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?