can someone tell what can cause overheating of the fluid in a a604 trans? i have had some problems with the trans lately and had the valve body replaced,safty switch replaced,seninoild pack replaced, and now it sees that the trans is overheating and my cooling fans are staying until i turn the engine off. then when i restart it again everything seems to be ok until it heats up again. Thanks in advance
possibly low fluid pressure it's not circulating the fluid? What model car is this and what year is it and what's the mileage? What are the symptoms
- how do you know it's overheating? And exactly how much have you spent already getting the valve body and selonoid pack replaced? Those items generally aren't the first things to break down - sounds like you have an incompetent/ inexperienced tech fooling around with this trans. Have you had it code-scanned?
These trans really work best with an external cooler in addition to the in-radiator tank cooler (if it was fitted with an in-radiator cooler originally)
Ted
Ted: thanks for your response, i have had it scanned by the dealer and they were the ones that told me this and replaced those two parts.now the 97'GV 3.3 with 113k miles is in the shop again and now this time the service writer told that i now need a new trans after i already spent nearly 1k on replacing those two parts that i was told that that was my problem after i took it in for the first time for the problem being ghost downshifting and engine lite on. and when engine was turned off for a little then the vehicle drove fine.
Thanks.
OK first it wasn't ghost downshifting, it was the transmission computer slamming the transmission into second gear. This is called "limp mode" in the tech manuals and Chrysler has designed it into the transmission in order to save the transmission if some major failure occurs. Who told you the term "ghost downshifting" was it the dealer? I personally distrust people who use NewSpeak (reference 1984) When you turn off the vehicle it resets the computer, then you turn it on again and the computer lets the trans work normally until the problem occurs. This has NOTHING whatsoever to do with overheating. The most common thing that causes this are small transmission fluid leaks from the transmission cooling lines that drip down over the input speed sensor and make the electrical contact on the plug in that sensor get intermittent - or the sensor itself gets intermittent, or the output speed sensor gets intermittent. These are easily checked with a scan tool and should have been ruled out first. Did the dealer tell you the actual failure codes from the transmission, not their conclusion of what was to blame?
When a transmission is rebuilt is it SOP to replace the selonoid pack as you don't know what might be inside the old pack, and you don't want whatever is in there going into the new trans. So if they rebuild yours to do it right they need to replace the new selonoid pack they just put in there.
You have already spent almost 1/2 the cost of a completely rebuilt transmission. I just got mine rebuilt last week for $1400, -I- did the in-and-out myself. You should be able to find someone to do a complete rebuild + in-and-out for $2500 or so.
Obviously both the valve body and the selonoid pack didn't need replacing. Your kind of between a rock and a hard place here because the dealer has been stringing you along, and if you tell them to kiss off then your probably going to lose that $1K. If you keep dealing with them then you might be able to scream and piss and moan and get them to apply that $1K as credit towards a rebuilt trans. - keeping in mind that they are going to charge more money than most places to rebuild the trans.
If you used a credit card to pay that $1K and your card has a customer satisfaction policy on it then you can try disputing the charges, that will get you the moneyback but then they could come after you with a collections agency. Otherwise you can try taking back your van and then file in small claims for the $1000. You have proof -from them - that the work they have done so far was based on failed diagnosis, thus they have defrauded you if they don't at least repay you the labor portion of that $1K. It isn't your responsibility to pay for their techs training and education. They are also probably requred by law to offer you the old parts they pulled out and if they didn't you could probably get the cost of those too in a small claims judgement.
A lot of what you do now depends on your comfort level with this dealership. The onus is on them to prove to you that they are competent to proceed with further repairs on this vehicle. So far who have you been talking to - the service advisor? If so keep in mind that if the service advisor was competent to repair vehicles they would be out in the bays doing it, not in the front trying to scam money out of customers. Sometimes if you demand to talk to the actual mechanic who did the work you might get a much more clear answer than letting the service advisor filter it. If you go back there and just get a lot of BS from them you might be better off just cutting your lossses and going elsewhere.
If you do proceed with a rebuild you should review the info here:
Ted
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