Hello everyone! I have been having a bit of a strange problem lately with my '05 Sebring sedan. My car has the 2.4L "X-code" engine and automatic trans.


Over the past three weeks or so, I have started and driven my car with no issues until stopping to put gas in. I shut the engine off, put in the gas, go in and pay, get back in my car and find that when I put the key in and start it, all of the transmission shift indicators are lit. It doesn't matter which gear I move the shifter to. They all stay lit. The only way to get back to normal was to move the car away from the gas pumps, shut it off and wait 20 minutes or a bit longer. Then everything would be normal again.


Last night that changed. I got off work, got in my car which had been sitting for eight hours, went to start it and all of the shift positions stayed lit. I shut it off and tried again. All positions stayed lit. I moved the shifter to "R" and backed up. When I moved the shifter to "D" the car would not move. The engine would rev as if it were in Neutral. I tried Reverse again. Nothing. My car would not move. I tried moving the shifter through all positions and when I tried "D" again, suddenly it engaged and at the same time all shift indicator lights went back to normal, showing the trans was in "D".


I needed gas, so I drove to a nearby gas bar and shut off my engine to put gas in. When I started my car all shift positions were lit again. I tried moving the shifter through all positions, I tried stopping and restarting the engine, but could not get it to show the correct position. The strange thing is, this time the car would move with all positions lit. I started driving, but quickly realized that the trans would not upshift beyond second gear. With the shifter in Drive, it would start in 1st, upshift to 2nd and that was it. I pulled over, put it in Park and shut everything off. Then I restarted the engine. This time it showed the correct shifter position. Then the Check Engine light came on. I put the shifter in "D" and pulled on to the road. The trans now upshifted normally. When I got home and shut my car off, I did the "key dance" and it showed code P1603. This is the first time it has shown a code since this problem began. I would certainly appreciate some help with this one. Thanks.

 

There may be some useful information here:

Chrysler Repair: P1603: '06 Sebring: trams OD clutch pressure test

 

Hey thanks for the link dcotter79. I did find a relay that had come loose and it turned out to be the EATX Relay. I thought I had found the problem. However, the dash display showed all positions lit again today. Funny it happened just after I put gas in my car again. This time the car seemed to shift and run okay. I parked my car for about 15 minutes and everything went back to normal. Also, the check engine light has been off for several days and didn't come on today.