I have a 1998 Town & Country. My wife hates it, wants me to junk it, so of course I MUST keep it running. It's brown. The kids call it the "Turd & Country"

Said kid took it on a long trip, 2000K miles. When he returned it to me it didn't want to engage gears when cold (thanks kid). Start it up, put it in drive, nothing. Warm it up for several minutes, put it in drive, eventually it will engage and limp away, slipping out of gear, then re-engaging. Drive a 1/2 mile and it gets better (fewer slips, engages sooner). Drive 1-2 miles and then it seems fine. Engages gear from dead stop. Almost no problems once warmed up.

I was thinking about getting a used train out of a junker, but as I shopped the junk yards for Town and Country and Dodge Caravans, and I noticed all of them were missing their Shift Solenoids. Led me to think this must be a common failure. What does a bad shift solenoid act like?

Does the symptoms described above sound like a solenoid? There is a check engine light on now. I intend to get it checked, but I half expect to hear I need a train rebuild no matter what that check engine light reports.

Any thoughts?

 

TRANI not train. apologies for the autocorrect.

 

see what the codes are first low fluid?? dirty when was last time changed filter?