99 Gr Voy - Intermittent Transmission problems - 6 codes.

I bought a 99 Grand Voyager 3.8 in June of '05. It had about 65k on it
at the time (has about 75k now). About 2 months after I bought it, we
started having some problems with it.

My wife said that it would not shift into gear after starting it for a
few minutes, but that problem only happened once or twice then went
away. It would also occassionally "shudder to a stop as if it were
having trouble going from second to first gear. The problem would kind
of come and go (check engine light came on). Ar ound that time I took
it in for an oil change and was told that the transmission fluid was
dark and should be changed.

I was slightly out of the 60 day warranty, but the dealer agreed to
service the transmission (flush and whatever else that entails). They
also reset the check engine light.

A month or so later started having mote of the same issues. The one
night we went into limp mode on the way home. Took it back to the
dealer and they came up with six codes but could not replicate the
issue and it was fine in their test drive. At the end of December,
once again went into limp mode, but the next day the check engine light
was off and it ran fine. Yesterday two more occurences of the limp
mode.

So here are the codes (I think these were codes from a few months):

P1784 LR Press.SW.Circuit
P0750 LR Solenoid Circuit
P0731 Gear Ratio Error in 1st
P1790 Fault after Shift
P0740 Torque Conv. Clutch Control
P1775 Sol.SW.Value latched in TCC position

They also noted that they checked the fluid level/condition, wiring to
solenoid pack and speed sensors.

The dealer said that he would start with a solenoid pack but he was not
sure that it would fix it. His advice was to drive it and bring it in
when an issue occurred, but I drive my car to work and the van issues
happen after hours. They quoted it as a $274+tax fix.

Should get another opinion or should I just get the pack replaced and
hope for the best? Does that sound like the right diagnosis?

 

Sounds like a shot-gun approach to me.

In all fairness to the Dealer, intermittent problems are the worst to
try and fix.

Since it is a dealer, why not schedule the service, but state that you
need a loaner car? Then they can keep your van for a week, and drive
it around to see if they can reproduce the problem?

Short of that, you might want to find a good transmission shop.

hth

 

Here is my $0.02

You have no more than a 20% chance that replacing the solenoid pack
will
magically fix everything. I wouldn't rule it out but I think it's
unlikely. Perhaps
in the beginning it might have been a bad solenoid pack, but what
concerns
me is the report that the transmission fluid was dark and needed to be
changed.
This isn't normal, I suspect this transmission has been acting up for
years, and
the previous owners simply ignored it, and during the meantime the
transmission
has been slowly getting more and more destroyed by the bad whatever it
is.
It might have been that the seller pulled a stunt like pouring in Dr.
Transmission
goop into the transmission fluid right before trading it in to the
dealer, so that it would
work OK long enough to get the sale completed.

The big problem with replacing the solenoid pack is that if it doesen't
work, then
the only alternative is a complete teardown and rebuild, and a rebuild
isn't going
to be warrantied unless you put in a virgin rebuilt or new selonoid
pack on it. So
you are in the situation where you just dumped nearly $300 into a part
that now
has to be tossed out and replaced, simply because there is a chance
that some
crap got flushed into it when it was put on the malfunctioning
transmission.

If this was my vehicle I would just bite the bullet and have the
transmission torn
down and rebuilt, and put in a new converter, and solenoid pack, have
the
cooling lines flushed, basically the works done on it, and make sure
the
entire job was warrantied good. And yes, I would know that there's a
20% chance
that I wouldn't have needed to have done something that radical with
it. But
here's the deal. If you have a complete overhaul done now, you know
it's going
to last you a good 80-150K miles. The 3.8L engine is a tank - 75k
miles on that
engine is like 150K miles on most other engines - it's going to outlast
that transmission,
even if you have the trans rebuilt right now. And, there's also the
safety issue -
while I would trust myself if one of my vans suddenly shifted into limp
mode
while tooling down the highway at 60Mph, I definitely wouldn't trust my
wife
in that situation. Do you really want to risk this happening to your
wife, alone
one afternoon on the highway? You might end up with that 99 GV
crumpled
up in the ditch with the airbags blown, a pretty furious and pissed off
wife, and
$100 from the local wrecker to tow it off.

Also, my other piece of advice on this. I would be leery of that
dealer. From what
your saying the dealer sold you a van with a 60 day warranty, and
sometime on
day 90 they are telling you the transmission fluid was dark and needed
to be
replaced?!?! I'm sorry - but transmission fluid doesen't go "dark" in
90 days. If
it was "dark" it was "dark" when the dealer got the van, and they
probably only
warrantied it for 60 days because they guessed that it was about ready
to fall
apart. Now they are going to pretend there's nothing wrong with it so
as to stall
you as long as possible so by the time you figure out they screwed you,
it's
a year later and you can't take it back and threaten to tear off their
head and
shit down their throat.

I think the dealer is going to keep nickel-and-diming you until you
wise up.
"start with the solenoid pack" indeed!!! How about "FINISH" with it?
Go back
to that dealer and ask them to tell you how much it's going to cost to
permenently
fix the problem to the point they are willing to put a year warranty on
their fix.
I'd bet money they will hem and haw and give you bullshit excuse after
excuse,
and if you keep pressing them they will finally tell you they won't
warranty anything
other than a complete teardown and rebuild. Why? Because they already
know
that this is really what that transmission needs, they just aren't
going to tell you
that until they've bled you.

If your in PoDunk Egypt, and the dealer your dealing with is the only
game in
town, then sharpen your claws, go back and rip them a new asshole and
get
them to discount at least $500 off the cost of a transmission rebuild
since they
obviously knew the van's transmission had problems when they sold it to
you.
Since they already are going to mark it up $500 more than anyone else
does
who rebuilds transmissions, it's not like they are going to be out
anything. But,
if you are in any reasonably sized city, then kiss the dealer goodbye
and find
yourself a good independent transmission shop.

Ted

 

I think you had the references or mileages in this statement reversed. The
3.8L is indeed a very good engine. Its only flaw is the high fuel
consumption around town, but this is due to the weight of the vehicle.

Bob

 

Oops you right, I did!

Ted