03 Grand Caravan Tranni questions

Hello Everyone,

I've been battling a small tranni issue with my 03 Grand Caravan ever
since I bought it. I've already had the tranny fluid changed out of
it since purchased and had a TSB (or so my dealer says it was a TSB)
done concerning a 2nd to 1st downshift knock. However, when going
from 1st to 2nd the tranni will 60% to 70% of the time shift hard.

It's a symptom that can happen regardless of how I drive the van,
regardless of the weather temp/conditions or if the van is cold or has
been driven all day. Sometimes the tranni will even seem to have a
hard time engaging into 2nd until I let off the gas (not under hard
accel either).

One of my co-workers says it's the electrical control module for the
tranni that is to blame as he suposedly has a similar problem with his
99 LHS. He says that every once in a while he forces the tranni to
shift at higher RPMs to have the unit relearn to shift at a higher RPM
and less close to 2K RPM and that corrects the problem until the next
time.

My wife also somewhat confirmed the tranni control module theory via
one of her co-workers (who has an 04 GC) who's sister supposedly works
for Dodge. Her friend said she waited until the 04 were out because
Chrysler supposedly took corrected the tranni control module problems
with a module taken from Mercedes. I have no clue if any of this is
true or not, just looking for clarification.

Every time I see my dealer (for oil change or other) I ask him to look
into my tranny problem and he comes back to me saying the tranni codes
(CVI I think?) are all normal and nothing is wrong with the van,
however I just don't accept this because the van can work days at a
time where I can't even tell when it's shifting it's so smooth, but
other times its simply too obvious as my seat gets bucked around.

Would anyone have some insight into all this?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Stefan

 

Do you change drivers? remember these have adaptive controls. I notice the
same thing when my wife has driven it for a while than I do it goes through
some mild fits for a while than settles down. Without feeling what you're
complaining about hard to tell. Could be you're being excessively worried
about nothing because of the early issues (early 90's) with them.
Larry

 

I had the same problem on my 2003. The dealer looked at it twice. and kept
it over night both times. The did a few things with it. It ended up being
the transmission pump. There was a TSB for 2001-02 for this issue. They
replaced the pump, and I never had it shift hard since then (1 1/2 years).

 

I also had the Transmission not go into gear right away also, when it was
cool. I don't know if that is a sympton of yours also.

 

Its not true. Mercedes doesn't build transmission controllers for the
41TE transmission (or anything else in a Chrysler minivan, for that
matter).

 

i have seen very few with tran module issues, more sensors such as the tps
and speedsensors more than anything else but if it;'s a 2003 then it
should be under the powertrain warranty if you did not exceed the miles