Hi,
I've been having recurring transmission problems on my 2001 Ram 1500 Quad cab (5.9)(auto). It seems like I don't get first gear from a stop. They motor will rev but the truck just creeps out at about 7 MPH untill I hit 2500-2700 RPMS (with the sound of groaning hydrolics) then seems to take off, or in some cases the motor will wind up and then CLUNK! it drops into first. I took it to the dealer and they took it apart, told me there was nothing wrong with it, and handed me a bill for $400+. BTW, no idiot lights or anything. Then I took it back to have $1500 worth of electrical work done (one day engine light came on, then flashed, then truck died). OK, so I bring up the tranny problem again...$90 bucks and a diag says--no problem. Well today it allmost got me killed..pulled onto RT9 in MA couldn't get going because my truck is in like 3rd gear or something. Ever see a 18-wheeler with his brakes locked up in your rear view because your parked in the lane and he has nowhere to go? By the way I'm standing on the gas at this point maybe doing about 5MPH until in a last ditch effort I manually put it in 1st gear position..CLUNK! into first I go. Not only is this truck a slug (The Silverado the rental place gave me during the repair process would leave piles of smoldering rubber on the ground at 1/3 the throttle of my ram..witch woudn't burnout on a oil slick in a rainstorm). I am about to make this a legal issue because the dealer says ther is no problem.Any ideas?

 

Swap cars w/the service manager for a few days & let him see for himself. Is this problem intermittent? If so approx how long between occurances? Another thought would be to try to re-create the problem before you bring it back, so when you bring it back you can make it fail with them there (may be hard to do).

 

Yeah, I told the guy that ten minutes driving around while manually shifting will send it right into suck-mode. It's back at the dealer right now and I assume if they find the problem it will be expensive and not covered under my "maximum care plan". The problem was intermittent but can easily be replicated through the manual shifting, which it states they do during the $90 diag. It has become a saftey issue at this point. As a telephone tech I see allot of intersections and highways and I need to know that when I hit the gas that I'll move forward, not just limp into traffic.

 

Shouldn't the lemon law cover this?

~Amanda

 

the "lemon law" does not apply to how many times has it acted up or has someone looked at it, it only comes into play after the problem has been verified an repair attempts have been made.

 

No word from the dealer yet...

 

trans govenor transducer--$100....shifts like a king now...still a slug.