2000 Dodge grand Caravan 3.3L 154,000 miles. Unknown history on the transmission prior to me getting it at about 130k or so.

Wife was coming home from work today and it started shuttering and just reving and would not drive for her.

I went to get her and try to get it home. If you shut the car off and the start it and put it in gear you can drive for 100 feet or so and then it just "slips" out and revs. At this point you can put it in neutral and then back in gear and sometimes it will grab again and let you drive another 100' or so before slipping out and reving. When it slips out sometimes it makes some noises unless you put it into neutral while coasting.

I could get the van moving and then when it slipped and wasnt grabbing anymore, just put it in neutral and cost while restarting (or turning the key on and off before the motor completely dies and then it would grab again for a 100' or so. It was like resetting the key would make it work again for a short blip??

once it started slipping and not engaging it would make a "gravely" noise, like something just wasnt meshing or engaging.

Nothing is leaking and nothing smells like burnt transmission fluid. For the short time it grabs, you can punch the throttle and it goes like normal for only a short distance.

Also, a few months back we had a leak around the solenoid pack and had it replaced (unrelated I think as it has been fine for months).

So, is my transmission toast, the torque converter shot, or is there just an electrical problem that is making it slip after a short blip of good grab?

Oh, all gears are the same issue. Once it slips and won't grab without a key reset, it won't grab in any gear, including reverse. A key reset and/or neutral move about 50 times got me enough blips of grab to get it home.

Oh, forgot to mention, there are no codes or check engine lights as far as I can tell.

Also, I am not sure if this is related, but she has been getting worse gas mileage for awhile for some reason?? Several MPG less with the same driving pattern, speeds, etc. It went from 20-21 down to like 17-18 MPG. There did not seem to be any driveability issues with the van, it still ran and drove fine until this.

Now the van is useless until I figure out if it needs a transmission or has another issue.

Thanks

 

Internals are shot. probably planetary member. It'll need to be rebuilt

 

I would agree too, Did the ck engine lite come on too. Because you may have some stored transmission codes.

 

There were no check engine lights.

 

mine is doing the exact same thing as well but im just gonna drop the tranny out and put a junker in it to save money and keep the old 1 to rebuild it for back up these trannys r sh** and dodge knows it if my wife didnt like it so much i would fix it and sell it but she loves it so i gotta fix it and keep it

 

Before you install the used transmission. I would replace the filter.