Greetings all! The truck mentioned is a 99 Ram 1500, 2wd, 318 engine, and here is the problem:
When cruizing down the highway and the cruise control is set (between
50-70 mph), the engine will "surge". By "surge", I mean the tach will suddenly rev 200 rpm and come back down. I am thinking the Lock-up torque converter is kicking in and out. It rarely "surges" when the cruise control is OFF, although it will do it on very cold days. PROBLEM TWO: After the truck has sat overnight and gotten completely cold, I can leave my driveway and be in overdrive about 1/4 mile away from my house, even when it is 10 degrees outside. I don't think this is normal as every other Chrysler trans I have had didn't hit top gear until the motor had warmed up some. Is this an issue with the transmission fluid temp sensor, or something else. I have taken the truck to a trans shop and they found nothing; no fault codes or anything recorded in the PCM. Has anyone else had this issue? I ask because a friend of mine has a
2000 dakota 3.9 and it does the exact same thing. I haven't had a mechanic hook a scan tool up yet to monitor the trans fluid temp sensor readings as I thought if it didn't work it would throw a code. Any thoughts???
Thanks for your help!! Nick