I got my 01 Durango back from the dealer and now it seems to be experienciin an issue that they are having a hard time with. If you have the vehicle in "D" and at a stop at either a stop light or a stop sign and proceed to take off it hesitates as if you are pulling a trailer. However, if you are in the same scenario at a stop light or stop sign and manually shift it from 1st to 2nd to Drive its fine. There is also a hard engagement of what seems to be possibly "Overdrive" when you do the manual shifting to get it going. They have ran every imaginable test and computer test and everything seems fine. This is becoming an issue since it will not take off "normally" in "Drive" since you have to give it quite a good amount of rpms to get it to move forward, but as I said before, if you shift it manually, it is fine. Any thoughts? They have had this thing for off and on 8 days and still no conclusion. I am starting to feel bad for bugging them about it, but at $1800.00, I want it to shift semi perfectly. I just don't understand what gear it is realistically starting out in to give it that "negative" hold back.

 

Did they try adjusting the bands?

 

Have you read Hydras sticky at the beginning of this forum about transmission diagnostics? It may give you some idea what is wrong or at least a place to start.
If they rebuilt the trans. Take it back till they get it right.

 

Sounds like it's not shifting into 1st so its' starting off in 2nd or limp mode (3rd gear).


The dealership screwed it up! Take it back and demand the trans to work like factory!

 

Sounds like limp mode to me too. Does putting it in "2" on the gear shifter make it a little better starting off? if so then it's starting out in 3rd. Also what kind of motor do you have on that the 4.7 or the 5.9, that will tell us what tranny you have.

 

This is where I would normally stop you and say take it back. It does sound like it's in limp mode starting out because even in 2nd gear it will still get off the line, just not as fast as 1st gear due to little bit lower ratio.

Also, it sounds like they may just need to do a band adjustment if they hadn't already. Of course, I wouldn't want to pay them more money on top of what you've already paid them for it not to be the problem.