2009 Town & Country Touring Transmission slipping and slamming into gear?
 

Hey folks,

I have a 2009 T&C Touring with 30,000 miles. My wife and I bought it about 20 months ago and around 20,000 miles or so the transmission just starting shifting very erratic in the sense that under light acceleration it will sometimes take more than a second to shift and when it does finally slip into gear the van jerks forward a bit. At time the shifts are very abrupt which I would say is much different than "firm" in that it seems to "slam" into gear. There are times after backing out of the driveway and shifting from reverse to drive it pauses for a good 1-2 seconds before slamming into drive and shaking the whole van.

I have had the van into the dealer three times now and each time I get the standard "we can't find anything" and of course the last time I went and took a tech for a drive the van decided not to act up in the 5-10 minutes we were driving around. Tech said the fluid was fine and there are now computer updates for the tranny but he did mention that this particular tranny is a bit "lazy" and hunts quite a bit but I told him that is fine but what isn't is the fact that when it shifts it jerks the whole van with a big "clunk" of the tranny to the point where we are waiting for the tranny to just drop out of the bottom of the vehicle.

Fortunately we have the lifetime powertrain warranty but the tranny should have to totally fail before something is done to address the issue. I have been poking around and seeing a lot of other folks with tranny issues in these vans that the dealers and Chrysler are either ignoring or claiming "we can't find anything wrong".

Anyone else have similar issues and what have been your results with working with the dealer and have you been able to actually get the tranny rebuilt/replaced?

Thanks in advance...

Go to another dealer. They know these have had problems. If they say they don't, then they have been living under a rock. I know exactly what you're experiencing. Now, I will say this about the pause...depending on temperature, you may experience a 1-2 second pause when going into D or R. The slam is not normal...lol. Typically i've seen it slam when shifting to 2nd and 3rd. 2nd is usually the hardest shift.

I will definitely be trying another local dealer this coming week. I would hope the slam isn't "normal" :D. I sat in the driveway yesterday going from reverse top drive and back a bunch of times, not really fast, would put it in drive for a few seconds, the switch to reverse 4-5 seconds later, then back 4-5 seconds later, and every 3rd or 4th time switching to drive it would slam into gear and jerk the whole van with a big "clunk".

2000 Town and Country
 

I have what I refer to as balking, trying to get out of 1st, and lurching when it finally does. If the AC is on, forget about it... I'm not going anywhere. I don't have any codes, and the trans was ruled out by my mechanic. I've got 150,000 on the vehicle. Do you think it is the computer?

Yours is a 2000. This thread was for a 2009. Totally different animal. Start a new thread for your van.