reasons for trasmission failure

I think the problems were fixed long ago. My 1996 has 141,000 miles on the tranny and it is still going strong. I just bought a 2003 and am not worried about the tranny. I think you are playing an old tape...

Matt

My 96 Town and Country with about 146,000 miles just developed a cracked case because of a loose bell housing pin. The local transmission places tell me they see this all the time on Chrysler transmissions. This is a big improvement over my 92 which went through a transmission every 30,000 miles.

Richard.

Old tape indeed. My 1996 Grand Caravan has 96,000 miles on it, and I drive carefully and without stressing the transmission. The proper Mopar transmission fluid is changed at proper intervals. My Caravan has the towing package although I never tow; ironically the package includes a transmission oil cooler. The original transmission failed at 56,000 miles, and the second transmission failed at 94,000 miles. I am now on transmission #3 as of a few weeks ago, so stop the slurs about playing old tapes.

Morton

"Matthew S. Whit> cosza wrote:

Are you sure it wasn't a cheap sensor and the dealer might have ripped you off by selling a rebuilt?

package although I

cooler. The original

tape...

One examply doesn't a trend establish. The statistics I've seen just don't back up this assertion. I visit my local dealer a few times a year and I never see more than one minivan in the garage. If every minivan were going through transmissions every 50,000 miles or less, every bay would be full of minivans and they'd have crates of transmissions waiting in the warehouse to be installed. Just isn't the case. Also, nobody would be buying Chrysler vans anymore, yet, last I knew they were still the sales leaders. And you certainly wouldn't have anybody dumb enough to buy a second one, yet I know LOTS of repeat owners. I just became a repeat owner myself and now own two of them. Show some stats to support the assertion that there is a universal tranny problem.

The old tape comment was hardly a slur. My you are thin skinned. It was a statement of fact. It is well known that when a person has a problem they tell somewhere between 10 and 100 people. When something good happens they tell very few. There have been studies on this. A few tranny problems, especially a decade ago, got spread far and wide and persist to this day. Doesn't mean that a few folks like you won't get a lemon, but that doesn't make the problem an epidemic.

Matt

I don't kow where all these stories keep surfacing from about bad transmissions but my 1999 Caravan has 65,000 miles and has had one problem with the transmission - the $15 sensor went bad at 37,000 miles. Also, with

500,000 minivans being made a year, even if a small percentage do have problems, lots of people will bitch about bad quality.

Dan

the tape is right, chrysler auto trannys sux it bad

96 dynasty-d.o.a. 33,000 granny miles 96 grand voyager -d.o.a. 65,000,on 3rd tranny though i still kinda like chrysler,so when i bot my 2002 pt, it was a 5 speed...fux mopar auto trannies.

Fortunately, the transmissions aren't nearly as bad as your spelling and writing skills...

different of this from the other brands( GM, FORD).

Problems were basically fixed by 1995. Since then these trannies have been really good IF MAINTAINED CORRECTLY (note the emphasis). What makes you think Ford and GM haven't had problems? The current Ford automatic has produced lots of complaints.

I visit my local dealer a few times a > year and I never see more than one minivan in the garage.

But this trans was used in far more than just minivans, so this is not a good way to judge. It was used in far majority of thier cars/vans, til about '98 or so. I havn't followed it past '98 or so, and most of '98 and older cars don't go to the dealer for service, so yet another bad way to judge the longevity of a particular transmission.

Having dealt with a '89 Van, '94 Spirit, '95 LHS, and '97 LHS, all of which had premature trans failures, all had proper maint, fluid, filter, and no it wasn't just a sensor, I bought the ATSG book and learned how to test for that. These wern't all my vehicles, the '94 and '97 were, the others were friends/co-workers I wanted to help out. While the '97 lasted longer(90,000mi) than the '89(45,000mi, 104,000mi) did, the '97 is still a bad trans in my book(failed @90,000mi,

165,000mi)), and looking at the numbers of various studies I saw when working at DCX in the late nineties, all the eveidence is there that this was/is a bad trans, just had a few proud souls and penny pinchers who failed to see long term that keep saying they could fix the trans.

This was and still is, a bad transmission. I for one will not purchase another vehicle with the 41TE transmission, and I know I'm not alone.

Ken

I disagree. They go a bit longer before failing, but they still do too often and it's not so much a function of how well maintained they are; I think you get as much benefit from a more robust tranny cooler than changing the fluid and filter regularly..

Yes, a friend at work has a Windstar with 160,000 miles and its on its

3rd tranny. This seems at least as common with Windstars as with Chryslers, and, guess what, Honda and Toyota have had their share of tranny problems in minivans as well. I've heard less about the GM vans, but that may be because there are, I believe, fewer of them on the road.

Matt

There is something else common here in addition to these all being Chrysler trannies ... and that is the driver.

That is certainly your prerogative. If there really is a big problem with these trannies and enough people like you stop buying, then we'll see that reflected in the sales. I don't think that has happened thus far so I don't think there is an unusual number of failures here.

I think virtually all minivans, at least the FWD models, have had higher rates of tranny failure due mainly to them being on the heavy end of the spectrum.

Unfortunately, the economics of today's auto industry requires common assemblies be used across many product lines so it isn't likely that the minivans will get engines and transmissions designed just for them and nothing else.

Matt

I believe you are wrong. Unfortunately, neither of us has any real data to support either position.

Matt

| >>...why has the A604 or 41ET has had so many failures...What is so | >

| > different of this from the other brands( GM, FORD). | >

| > Problems were basically fixed by 1995. Since then these trannies have been | > really good IF MAINTAINED CORRECTLY (note the emphasis). What makes you | > think Ford and GM haven't had problems? The current Ford automatic has | > produced lots of complaints. | >

| >

| | Yes, a friend at work has a Windstar with 160,000 miles and its on its | 3rd tranny. This seems at least as common with Windstars as with | Chryslers, and, guess what, Honda and Toyota have had their share of | tranny problems in minivans as well. I've heard less about the GM vans, | but that may be because there are, I believe, fewer of them on the road. | | | Matt |

Apparently the Acura MDX has had more than it's share of failures...and I hear a new tranny is over $7K on that vehicle!

Ouch! The worst car I ever owned, well maybe next to worst as my '70 Opel Manta was pretty bad also, was a 1984 Accord. Rated very well in Consumer Reports, but I guess the unit I had couldn't read...

Matt

The main reason is in my opinion that Chrysler went with a brand new tranny design in the minivan rather than a tried and true design.

Now, I wasn't there at the time and I've read conflicting accounts, but what I have gathered is that at the time that Chrysler first produced the minivan, (1984) they were desperate for a new product that would reinvigorate sales. The minivan was so different that the company wanted to go all the way and make everything new, so they wouldn't have a bunch of armchair pundits carping about "same old Chrysler guts new package"

It's the classic substandard design problem. You have a design here that doesen't really have any one thing about it that's massivly wrong. Instead, there's just a lot of itty bitty tiny things. You fix oiling in one place so that a part doesen't break in half after 5 years due to inadequate oiling, and now that that part is surviving, another one that was 80% gone is now given the chance to go all the way and it becomes the new candidate for redesign.

This problem happens with any complex product. Look at the Windows operating system for example, how long has Microsoft been dicking with it, and how many versions have they come out with, and it's still buggy as hell? Sure, if they throw enough money at it, ultimately they will fix everything, but by then the Windows you buy then will be a completely different product than Win 3.0

Ted

My friend got a 2003 Grand Caravan with 3.3 engine. After a few months when he would put in R or D it would not engage, as if it was in Neutral. He took it to the Dealer and they fixed right a way, there was a TSB to replace feeding pump and front clutch, this also corrected his not so smooth shifting from 2-1 when coming to a stop. Can this repair compromise the trnny in the long run, or it is a routine fix. Inthe work sheet it says it took 5 hour to do etc. Is this a new problem with the tranny? The TSB states late 2002 and early 2003 got defective pumps. Any comments Tx.