Sorry to hear about your tranny.

Consider the possibility the excessive heat from a failing tranny contributed to the poor performance of the old radiator.

Make sure the rebuilders use ATF +4 only!! They will not want to, and tell you their universal fluid with an additive is just as good, if not better.

Do not believe them.

 

If necessary buy the the fluid yourself and take it to them and watch them add it to the transmission.

The rebuild shop that did mine put the proper fluid in which is rare. On another van at the place I work the shop used Dexron fluid with the so called magical bottle of additives that supposed to change Dexron to ATF+4. 14 months later we had issues with it on the torque converter clutch chattering.

 

Thanks everyone for your help. I need one last bit of assistance. How do I know exactly what tranny I have on this van? Also, what vehicles would have the same one? I think I have the 518 based on this number that I got off the tranny (P52854064AB) and a bit of research. Is there something else I can find on the tranny that is more definitive? So far I've determined that at least 2001-2003 Vans with the 518 would have the same tranny.

 

Give your local Dodge Dealer the VIN and they will print out the build sheet and that will tell you which tranny you have.

 

OK well here's the latest. I took my van to the local tranny place and they pulled the tranny and took it apart. They called me the next day to tell me that while the tranny wasn't in pefect shape that it could go a while before needing a rebuild. I went ahead and had them do the rebuild because I was getting it done for $1400. However what that meant was that the problem I am experiencing isn't the transmission after all (that was my first thought). Once they were done with the van I had the guy test drive it with me so he could see what I was talking about. The consensus is that for some reason the engine is lacking power once it gets warmed up. Anyone have any idea what could be causing my problem?

 

Run a compression test and post the results.

 

I'll see what I can do. I honestly won't be able to afford to have that done for a while... Over the course of the day the van seemed to drive better, more periods of driving like it should have than not. That's the most perplexing thing is that while driving there are times when it drives absolutely perfectly. I'm going to test it out some more tomorrow to see if I can pinpoint anything. So far all I know is that first thing in the morning it drives just fine until reaching operating temp then after that it's hit an miss.

I also wanted to throw this out there. Is it possible that the computer made some adjustments to compensate for the faulty transmission and now needs to go through a relearn period with the rebuild unit?

 

Shesh, do I always have to come and bail everyone out?

Why in two pages of posts has no one suggested a bad PCM CTS?

 

Any idea how I can test that? Also, what would cause the PCM to go bad?

 

He wasn't inferring your PCM has gone bad but indicating the Coolant Temp Sensor for the PCM might be bad. There are 2 CTS's one(with 1 wire) is for the dashboard gauge, and one(2 wire) is for the PCM.

Back in post 7, I mentioned that air still in the block might have caused a faulty reading by the CTS. Perhaps that was enough to send yours to the insane asylum.

But to answer your question as to what makes a PCM fail, according to Cardone, a reputable remanufacturer of them, failures are caused by resistance within sensors being far out of whack, or shorts within Solenoids.

I had one fail because a wire for the tranny had chafed through it's insulation and was grounding out.