Dear Click and Clack,
We are the only owners of a 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan ; It has only 60K
miles on it because it just slips out
of gear, kinda locks up, gets hard to
steer- one just prays there’ll be a safe way to stop.
This wicked behaviour started at 20K miles, was under warranty, so the Dealer put in a new tranny; Our navy base closed, I was transferred west, and drove the caravan- when the problem returned. We have put on 40K more miles but haven’t found a mechanic who knows what to do! It got to be Stephen King kinda-weird thing- we’d look at the van and laugh, and say “maybe Carrie’s with us and maybe no!”…NOW WE REALLY WANT TO FIX THIS- the van drops right out of gear without warning, from time to time;
We think there are two little sensors on the sides of the tranni that might
cause this, but mechanics say “no”…
and its gotten more frequent- Any ideas on what’s wrong with this van?
It’s had so little use, and now we really need it to be reliably safe! Help! (Our 3 other cars work great- its just that our kids plan on taking 2 cars to college with them-
neither my husband or I want to drive “Carrie”).
Sorry to hear you are having this problem. We have a van like yours also and they are great to drive (when they run right) I think.
I am not a tranny expert by any means but as a guess to where the trouble is at my thought would be the transmission control module. I would also suspect the shifter area. The trouble may be due a faulty electrical connection somewhere in those areas. We have a very good tranny expert here on the site (along with some others) and he is called Transman. Hopefully he will see your post here and offer some suggestions.
Thanks- I’m making a list for the next mechanic and at least these are ideas that just might be right! I hope I find Transman too.