Against my better judgement, we purchased a new 2011 caravan RT last fall. My wife drives it most but when I'm in it, I notice that after firing it up and moving to "drive" it clunks very severely and even jars the whole vehicle forward a bit. I did this 5-6 times after turning the van on and shifting back and forth from neutral to drive.

Is this possibly "normal" operation when the van is not warmed up? After about 2min idling it shifted smooth once the rpms were lower.

I'm hoping this is just unrefined operation from Dodge rather than an actual problem which will get worse and eventually fail. Haven't asked the dealer yet but expect I'll get the usual run-around (no codes etc).

Other than that, I love the van! I hope Dodge doesn't disappoint as I feared they may.

Bob

 

This is a common happening with the vans. It is not normal, but service managers will tell you it is as there is no fix for it. It seems to be software related but dodge seems to not care and leave it as is. I would definatley take it in this way it gets recorded that you are having issues. In case in the future your transmission blows you have a case. Take it in, gets documented and keep driving.

 

I never start any of my vehicles and take off immediatley, especially if they're cold. I allways start and wait till rpm's comes down below 1000 before I drop it in gear. Even on the coldest days this is probably a minute or less and give the oil a chance to circulate a bitt before you put load on it.

 

There was a TSB to re-torque the front motor mount and I would also re-torque the drive axle nuts too, 160 foot pounds.