1995 Plymouth Grand Voyager

My 93 Intrepid does this too. Once it misses a shift, it seems to continue locked in 2nd gear. I usually happens within the first few minutes of driving. If I get more than a mile or two without it happening, it just plain won't happen at all. It seems to happen more when it's cold out, like below 32 degrees.

At first I thought it was low fluid. The car does have 200K miles on it and it leaks a bit from the main seal. Not worth fixing. However now what I think is happening is that there is a bad connection somewhere and it 'glitches' the controller. Once that happens, I have to turn the motor off and restart and it's usually fine.

Very likely is is because whoever dropped that V-8 into your Grand Voyager didn't do the conversion right. I wonder how exactly he dealt with the problem of installing a rear axle and changing the engine mounts from the transverse mounted V-6 that used to be in your van to go to rear wheel drive - since of course, a V8 block is too long to go transverse mount.

Interesting conversion, let's have some pictures!

Now, go back and reread your owners manual and your vehicle specs and ponder how exactly a person who can't even post the correct engine size and type knows more than the garage in how to repair his vehicle.

Next time, post the correct specs on your van. And, take it to the dealer, please. If your trans acts up, it will set a code in the computer. Your garage obviously doesen't know how to retrieve this. The dealer does, and has the expensive proprietary scantool to do it with.

Ted

Well, the situation with the Intrepid is that there are NO error codes.

OK, not entirely true. It says battery failure once in a while. And it gave an O2 sensor error, but I replaced the O2 sensors (both of them) and the ignition wires and the mileage went up considerably (from the teens to the mid-20's), the surging on level road with cruise control stopped, and the slight miss went away. The tranny still misbehaves occasionally.

Oh, the tranny NEVER downshifts to 2nd/limp mode. So far, in 3 years, it ONLY happens when I come to a stop and start out again. It starts out and stays in 2nd. If it starts out in first, it ALWAYS shifts fine and goes all the way to OD. Also, it is EXTREMELY rare for it to happen more than once per day. Almost as if the slight warming from driving at all makes it not want to happen. And it almost always happens within the first 1 or 2 stopsigns from starting out in the morning.