1994 Dodge Caravan 3.8L - hitches low rpm, then no overdrive
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06-12-2011, 12:27 PM
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1994 Dodge Caravan 3.8L - hitches low rpm, then no overdrive
Hey guys. I am a regular contributor to the Ford Probe forums, but this is my wife's van.
Love the van. It has 180k miles but was owned previously by a mechanic so it runs like a top, normally....
Right now intermittently when taking off from a start at around 5-10 mph there is kind of a hitch in the rpms/momentum of the vehicle. The MPG gauge will drop to zero (even though we are still accelerating), then kinda go a bit wild up and down like zero to 30 mph and then eventually settle back to accurate speed within about 3 or 4 seconds. When this happens it will not shift into overdrive. We get up to about 50 mph at 4k rpm roughly. Each time this has happened, I have pulled over, turned off the a/c and ignition, pulled out key, and after a couple seconds started the vehicle again. After we restart vehicle, the problem is gone again. We have noted no error lights when this happens.
Seems very strange. I was originally thinking transmission or ECU, but after reading some on the board here and using a bit of google foo, I have been seeing a lot of talk about the TCM and EATX and solenoids??
Any ideas would be helpful. The odometer is not digital so cant get the codes from turning key to accessory 3x.
I am willing to take it into a shop but wanted some more knowledge first, so they don't just tell me I need a new transmission when it could be something much less.
Not sure if it matters but it is the 10 year anniversary model.
Love the van. It has 180k miles but was owned previously by a mechanic so it runs like a top, normally....
Right now intermittently when taking off from a start at around 5-10 mph there is kind of a hitch in the rpms/momentum of the vehicle. The MPG gauge will drop to zero (even though we are still accelerating), then kinda go a bit wild up and down like zero to 30 mph and then eventually settle back to accurate speed within about 3 or 4 seconds. When this happens it will not shift into overdrive. We get up to about 50 mph at 4k rpm roughly. Each time this has happened, I have pulled over, turned off the a/c and ignition, pulled out key, and after a couple seconds started the vehicle again. After we restart vehicle, the problem is gone again. We have noted no error lights when this happens.
Seems very strange. I was originally thinking transmission or ECU, but after reading some on the board here and using a bit of google foo, I have been seeing a lot of talk about the TCM and EATX and solenoids??
Any ideas would be helpful. The odometer is not digital so cant get the codes from turning key to accessory 3x.
I am willing to take it into a shop but wanted some more knowledge first, so they don't just tell me I need a new transmission when it could be something much less.
Not sure if it matters but it is the 10 year anniversary model.
Last edited by CaravanSnowdog; 06-12-2011 at 12:34 PM. Reason: no error lights
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06-12-2011, 10:01 PM
Join Date: Apr 2007
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Welcome to DF
In 1994 the TCM and PCM did not share the ck engine lite, like the 1996 and newer. If there was a transmission problem, there was a scanner to hook up on the TCM connector. This was how to pull codes out of the transmission module. What you can do is replace the input and output sensors for now and see how it shifts or take it to a shop that has the scanner to check the transmission.
In 1994 the TCM and PCM did not share the ck engine lite, like the 1996 and newer. If there was a transmission problem, there was a scanner to hook up on the TCM connector. This was how to pull codes out of the transmission module. What you can do is replace the input and output sensors for now and see how it shifts or take it to a shop that has the scanner to check the transmission.
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