2003 Dodge Caravan

ASNNBRG

MEMBER
2003 DODGE CARAVAN
6 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
98,000 MILES

My husband had an accident recently in which the radiator was cracked and significant front-end damage was accrued. The vehicle was in the(very reputable) repair shop for several weeks, and we were able to get it back a bit under 2 weeks ago. It drove fine for about a week, then suddenly -- with no warning signs -- the transmission appeared to go out. It was in drive and barely moving. The check engine light came on. I was able to drive the very short distance back to my house, but once I got into the driveway, we were unable to get it to move at all. My husband checked the transmission fluid levels, which seemed fine. According to the receipt, the fluid was changed while it was in the shop. Is it logical to connect the accident and repair to this new problem?

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,763 POSTS

The transmission will have to be diagnosed before you can lay blame. When slippage occurs in any of the clutch packs, the computer detects it and defaults it to second gear. It will appear to have low power or struggle to get going from a stop sign, and the engine will be going way too fast and make too much noise on the highway. Clutch plate wear is common but due to the nature of the system, problems show up suddenly.

On older cars, as the clutch plates wore out over thousands of miles, the shifts gradually got sluggish. With your computer-controlled system, the computer adjusts the shift timing to maintain the appearance of a solid shift until the day comes when it can no longer update enough. That's when problems like you're describing suddenly appear.

It is common for body shops to change the transmission fluid because of all the sanding dust in the shop environment. My gut feeling is this is just a normal problem due to mileage, but you have to know what is wrong before you can determine a cause.

Caradiodoc