Just bought my 07 Dakota it has about 72k on it it runs great and upshifts fine and smooth, but on the 2nd to 1st downshift it bangs really hard sometimes. sometimes it is very smooth on the downshift but others it almost feels like you get rear ended. other times it is not as harsh but you can hear it clunk into gear. I took it too my local Dodge dealer he said there are no codes and all the pressures are fine but the problem is still there. Anybody have any clues.

 

I would start with transmission fluid and filter change. Our transmissions can be picky b!tchs sometimes mine didn't like royal purple transmission fluid and would shift up into 2nd really rough when it was cold but as soon as I had the dealer change the fluid it was fine

 

For fluid, always use ATF+4. If it doesn't say "ATF+4" on the bottle, its not. Don't believe others' claims or other companies' claims that "its just as good as ATF+4." Also don't believe some mechanics that say "We'll add an additive to our regular fluid to turn it into ATF+4." Additives for these transmissions are almost always bad, never use them.

ATF+4 is a true synthetic oil, so don't worry about the whole "convential" vs "synthetic" argument here.

Here is some food for thought and here is a list of approved ATF+4 fluids.

 

The dealer and my mechanic both said the trans fluid was recently changed in the truck because the gasket is new and other evidence. So your thinking is maybe the wrong fluid was used and this is causing this shifting problem.

 

My 05 did that downshifting from5th to 4th had to replace trans shift controll module that is on valvebody cost 1000.00 parts and labor at dealer no problems since