[1621]

symptoms:

i'll be putting along, not pushing it at all, then feel a clunk in the driveline and the tranny starts slipping. it slips in every gear starting from first, and also puts me in a sort of limp mode where i can't accelerate past 50. autostick is disabled. if i come to a full stop and start moving, i see the revs going up, and get some go, but not as much as i should be getting - maybe 50%. this is not the classic limp mode with boxes around the P R N D gear indicators on the dash. the gear selected stays D. one time when this happened on the highway i tried shifting into N and then back to D to see if it resets. heard a clunk from somewhere in the driveline, and the slipping / limp mode continued. the only thing that gets rid of it is turning the truck off and restarting.

this started off happening once a month or so, but seems to be getting more frequent. happened twice today.

i have 53k on the tranny, no power adders.

should i do the tranny service first to see if it helps? the manual says 60k for severe duty, so i'm getting close anyway.

 

[Mongoose9400]

That sounds like when my tranny gave out in one of my other cars. I had two tranny failures. First time sounded like what your describing. Second time it just worked great and then nothing. Shut the car down and restarted and it grabbed gear but only for a few seconds. It did that a couple times in a row and then stopped all together.


Sent from my iPhone 4S

 

[1621]

That sounds like when my tranny gave out in one of my other cars. I had two tranny failures. First time sounded like what your describing. Second time it just worked great and then nothing. Shut the car down and restarted and it grabbed gear but only for a few seconds. It did that a couple times in a row and then stopped all together.


Sent from my iPhone 4S

damn, that is not what i wanted to hear

how long did it go on like that until it gave out?

 

[Mongoose9400]

First time was intermittent and lasted maybe a month or so. The second one was all of a sudden and made it another couple of minutes.

Auto trannys have a lot going on. It's hard to put a time on its lifetime. It depends on many factors.

I would say brace yourself for a new or rebuilt tranny.

Maybe you might get lucky and just a loose vacuum line or something? I had a buddy once that a piece of plastic or something got in the tranny and messed it up. But after a fluid change, filter and cleaning it worked great for another 60k miles.


Sent from my iPhone 4S

 

[BuilderBill]

I would have the dealer (or SnapOn tool) pull the codes.
You can NOT get them with the Daiblo software.

I'm betting NOT a transmission failure.

Shoot me the codes when they pull them, I'll help you out.
Bill

 

[Mongoose9400]

Whatcha think is causing the problems Bill?


Sent from my iPhone 4S

 

[Marylandm3]

I would have the dealer (or SnapOn tool) pull the codes.
You can NOT get them with the Daiblo software.

I'm betting NOT a transmission failure.

Shoot me the codes when they pull them, I'll help you out.
Bill

Your the man bill!

 

[BuilderBill]

Your the man bill!

Nice ride Bud!

It would be unusual for a tranny to crap out like that with no mods.
The dealer can tell us exactly when it happened and the associated codes.
We have the tools, why not use them?
Bill

 

[Mongoose9400]

Yes it does sound odd for his situation.

I'm no transmission expert but I had a tranny that gave no signs of anything happening and it just gave out. It was driving great and then bam, slipped out of gear. Restarting the car would allow it to engage in gear, Drive D, but it'd slip after a few seconds out of gear. I was able to restart the car a couple times and drive it a total of maybe 1/8 mile before it wouldn't engage again at all. I think I restarted the car like 3 times to move it.


Sent from my iPhone 4S

 

[1621]

Shoot me the codes when they pull them, I'll help you out.
Bill

thanks bill, will do

 

[Mongoose9400]

Any updates?


Sent from my iPad 3G

 

[1621]

Any updates?

haven't had time to bring it in for diagnostics yet - i'll post the results when i do

 

[1621]

here's what i get for putting this repair off:

today i'm driving on the street and feel the tranny engage limp mode (or whatever it is) again. so i shift into neutral, turn the truck off and restart the motor. a few seconds later, i shift into drive, and give it some gas. usually, at this point everything is back to normal. but this time, i hear a grinding noise for a second, then it's back in limp mode. i stop for a light, and try turning off and restarting again, but again, as soon as i shift into D, i feel it kick forward a little and i'm in limp mode. so this is it, it's in perpetual limp mode. i can't get out of it. furthermore, while the old limp mode allowed me to cruise at 50, now the fastest i can go is ~27mph: my rpms are limited to 3k.

 

[1621]

i thought i'd try cleaning the shifter assembly, just in case it was that simple. followed the instructions in this thread here: http://www.cherokeesrt8.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32822

that didn't seem to help.. guess the problem is elsewhere.

 

[SRT8Girl12]

Hey man, I had this same exact thing happen to me with my first Jeep. It ended up being a bad TCM. When it shifts in limp mode, does it have hard shifting or just slipping? My shifted really hard, almost like it was forcefully slamming itself into gear. I couldn't go over 30 MPH and couldn't go over 3k rpm, just like you said. When mine went, I could restart it, but 5 minutes later it happened again. I did this 3 times until finally it just would not come out of limp mode for good. Hope this helps.

 

[1621]

Hey man, I had this same exact thing happen to me with my first Jeep. It ended up being a bad TCM. When it shifts in limp mode, does it have hard shifting or just slipping? My shifted really hard, almost like it was forcefully slamming itself into gear. I couldn't go over 30 MPH and couldn't go over 3k rpm, just like you said. When mine went, I could restart it, but 5 minutes later it happened again. I did this 3 times until finally it just would not come out of limp mode for good. Hope this helps.

when i first noticed the problem it wasn't shifting hard. in its current state it's not shifting at all, stuck in first gear.

 

[TheBRICK]

Whenever a truck goes into some sort of limp mode, u need to put it in P and turn it completely off. Putting it in N doesn't work. Sounds like your converter isn't locking. Could be bad TCM or a fluid issue. Have any leaks at all?

You can find a small garage that has a Snap On Ethos computer and it'll pull TCM codes. We have one and LOVE IT!! Great tool. It'll also tell u tranny temp so u can check the fluid level if u have a dipstick.

Good luck man. Hope it's just electrical.

 

[SRT8Girl12]

when i first noticed the problem it wasn't shifting hard. in its current state it's not shifting at all, stuck in first gear.

I forgot to add, after the 3 times of restarting, it was stuck in first gear. It would not shift out of first gear after that, at all. Had to have it towed to the dealer.

 

[1621]

Have any leaks at all?

Nah, no leaks.

After speaking with Jimmy over at Westbury and describing the problem, he advised against the long drive out there as it could possibly make things worse. I'm taking it to a local transmission shop for diagnostics tomorrow morning.

 

[SPEEDDEMON]

Sorry to hear this Bro....I hope you get it all worked out .