wondered if someone could help with my 2012 transmission
 

First they tell me I have a powertrain warranty then when they looked again they tell me my 2012 Chrysler 200 is actually Nov 15th 2011, so they were pleased to help.

The problem is my transmission keeps going into limp mode. It also sometimes stalls the car when coming to a stop. It is also very unresponsive and jerky when trying to pull away. It is worse when cold. It occasionally throws an unrecognized engine code. Been getting by using manual shift.


Most upsetting thing is I have had the problem for 2 months and was slow to go to garage thinking I had time (2012+5=2017)

I guess I am not a fan anymore. Over designed usually means fix and repair daily..

Someone said replace the Automatic Transmission Solenoid body and electronics whatever that means. is there any way of being sure first before I swap out everything in the transmission?

Transmissions are controlled by computers nowadays. If the transmission goes in to limp mode it's because the computer has detected something is wrong and put it in to limp mode to protect the transmission from further damage and to allow you to drive carefully to an appropriate service facility.

The FIRST thing to do is to get an appropriate code reading device (computer) hooked up to the car to find all the fault codes stored in the computer(s) of the car. Armed with that information, you can decide what the appropriate repair action should be. Throwing parts at the car in the hope that it might fix the problem is a waste of time and money.

The terms of your warranty should be explained fully in the literature that came with the car.

What are all possible causes for why the clutch? does not fully disengage the transmission when coming to a stop?

I am seriously wondering if is a poor electrical connection problem.


Yesterday I had to change a head light bulb. It took my son and I, 5 hours. We had to remove the whole front panel, removing push in plastic bolts and screw in the wheel arch and at the bottom under the engine. We were then able to remove the headlight assembly after removing all the connectors.

Looking inside we found a 2 cent burned connector which clips on to the light bulb. The contact was not "springy" enough to give a good mating connection to the bulb prong. Really in this day and age we still cant get this right, absurd? I cleaned both connections and inserted some copper foil to force a better connection. Put the connector back together and the plastic retainer broke on one side. Trying to get the whole thing back in the light assembly the wire yanked the cheap connector pins out of the 6 way socket. No way of fixing this I had to resort to soldering bypass wires and going through a hole already in the light assembly. (6 work hours now at this point, you wouldnt believe the inventive cussing I came up with for the designers). tested the head light and it worked. Also the LED strip started worked again now also after moving all of the connectors during all this work. I couldnt find out what the pinout was for all the connectors online. Anyway I figured out where to splice into the 6 way connector harness. Then I spent another two hours putting the front panel back on. So our Saturday was almost gone after 8 hours changing a light bulb which wasn't even faulty. I also noticed that someone had put the main 12V battery just in front of the wheel arch which means 5 hours to change a battery. I will let you decide whether all this is a good idea. The other main point is that all these connectors are terribly unreliable. A much better solution is needed (ie SOLDER!) They seem to put a connector everywhere it is possible, and they are rubbish.

Ahem.. where is the edit button for editing posts!?

Invest in a Haynes manual for your car. Armed with knowledge as to how to fix minor items you will find the repair process is not nearly as bad as you think.

An automatic transmission receives power from the engine through a torque converter, not a clutch. It does not disengage when the vehicle comes to a stop. This basic technology has been around for the last 65 years or so.

I bought the manuals for my first two cars. They were never really used because only major things went wrong and I am only good for the lesser repairs to be honest.

I always drove manual, never cared for automatic and the first one I get doesn't work well.
Anyway back to my question, does said TC need a good high current (Amps) electrical connection from the battery to work properly? Or does it work mechanically from engine power? TIA

Imagine two fans facing each other in an oil bath. Power is applied to one fan and it is turned by the power (engine). As it rotates, it blows the oil toward the other fan, which then begins to turn like a windmill. Very simply, that's how the torque converter works to transmit power from the engine to the transmission. It's always engaged, even when the transmission is in neutral or park. The torque converter isn't electrical, although there may be some sensors on it that feed info to the transmission computer. The actual shifting of the transmission is controlled by the computer which opens hydraulic lines via solenoids to shift gears. If the computer senses something wrong, it will record a fault and put the transmission into limp mode. Limp mode is basically like leaving it in second gear to allow the car to be driven to the shop. If it has gone into limp mode then there should definitely be a fault code in the computer telling why that happened. Getting to that fault code is the first step in determining what to do to fix the problem.

Half the value in a shop manual is learning what the repair process involves so you can deal intelligently with the shop, especially on the major items.

Well I have not had a problem since I disturbed the wiring by dismantling the whole front of the car. I am wondering if it may be related to the electrical interface to the transmission solenoids. Is it possible to see the connector(s) and wiring without having to strip the front off again?

Well I can confirm the problem still exists. The car engine stalled as I came up to a stop sign. It is worse when cold. The only other possibility is that these problems started at 73000 miles when I had my transmission fluid changed. Could they have put the wrong fluid in there, are there more than one type? Is there a fluid for transmissions that are weak in this way?

Yes, there is more than one type of fluid and in fact, transmissions are designed around the fluid. Your owners manual will state the proper type of fluid to use. Anything else is the wrong fluid. If ATF 3 is called for, ATF 4 is not "better".

It's not likely that taking off the front bumper cover disturbed the wiring for the transmission, but from this distance there's no way to know that for an absolute certainty. I have said it before and will say it again, diagnosing transmission problems requires connecting a capable code reader to get all the error codes that are stored in the computer. That's where you must start if you want to fix the problem. Any other approach is just flailing around in the dark, hoping to blunder on the correct solution by blind luck.

ok so I am hearing that people are having trouble with transmissions when they change the transmission fluid? oil?. In fact the transmission guy said once a car has done about 120K he will not change the fluid for this very reason.

So my question is will Chrysler ever do a recall for situations like this where someone follows THEIR maintenance instructions and changes the oil and then their transmission doesn't work properly anymore?
It is a ridiculous situation and it appears to have gone on for many many years already.
If I drive it manually for 20000 miles or so until the fluid is "burnt in" will the problem get better and maybe go away?
What are other people doing to fix the situation right away when they have trouble after a fluid change?

Missing from your question is an assertion that, in fact, the proper fluid was used in your transmission. If your "transmission guy" is experiencing problems with his customers, is it because he is trying to save a few bucks by using some cheap substitute fluid?

With virtually no evidence, you are asserting the existence of a problem with Chrysler transmissions. Can you state the basis of your accusation other than some unidentified "transmission guy"? I have owned and driven Chrysler products with automatic transmissions for almost 30 years going hundreds of thousands of miles without problems that I could possibly attribute to transmission fluid changes.

Have you ever bothered to get the fault codes read as was suggested? We can all sit around and express opinions about what is wrong with the car but until somebody does the proper diagnosis to get the actual facts, the opinions are basically worthless.

And no, automatic transmissions don't usually fix themselves.

Well I don't know why my code reader couldn't read all transmission the codes when the dreaded light comes on, as an electronics designer I know this at least should not be difficult. Anyway I would display the ones it is able to read right here but for some reason the engine light is no longer on. So I suspect there is no longer a code. Perhaps the transmission went into a "learn mode" and then cancelled it itself, who knows, perhaps no one. Also I don't understand why the engine light isn't coming on each time I have a transmission problem and not once every two or three weeks. who knows again. It is just a total random chaos situation.

I cant explain why someone, a chief designer at Chrysler doesn't sit down and do a design properly so that the owner is left in no doubt what is going on with their car. They put in a nice (pointless) LCD display for radio and USB songs, why not do something useful like put the code reader with every known piece of diagnosis and car status information on there instead? Instead we get the dreaded engine light and then we have to hunt down a code reader to get an obsure 4 digit code, what is this 1986 or maybe 1976 more like? I am guessing because they have no idea how to diagnose it either and don't want to be held responsible for anything, either loss of money or injury. It seems to be all guesswork. And yes we did read one of the codes that was readable early on with this problem and looked online, but there was no information to tell us what it meant, it just said transmission error or similar.

For example my wife's '08 town and country after an emissions failure was diagnosed as a complete cylinder rebore and engine rebuild by her local garage costing $2100 or more. took it to two other places and they spent $700 swapping out every sensor possible, they were just guessing. no good still couldn't get it through inspection after three months trying this thing and that thing then driving it around to give it time to learn. Finally we took it to yet another guy who charged us $350 to seal the inlet manifold properly and no more engine light and inspection pass. So I have no faith anymore, its all chaos situation because the system is now too complex. The only reason I bought the 200 was because it had a comfy seat, I would have been happy with a simple 3 cylinder 1L 60mpg car if it had the comfy seat.. I cant remember the name of the car (Metro maybe), but they used to make them (3 cylinder 1.0L 60mpg) 20 years ago, they were so simple that there was nothing to go wrong. Now every time I adjust the environmental controls (I just checked its the internal and external air button) on this Chrylser 200 I hear a loud clicking sound for 30 seconds from one of the air vents motors? which perhaps for some reason is no longer aligned properly. Who knows. That's the loss of a weekend right there taking the whole dash apart and will probably do more harm than good. And the car is just 4 years old, not 1996... My cobalt did this as well, give them another 10 years they will figure it out. Or perhaps its one of the air bags but it does seem to coincide with me changing the environmental controls.. Its all just chaos.. And they think that they are gonna send people to mars lol...

ok same thing again this morning when cold. I am coming to a red light and I am in 3rd gear, I see it try to get to first gear and the "1" comes up momentarily and then gives up returns to "3" third again and then the engine stalls as I come to a halt. And yet it doesn't seem to have a problem when I drive with manual gear change although it is sometimes slow finding second. Someone must be able to say what is wrong (or top two or three guesses) from this right?

Spoke to main Chrysler dealership and he says it sound like solenoids.
Spoke to another transmission shop he suggests weak alternator.
Both want $120 an hour to diagnose with no guarantees they will find the right cause.

Me? I remember when I used to have a life, I am now a slave to my car both time and money..

Thanks dcotter, I will study this when I get a moment. Hopefully it offers a real solution and not just say you have a problem. So this would now be a 3rd diagnosis for the same problem.
OK I read it. First thought crazy overdesign. Would the transmission shop not be aware of this and do this also,or is it just the main Chrysler dealer who can do this? When I called the main Chrysler dealer he apparently didn't know about this bulletin.

So this 30secs clicking sound which is associated with the internal external air button seems to be going off every hour all night long.
I came into the garage last night and it was ticking away again for 30 seconds. Like I said total chaos due to over design.


Re-flashing didn't help for this guy:

"My car stopped 5 times while driving, two in the middle of a intersection making a left turn and two on the freeway in the thick traffic and one at a stop sign. When I started taking Lemon Law language they gave me a new transmission. They re-flashed the trans module first time, second time replaced module and fourth time they replaced transmission. I will say, they were good about giving me a rental each time I brought my car in. I do not feel safe in this car. I just got a recall two weeks ago on the transmission and I took it in and they told me they do not have a way to fix it until Chrysler sends them the product to repair the transmission with. So I'm just left to wonder if my car will stall again on the freeway or intersection before they call me to have fixed. GPS has been faulty, they refreshed that. It works ok, I use Waze, its way better than my Chrysler 200 GPS. I will be selling this. If this was my wife's car and I had young kids, I would have gotten very ugly about this. Extremely dissatisfied."

http://www.carcomplaints.com/Chrysle..._failure.shtml