I was on my way to work last week at around 6 am and had a shifting problem with my truck. It was rainy and cold outside, and I had noticed on several mornings since the weather has turned cold that the truck revs high, and doesn't want to shift when I first start driving it. As I was driving last Wednesday, it did the same thing, but after a mile or so down the road, the truck died and the "engine symbol" and "oil symbol" dummy lights stayed on on the dash. I had to let the truck roll back down the hill and off to the side of the road. It would not even attempt to crank again. A couple hours later, I was able to start the truck right up, and after putting a scan tool on the diagnostic port, found the fault code P0700 showing. It was something about an error to the PCM from the transaxle. Took my truck to the shop and it was diagnosed that the transmission pump was failing. Apparently, with the automatic transmission on this truck with the 4.7L, the valve body is made into the transmission pump allowing it to be a fully electronic transmission. The mechanic said that they had had this problem with several vehicles including the Jeep Liberty and our trucks! The transmission had to be dropped and the pump replaced, the tranny flushed, and filled with new fluid and both filters replaced. The total bill with labor and parts was $1750.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I almost lost my lunch that day. Two weeks before Christmas too!!! Thanks Dodge.
Pump was around $375 by itself and fluid was $8/quart and the tranny holds about 12 quarts!!
Has anyone else had this problem with theirs???

 

That sucks man...every time I hear one of these stories I'm glad I bought a stick.

 

Did you truck ever shift kinda hard when it was cold?

 

I bought the truck cause I thought I found a good deal. We needed a four door vehicle, and my fiancee can't drive stick and wasn't really interested in learning! This is the first automatic transmission vehicle I have owned in about 8 years. I had a 05 Jeep Rubicon before this truck, and I wish I could have kept it AND got another vehicle.
The transmission didn't really shift hard, but you could definitely tell that on cold mornings that it wasn't operating properly. I would have to give it some gas, then let off, until it finally shifted. It was DEFINITELY noticeable. With these transmissions, they can test them while still in the vehicle and tell you whats wrong without having to drop the tranny. Of course, that also means they are expensive as sh** to work on, apparently. What a crock!!

 

Does anybody know the TSB associated with this?

 

You can check any and all TSB's for any vehicle model and year (along with recalls, etc) on this link. There's a ton of them for Dakotas. :/

http://www.aboutautomobile.com/TSB