I have a 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan with just over 40,000 miles that seems to be downshifting hard. When I am going at real low speeds and it downshifts it does not do so smotthly. It pretty much only happends when the RPMs are around 1500 and after the downshift they drop to 1000. A typical situation where this may occur is in a parking lot, on a street with speed bumps, or in heavy traffic. Under more normal driving conditions it seems to upshift and downshift fine. Is this an indication that the transmission may not be in the best shape, or is it simply time to do the transmission flush service. Thanks in advance for your comments!

 

If you haven't changed the transmission fluid, start with that. I've recently aquired a 96 and from what I've read on this forum, Caravan transmissions are not very reliable. Having good clean trans fluid should help maximize tranny life. I would at least halve the service interval. I plan to change the fluid on mine yearly, it's actually pretty easy to do.
Also note that once you do change the fluid it may take a few weeks for things to sort out, that's what happened on our van. There's a few other posts on this web site with lots more detailed info on this.

 

I had the same problem with my 03 grand caravan. They had to change a shifting module, I think it was called. Fixed the problem.

 

Also replaced the battery soon after, and it's shifting ok.

 

how much for the darn shifting module?