2004 Town and Country Transmission problem

Ok, long story short, back in January we had our transmission replaced on our 2004 Town and Country. Ever since then, we've had an unreliable van...Working, for the most part, but very flaky. It shifts fine most of the time, but sometimes it is very jerky. Our mechanic finally gave up tried a new solenoid (I think that was the part), and it wasn't much better. Eventually, he replaced the whole transmission again. Still ended up with shifting problems. We then had the computer replaced also, thinking that might be the problem, and things were great for a while, but as of last Saturday, it's been acting up again. It wouldn't shift out of first, and the RPM's cranked up to 5,000+ before my wife let off the gas. My mechanic swears it's not the transmission itself, and I'm tending to believe that. He's had numerous other people look at it, and he's even paid the bill for the dealership to look at it (I guess they have to do it since it deals with the electric). They did find one bad wire, and replaced it. That was probably a month ago, and it's been fine up until recently.

I am brand new here, and have very limited car knowledge, although I'm getting quite an education with this van. My wife is ready to give up on it, but after putting $3,000 into this thing in the last year between the computer and transmission, I'm not ready to let it go. I've heard these engines are good and we could get 250,000 miles out of this thing. If possible, I'd still like to do that.

The main problem we have is that our issues aren't ALWAYS happening, so when the mechanics look at it, if they can't get it to do this, there's nothing they can do.

Currently, the van is sitting with the service engine light on in our garage. I think it came on when it hit 5,000 RPM and didn't shift.

The dealership who did the electric work on it said that they were able to get a lead on which wires to test by the code that is in the computer.

Any ideas at all where to turn to next?

Thanks much in advance for any help you can provide me!

Knowing the code may help.

You can find the manual guide from these link

2004 Chrysler Town And Country Transmission PDF (http://www.ownersguidepdf.com/download-manual-ebook/2004-chrysler-town-and-country-transmission.pdf)

hope this will help you

thanks

i have learned alot about these transmissions in the past. we had a bad ground that caused the transmission to shift hard, a bad vacuum hose caused the same problem, front tires out of alignment caused it to shift hard. a bad PCM caused problems with the transmission. if the alternator and battery are not putting out almost exactly what they are supposed to, they to will cause hard shifting. these minivans are allergic to low voltage, or any voltage issue other than normal. we also had problems when our other minivan had transmission replaced, they did not replace the transmission cooler which allowed metal debris to enter the new transmission. transmission again and cooler were replaced and was fine, except they didnt reflash the PCM/trans computers, causing hard shifting after got warm, had to take it back and was required to software update PCM, then they set the shift points or something, got it back and was better but not new feeling, after 3 tries with the dealer and every time getting better somewhat, we had to replace all the motor/transmission mounts, cause dealer said they all broke when transmission was shifting hard, which they showed me, saying the mounts can cause hard shifting as well. so what did we learn? never to buy one again and sell it! and we did except we bought a newer one thinking maybe the other had high miles and that was the problem. now we have a transmission issue or maybe drive axle issue on the one we have now. without knowing the code yours is putting off, maybe some of things listed in this reply may be worth going over just to make sure.

another thing, we were told that replacing the transmission cooler is a must, and some require it be replaced for warranty reasons when replacing the transmission, being flushing will not remove all debris. so did they replace that? and did they set your shift points correctly? we had to go to a different dealer to get that done cause the other dealer was stupid in that aspect.

Got a response from the dealership who was looking at the codes in the computer...They didn't tell me the code itself, but they said there was a wrong part in the transmission...Something about the gear ratio between 2nd and 3rd gear. Does this make any sense?

where did the transmission come from you had replaced in january? is it from the dealer? transmission shop? jasper? aamco?

who installed it?

codes P0732 is 2nd gear and P0733 is 3rd gear incorrrect ratios.

you should be able to get these codes from your odometer, cycling the key from on/off/on/off/on within 5 seconds. watch the light show and write down any codes from the odometer, paper and pen ready or youll have to redo it. if it says done, you have no codes.

just a note...if it was me, if someone other than the dealer your at now installed this transmission, i would not contact them till you have proof in hand that a wrong part has been installed, you should get a written est. from the dealer now for what is wrong first. ask the dealer for the specific code as well, your paying for it! the paperwork should show that as well. any code will help us help you better! hope to hear back...

where did the transmission come from you had replaced in january? is it from the dealer? transmission shop? jasper? aamco?

who installed it?

codes P0732 is 2nd gear and P0733 is 3rd gear incorrrect ratios.

you should be able to get these codes from your odometer, cycling the key from on/off/on/off/on within 5 seconds. watch the light show and write down any codes from the odometer, paper and pen ready or youll have to redo it. if it says done, you have no codes.

just a note...if it was me, if someone other than the dealer your at now installed this transmission, i would not contact them till you have proof in hand that a wrong part has been installed, you should get a written est. from the dealer now for what is wrong first. ask the dealer for the specific code as well, your paying for it! the paperwork should show that as well. any code will help us help you better! hope to hear back...

Thanks for this response! My mechanic installed the new transmission, and I'm not exactly sure where he got it from. I know he built it himself. I tried your suggestion and came up with these three messages:
P070.0
-------
done

I'm assuming P070.0 is the problem code, and I found this when searching Google:

P0700 : EATX code present.
This code just means that the engine computer has been notified that the transmission computer has detected a problem and set a code. You will need to have the transmission computer checked for codes.

So it sounds like I need to check the TCM code? I don't see a way I can do that myself, but I'm planning on taking the van to a NEW transmission guy on Thursday or Friday. They do free test drives and code reads, and from what I know, they ONLY do transmissions. I'm not going to tell him the history of our van, I just want to see what he comes up with on his own. If it's the fault of the mechanic who installed it in the first place, I'll be going back to him, expecting him to do it again and get it right. So far, he really has been great, and hasn't tried to charge me a dime since we started this mess, although now I'm wondering if we really did need to get a new computer in the van...If it's not his fault, then I think I'll have the new guy fix it right this time. You get to a point where you just want it fixed right. The van only has 110,000 miles, and I've been told those engines go well over 200,000....We've got a lot of life left in it!

Thanks for all the help I've received here! Please let me know if you guys can think of anything else, I do appreciate it!

P0700 - Yes, the TCM has stored a code. You have to have TCM codes read with a specialized scanner. Your average scanner can't read them. A shop or your dealer should have the scanner.

Just thought I'd update this, as we took it to a transmission specialist, and he said it was the input sensors. He changed them out and we haven't had this problem again.

Glad to hear your worries are over. Thanks for posting the fix.