cooler at nite.But it wouldn't hurt to do a trans service and adjust the bands.

 

this sounds about right to me too


and idk where you are reading about the complaints, but if you look into it deeper you will find that the people who complain about problems dont do maintance properly on the truck, and that is what causes problems, not the trucks, its user error 90% of the time.

 

That make sense, but I think I may need to do a linkage adjustment. This morning I had the same problem. Let the Durango warm up for 10 minutes. It did the same thing until my destination. I through it in Neutral and then in Drive again and it worked perfectly. Then an hour later I took my daughter to her swimming lessons. Did it on the way. At the first stop light, I through it into neutral then back into drive and wallah. Perfect shifting. It just seems a little loose on the shifter and the orange line doesn't always line up on the "D".

Thanks again

 

underneath the driverside kick panel (under the steering column) there is an adjustment for that, on my old truck i adjusted it to read the drive position correctly, you can do this simply by getting the truck in gear on the road properly and then when you get home, instead of putting it in park just shut the truck off and put the e-brake on then adjust the orange slider to where you want it and put the truck back in park so you can get your key back

 

I made the adjustment. Hopefully that does the trick. The shifter does seem to lock in better. I'll let you know the outcome the next time we drive it.

Thanks for the help.