I have a 2000 Stratus 2.5 which went into Limp Mode last Friday night. The check engine light came on and captured 4 codes listed below:
P-700
p-755
p-782
p-784

I have a good deal of car experience, but not with this car. This is my daughers car and is 4 hours away. Many of the past post seem to point to the transmission solenoid so I am looking for as much information as possible. My haynes book does not cover replaceing this solenoid or the speed sensors.

I did have her take the car to Mr. Transmission and he stated he thought it was either the transmission solenoid or a bad connector. He wanted $1200 for the repair. I found the solenoid at AutoZone for about $180. Just looking for some installation help and anything else I can check for.

Thanks

TR

 

holy cow, mr transmission should include ky for that screwing. fixing these transmissions isn't just throw parts at it until its fixed. a scan tool is very advisable for this repair. i posted every code for these transmissions in the caravan section. again without having the proper diagnostic tools it's a total crap shoot. the P codes are really not accurate enough, you need to get a scanner that can read trans codes and data. you could have something as simple as a bad speed sensor to something more serious like an internal failure and anything in between. i always suggest that if you want to putter with todays cars, buy a good quality scanner. i see a lot of snapon scanners on ebay for a decent price (way under $1200) my analogy is: do you own some hand tools? (i'm sure the answer is yes). so why did you buy tools? (so you can fix things). well todays tool is a scanner. it is a huge benefit to quickly and accurately repairing a vehicle. plus there a lot of fun to play with and make your car do stuff. you can even do a data record when driving then download into a computer and graph that data. i love looking at the freeze frame data to see how fast the person was going when the code was set. back when i was a tech, my manager rejected a customer warranty for a trans when i pulled up the data to see when the code set for the trans they were going 120mph.

 

Thanks for the info Shelbydaytona. I have found a laptop solution that will give data with the code, but I doubt I will have this in hand by the time I go to see my daughter. If the problem does turn out to be the transmission solenoid, is this a hard replacement? The Haynes manual shows the connections for the solenoid and speed sensors, but not how the solenoid is removed.

Thanks for your help,

TR

 

i really doubt its the solenoid pack but if it is, your talking about a 30 min job. you need and 8mm socket, 10mm socket, 1" socket. unplug speed sensor above sol pack. 1" socket to remove. 8mm socket for sol pack wire connector. this has a captured bolt so as you unscrew the connector unplugs. 10mm socket for 3 sol pack bolts. these need to be torqued to 105 inlbs

 

The solenoid was really easy to remove, and in my case was only the gasket (was really hard to get), so I was thankful there. First things first is to check the fluid level, a low level will trip the limp mode too. If it's not a hard coded error, it will try to run in normal mode after being left off for a few minutes and go limp again if the fault condition is still there.

The solenoid isn't a common fail point, but the gasket is, and in most cases the whole assembly is replaced (new ones come with the gasket, go figure). Hopefully nothing major internally is wrong. Good Luck

 

I would like to thank everyone for their responses. I did make the 6 hour round trip today to attempt the solenoid replacment, and everything went well. I did pick up a Actron Code and Data Scanner. It does not have all of the extened codes, but does capture data. The tip to take a 1" socket for the speed sensor was a great tip. That saved me a trip to the store as My larger sockets were not in my smaller tool box. It would have been nice to have a 3/8 10mm swivel, but my 1/4" got the job done.

The code reader found a Solenoid B fault. After pulling the solenoid pack I found a tear in the gasket. There was no debris in the trans fluid and the new pack and gasket went on easy. After putting everything back together I cleared all the codes and test drove the car for 5 miles with no new codes. I let the car cool down and drove it again for another 5 miles in town (lots of shifting) and all was well. I hope this sticks!

Thanks for the help,

TR