I own a 2002 Dakota 4x4 quad cab and I've had it at the transmission shop 4 times in the last two weeks. It only has 65000 Km on it. What happens is my engine light turns on and I drive around in 3rd gear. The light will then disappear and everything goes back to normal. The light will then turn back on again and it goes right back to 3rd gear and so and so on. When hooked up to a computer it says it's the pressure switch plate. The transmission guy changed the solanoid assembly and that didn't work. He then replaced that one with another one thinking it was a bad rebuilt. Again that failed as well. He then found a friend who has the same truck as me and took out his ecm (computer) and put it in mine and drove it for a half hour and the light didn't come on. He took it out and put mine back in and the light came back on. He then went and found a ecm from the scrap yard and installed it in my truck. I picked it up and 15 minutes later the engine light turned on and I was riding in 3rd gear again. We thought for sure that we have fixed the problem. I'm getting so discourage. I was talking to a friend and he told me that if the wrong year of computer is put in, then it will cause problems. Is that true? I'm not sure if my mechanic put in a 2002 computer. Any help would be appreciated.

 

I will move this to the 2nd Generation Dakota sub-forum.

 

Your tranny is going into limp mode so you dont damage it anymore. It might be your wiring or he is not replacing the right part. our grand cherokee did the same thing last week I have to change the part this week and hope that it fixes it.

 

could it possibly be the output speed sensor located on the tranny itself? ive read that durangos do the same thing and you can change it youreself

 

The transmission guy has said that the problem is not the tranny but something else. He has tested all the wires from tranny to computer and all were good. He tested the wires cold and hot. Thirty years in the business and he has never ever seen a problem like this. He sent it to the Dodge Dealer. My problem is the dealership has had my truck for four days and they can't find the problem either. Just a quick update of my problem. The engine light comes on and it slips into limp mode. Noted above at my first writeup stats what I've encountered. I know that my transmission guy is good because Dodge sends all of there transmission problems to him. He also states that when the engine light is off, it runs too good to be a tranny problem. The engine light turns on and tells the tranny to go into limp mode. Here is the million dollar question. If the Dodge dealership can't find the problem, who can. Also, is Dodge obligated to fix the problem even though its past the warranty. Can I do something about this if they tell me they can't fix it. What are my rights?