2000 Dodge Durango Transmission

Driving today on the highway at 65mph. Car

pulls in front of me so I take my foot off of the gas. Car jerks & drops into lower gear with 3,000 plus rpm. Car now jerks when changing gears. Found it odd that there were no signs of any problems. Car ran great then instantaneously this happened. I assume it’s the transmission. Any other thoughts or advice??

Stuff like that can also just come from some part of the trans management systems. I don’t know any specifics about your transmission but often the trans computer relies on signals from other systems - e.g. like the throttle position sensor. It sounds possible that the trans computer may have lost a signal from something.

Is the check engine light on? If so many national chain-type auto parts stores will read them for free - have them read and post them (format: P0123).

If there is no engine light, I personally would find it worthwhile to take it to a local, independent transmission shop (i.e. stay out of the national chains) to have it scanned. There are codes (transmission among them) that may be present that the normal readers don’t get.

Did you check the trans fluid?

Has the transmission been serviced every 30K miles?

Thanks for the reply. Yes transmission has been serviced every 30,000. Fluid checked out ok. The engine sensor did come on. I did not know that you could get codes read for free. That will be my next step. Forgot to mention that I have 175,000 miles on it, but I have never had any type of trans issue.

The engine codes likely hold the solution to your problem. Don’t let anyone read them and then sell you a part though. Codes don’t specify bad parts. 1) get codes; 2) use codes to diagnose problem; 3) then replace parts if necessary.