I own a 2004 Chrysler Sebring Sedan with about 53,500 miles on it and just started experiencing very weird shifting. I live in Indiana and we have been experiencing a terrible cold period in the negatives for roughly a week. The start of this cold period is when this problem reared its head. The only thing notable that stands out in my mind that could have stressed my tranny was having to shift from reverse to drive about 5 times to get out of my driveway due to another car limiting my turning range, I braked before shifting each time. Onto the problem, my car shifts into first gear at about 10 mph as per usual, then at 20ish mphit shifts into second gear, shortly after even before it seems 2ndgear has timeto settle in,at about 25mph it quickly shifts into 3rd and the rpms drop to about 1.5 if I am remembering correctly, then the 4th gear will finally kick in at a little over 55 mph with the rpms hitting about 2.5 before that shift occurs. This is definitely abnormal from the regular shift patterns since 3rd usually kicks in somewhere in the 30ish range and 4th will normally kick in at 48 ish. One other thing I noticed is that the radiator fan is running all of the time which I have never noticed before and I can hear it click into high after it come on 30 seconds to 1 minuteafter I start the car. I have a block heater which is always plugged in at night and keeping the engine warm before I start my car, which I assume also helps to keep the tranny fluid at least somewhat warm. I had the fluids check and the oil changed two days ago. Themechanic said they added half a quart of transmission fluid, but I haven't seen anyleaks on my driveway and I've been fairly vigilant for leaks.

I don't drive the car all the time since I am within walking distance of my workplace, so I maybe drive it 20 minutes a day on average, and have only been driving it once a day during this cold weather spell to get the fluids circulated and what not. There are no check engine lights to speak of and no weird noises that would have tipped me off to a problem. I always go easy on the tranny in my normal driving, no quick accelerations, no shifting without coming to a complete stop,or anything that could be construed as abusive.Has anyone heard of this, or does anyone have an idea of what it might be and if the radiator running all the time and the transmission weirdness are interrelated. I greatly appreciate any inputor thoughts you guys can offer me.

 

give me the last 8 of your vin and i will do some online checking at work AKA tsb or tranny updates that sorta thing

 

Thanks for the reply and offer to help but I don't feel comfortable giving out the VIN. If not having that makes it impossible to offer any ideas on what it might bethen that's no problem and I thank you again for the offer.

 

soot yourself I am a 11 year chrysler tech master in several areas. I was asking for the vin because u did not even say if u have a 2.7 engine what kinda tranny u have I mean there are several different engine, tranny combos. U can provate message me if u dont want it out online either your call.

 

Oops I completely left the engine info out, it's the 2.4L. Also the child seat latch coversare oval in my Sebring as opposed to the squared covers in other 04's I've seen, if that indicates whether the car is an earlier model 04? The car is the base LX model with keyless entry.

 

well i dont see any tsb for that issue. Have u serviced the tranny yet?? a flush of filter replacement?

 

I haven't taken it in specifically for either of those. I probably should just quickly run through the service history for this car as that may provide more info to work off of. I should have mentioned that this isn't my first tranny issue with this car, a little over a year ago I did have the hose clamps (I believethat's what it was)tightened to stopsome drops of fluid I was seeing in my driveway. That didn't stop it entirely so they just replaced the hoses which stopped it. Then theselenoid was replaced roughly7 months later in the summer of last year for more drops of fluid I was seeing, again that stopped it. So during both of those procedures I don't know if they would have just topped off the fluid, orwould have flushed it and replaced it, I suppose you'd knowif that would bethe procedure better than I.

I haven't had issues with how the tranny operated mechanicallythough in all the time I've had the car as far as shifting is concerned, just the drops of fluid. I alsotook care of those issuesimmediately and was told that the trans fluidlevel was okwhen I had the leaks on both occasions. For the hose tightening and replacementI had itserviced at the Chrysler dealership that Ibought the car from, then the selenoid replacement was done at another Chrysler
dealership that is closer to me.As I mentioned, I've been vigilante for leaks on my driveway and haven't seen a thing ever since the selenoid replacement andif I noticed just a few tiny drops then, Iwould certainly have seen the cummulative appearance of half a quart worthspilling out on my driveway since then.

I'veput about 13,900 on the car since I bought it and have had my oil changed every 2000 miles at a garage that checks the other fluids as well when they do the oil change.They have never flagged anything in regards to lower than normalfluid levels. Asfar as I know I haven't smelled anything odd, like anything burning or other strange odors as I drive. I alsodo have the cracked resonator dealgoing on, which the dealerservice technician said he had seen on another Sebring as welland I haven't had thatfixed yet, and that problemwas identified when I had the selenoid replaced, so I'm not sure if that's nowinterrelated with this problem as as well. One last thing, I hadto have the battery replaced this past summer,if I remember correctly,that was a little while after the selenoid thing, probably near the end of the summer in August. There were no issues with my transmission acting weird after the new battery was installed.

 

Well it's been a few days and the really cold weather has lifted and things are above freezing again. I decided to not plug in my block heater the other night and see if that has any affect on this problem I'm having. Anyways,it seems like the car is back tonormal in that the radiator fan doesn't immediately turn on and run all the time and the car shifts normally now. I'm notquite sure ifit's the weather getting above freezing that has resolved the problem or if not plugging in my block heater solved it. Perhaps, my block heater wastripping some sensor thatwould trigger the radiator fan and in turn cause weird transmission performance. I've had the occurance where a check engine light came on before becausethe computerthought the car was overheating due to the block heater, I would haveto get new software installed on the car to remedy that, but I figured with -2 degree weather that really wouldn't be an issue, maybe still it had some effect. So I guess I'll just see how things go this week, all seems normal now,*crosses fingers*.