My wife's 2002 stratus started shifting hard at about 38,000 miles. I noticed a small leak from the gasket, tightened the loose bolts, toppped of the fluid and was well. Then at 42,000 it started shifting hard again. I went to replace the filter and fluid and found something that bothers me. While cleaning the magnet in the bottom of the pan I found an E-clip. It's about 1/4" in diameter, and there were no signs of it coming off anything visible with the pan off so I replaced the filter, gasket, fluid with ATF+4 and took out for a test run. Now the tranny seems fine other than while down shifting between third and second. Only those gears and only while downshifting. I'm completely stumped.

 

1. Isn't the car still under warrantee?

2. Look on-line for an exploded view of your transmission and see if you can identify the clip.

3. Take the clip to a transmission repair place and ask them. Tell them it's a friend's car and they're out of town or something.