> bad BUT the weird thing is when I went to leave the gear shift was > hard to get in gear. And after about 10 miles I had stopped and when
Pretty typical problem with the column-shifted vehicles. It usually is most prominent when it is cold. I think they just get sticky. Holding your foot on the brake for awhile and wiggling the shift lever rapidly would usually get it to move for me. I have a neighbor with an '04 Ram pickup with the same problem. Parts for these cars are not difficult to find. They are everywhere. Winter is body shops' busy season though. Somebody somewhere was in there to mess around with the transmission cooler line.... I helped a friend of mine look over a 2003 Sunfire a couple months ago. Nice car, but it was totalled by deer and was fixed up. No big deal--they did a decent job fixing it and the car looks nice and the damage was purely cosmetic. After the test drive, I looked under the car to find a very good-sized transmission fluid leak. So big that I figured that the 70 mile drive home would be risky. We told the salesman about it and of course, he denied having anything to do with the radiator (it is the transmission cooler, too) when the car's body damage was fixed. The bottom line is that it was just loose and they fixed it for us, but SOMEBODY loosened it for whatever reason and SOMEBODY didn't snug it up all the way. It is not something that just goes wrong on its own. Just imagine that if I was not there to notice this leak, and the guy bought it and drove it until the transmission was out of fluid and consequently fried the transmission. I see this all-too-often where the vehicle is brought in for one repair, and whoever is in there messes up something else in the process, although it is usually unintentional. In your case, those hose clamps holding the transmission cooler lines on don't just loosen themselves, although they are difficult to get to so I'll just about guarantee someone didn't tighten it back up all the way or just plain forgot. I've done it myself. I just had a customer where another shop couldn't figure out why the brakes kept developing a vibration on her 2000 Grand Cherokee. I am told they worked on the brakes several times and the problem would come back within a week or two. I found that the vehicle had a bent wheel bearing in the front, causing the shudder. Every time they worked on the brakes, they re-lubricated the brake caliper slide pins but because the calipers were moving back and forth so much and so often, the grease just kinda wore away and then the shake would come back. Yes, I would also think that such a bent bearing would cause a vibration even without the brakes applied, but its just not the case. My Geo Metro has the same problem... and no shake until the brakes are applied. I wouldn't worry about the kind of fluid put in the transmission. There are rumors out there to use ONLY Chrysler transmission fluid in there. You can't go wrong by doing so, but the fluid formulation isn't all that different. Many years ago, possibly still today, they had issues with torque converter lockup shudder with Dextron III fluid, so they basically added an additive to remedy the problem. It became such a common problem that they changed their policy to use ONLY their fluid, which does fix that particular problem. Like I said, I wouldn't worry about a couple quarts of Dextron III or similar in there. ------------------------------------ Web: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dodge_intrepid> Subscribe: <mailto://[email protected]> Unsubscribe: <mailto://[email protected]> Moderator: <mailto://[email protected]>Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dodge_intrepid/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dodge_intrepid/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[email protected] mailto:[email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
