Starting the engine, none of the instruments in the cluster are working. When going to D, all instruments starts to operate (except speedometer). The gear indicators have squares around all gears (P R N D etc), so I can not from the panel know which gear I am into. Then I start driving and the vehicle is running in 2nd gear only. After 10-30 minutes (varies every day ...), it shifts into normal operation and the gear indicator square is around N only. At that moment, also the speedometer starts to work. At this stage, everything works normal.

I have checked the print board in the instruments cluster and re-soldered a couple of places. Didn't make any improvements.

So, what to do next? ...

 

I can check out several options:
 I can get a spare instrument cluster panel (approx. $200)
 I can open the TCM and check out the printed board and interval wiring
 I can check out the cable harness and look for bad connections …

What I find strange is that this phenomena / trouble repeats every day. Always no action in the panel cluster before I get into reverse or drive mode. And then, always squares on all gear indicators. The only thing that varies day from day, is the time between start driving in limp mode (2nd gear) and when it shifts into normal gear. The duration can vary between 10 to 40 minutes.
I would think that if there were a bad earth or connection, it would result in a normal start some times. So it seems that there is a permanent failure but it gets resolved after some time. Because of heating? .
This is a hard one ….

 

I did the self-diagnostic test on the instrument panel ... no codes were shown in the display ... but when I turn ignition, all the panels started to operate! Wow! Maybe one the transmission issue left, I check out tomorrow. Now its 10.30 pm. Cheers from Norway

 

When the control micros are acting wierd like this, a hard reset is usually indicated. This is performed by disconnecting the battery -ve.for a few minutes and then re-connecting. Of course you may lose your radio code, so have this to hand. One has to do this on many cars when the micro gets "glitched-up", not just Chrysler.
Likely sources of these glitches are alternator and/or starter motor. Glitching is a difficult subject for many, and by 'glitch' I don't mean the usual slang-term for a fault, but the effect of a voltage spike on data stored in a micro's memory, where a bit somewhere is set wrongly.

Leedsman.