Good evening all; I have a '01 Intrepid ES. The car is stuck in 2nd. I have tried to reset as per the manual and no go. I have had it to the dealer and they say it is the shift control module. $389.00 . plus labour. I was looking for a used one at a local wrecking yard but they have no listing. Is the ECU the same thing? And what doI need to look for or ask for when trying to find one? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

I have an 02 ES and am having the same problem. However I can stop, shut the car off and the computer resets. But it does the same thing when I come to the next stop. I can drive the car for several miles when the transmission is cold before it clunks down into 2nd gear. Unless I stop and shut the engine off the trans will stay in second gear. I was told by one of the members who is a certified Chrysler product technician that Ihave a bad valve body because of the code reading P1776. Would be interesting to compare codes. I am waiting for an answer to what years tranny'sare compatable to my 02...98 to 04?? Would the trans have to be hooked up to a 3.5 as mine is. I don't want to go to the wrecking yard an go through all that trouble pulling out a valve body and it is the wrong one...Good luck..Jc

 

Well this is what I have found out so far. The shift controler(that's what the tech at the dealership called it) is called a TCM (per owner's manual). It's also called a PCM( as per Mitchell's) and it's also called an ECU. (as per the wrecker's and NAPA. I'm also told that these contaptions hardly ever expire. Takin' it into a trans shop that I trust, today and start over. I got one from the wreckers. '01 stands alone. No other years will work. If i don't need it I can return it. What a PITA. We'll see what the code is and I'll post it here later.

 

TCM & PCM are NOT the same. The TCM is the transmition control unit, the ECU/PCM is the engine control unit. There is also a BCM (body control unit) for other systems. All these "computers" talk to eachother on a bus, but are seperate. There is more than one cause that can for this type of malfunction. I did a quick search on the internet and found Houndog's P1776 is "Solnoid switch valve stuck in L/R position." The valve could be plugged (do you change your fluid and filter as you should?) or could be bad. As for 0196intrepid's cause, need more info, but I don't think I'd start with the TCM unless I had a good reason to change it. Either get clarification from the mech you brought it to, or go to a good tranny shop. Good luck.

 

I would agree with kurts2 answer. most of the dodge fwd tranny's have 2 solenoids to control shifting if one goes bad the trans will stay in 2 gear

 

This is houndog. I bought my Intrepid with 100k miles and the transmission fluid had never been changed. It wasn't until the tranny started dropping and staying in second that I changed the fluid. It was surprisingly clean looking, no signs of metal shavings, etc. Ireplaced the fluid withsynthetic fluid and changed filter and that didn't help with my "stuck in 2nd" problem. How do I get the valve unstuck?? jc

 

Well this is what happened yesterday. Took the car to local tramsmission shop. They put the scanner thing on it and it came up with Internal shift control. Which is if i understand this right is a solenoid pack or whatever. Quoted 325 bucks. The day before I had told the wreckers to bring in the used ECU from out of town. For a hundred bucks I figured why not. This is, originally, what the dealer said what was wrong. So, since I had it with me I asked if the tranny shop would put it in and flash the system and see if it fixes the problem. 15 minutes later he flashes the system and by cracky my shifting problems are fixed. From what I understand this is a very rare problem as everyone i had talked to, Dealer, two mechanics, wrecking yard and tranny shop they had never had to replace one on an Intrepid. In fact there was only one new one available in all of Canada. The tranny shop only charged me 20 dollars for the scan and instalation. I saved some big time bucks on this one. So this is what I have learned. Get your car scanned at a dealer. I had it scanned at a auto repair shop and the tranny shop and they where both wrong. Don't be afraid to buy from a local trustworthy wrecking yard. And have a competent mechanic install it. The dealer was going to charge me 110.00 labour plus 387.00 for the part. 540.00 with taxes. it cost me 100.00 for the part. 20.00 for labour. Plus I tipped the mechanic 20.00 for taking some of his lunch hour to do the job and explaining to me what he was doing. Great service should be rewarded. The part that was replaced is just behind the washer bottle on top of the left hand inner fender. I appreciate all the replies guys. Now on to the ignition problem with my '96 Intrepid and the lack of 4wd on the '88 Dakota. More electrical stuff.. Great site by the way. Cheers and beers to all.