04 intrepid limp mode p0700
i will not take credit for this guys post i found but , just getting the info out there:rk
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!! TRANSMISSION SUCCESS STORY, TESTIMONY, and LESSON!!
I'm going to try to make a long story short, so bare with me, and I think it's worth reading.
I have a 96 Chrysler LHS, and some of you know that I have been having transmission issues. Mainly my car would get stuck in 2nd gear and stay in that gear until I turned off the ignition.
The reason it was doing this is because my car was going into what is called LIMP MODE, which simply is a Safety Feature/Mode that is activated when there is some sort of electrical or mechanical issue pending related to your transmission.
Now, the fact that your transmission is having an issue is never good, but you car going into Limp Mode actually is a very good thing, because it serves to force you into looking into the matter and finding out what issue is pending before the issue becomes catastrophic or before any unnecessary damage is caused. BUT BELIEVE IT OR NOT MANY MECHANICS ARE NOT AWARE OF THIS SAFETY FEATURE (or choose to act like they aren't for reasons I will describe below)
Let's take my example. Most of the mechanics that I would describe my transmission issue to would tell me something like this:
"Well, sounds to me like you have a serious mechanical tranny issue. Cars only get stuck in a gear when there is some failure in your transmission. You may need to get your tranny rebuilt. Leave your car with me and we'll look into the problem and give you a proper diagnosis."
The Diagnostic test would range between $60 to $110 in cost, and me trying to save money decided to hold on that and do some more research .
I've read in a few places on the internet that with Chrysler Transmissions, many times it will go into Limp Mode if a SENSOR relating to the function of transmission is faulty or goes out. Keep in mind that a car going into Limp Mode behaves in a similar way to one that does indeed have some transmission mechanical error or flaw. So you can see why many non-informed car owner can be duped into getting their transmission rebuilt, when in reality, all they needed to do was change a cheap sensor or two! You can also see how maybe even honest but non-informed mechanics can fall victim to charging customers for expensive transmission repairs due to their ignorance of proper Chrysler Transmission operation.
So, I figured I would just do some troubleshooting by replacing cheap parts relating to the transmission to see if replacing these inexpensive parts would fix my issue. With my research in mind, I decided to change the input and output speed sensors. And guess what... IT WORKED!! IT FIXED MY PROBLEM!
Now imagine if I would have paid for a "proper diagnosis" from one of these repair shops I encountered. THE DIAGNOSTIC ITSELF WOULD OF COST MORE THAN ME FIXING THE PROBLEM ON MY OWN!!
I paid about $35 for both the input and output sensors. And it was just a matter of jacking up my car, finding the location of both sensors on the transmission, unscrewing them and replacing them with the new ones. Took less than an hour! THAT SIMPLE!! Now my car is running perfectly fine, transitioning smoothly through each gear...no more limp mode... no more issue!!
The moral of this story is: Do you own research... Know your OWN CAR!! Mechanics make money in proportion to our level of ignorance!! The more, you know, the less you get screwed over! And hey, maybe you'll be able to fix you problem yourself!! Get many different opinions from different people that own our type of car (such as the friendly and very helpful people here at dodgeintrepid.net
), and at the end of the day, don't spent ANY money until you feel in your gut that you are taking the smartest route!
I also wanted to make this point: Ive learned that is is pretty difficult to ruin your Chrysler A606 transmission if you're a moderately responsible driver. Before you let your car collect dust, or allow someone to talk you into believing it's a serious mechanical issue, realize that in that many times its not as serious as it may appear. As in my case, it could simply be a sensor needing to be replaced! Or a bad wire! And with issues like that, you can even save more money by replacing it on your own (instead of having some mechanic telling you that it's gonna cost $130 for labor to replace the sensors like they told me). Honestly, it is not a hard job to replace speed sensors (it is in a bit of a tight space though, but it is definitely doable!)
I've also read in a few places that people were bad-mouthing the Chrysler A606 tranny, saying that "those things don't have a long life and they are break down easily". I beg to differ. I see now that the people that feel this way are just not knowledgeable enough to understand how the A606 tranny works. When one thinks the tranny is bad, a lot of times it's just in LIMP MODE, which often happens as a result of issues that are pretty easy fixes! But unfortunately we have had to deal with mechanics that either didn't understand either how the tranny works, or just wanted to exploit the ignorance of the car owner by possibly charging them for a major repair when maybe something relatively small needed to be repaired. I repeat: LIMP MODE IS NOT A PROBLEM!! IT IS A DEFENSE MECHANISM BUILT INTO THE COMPUTER THAT CONTROLS THE TRANNY!!
Last but not least, to all that this paragraph applies to, you all have been great. This is a great site, with very knowledgeable people willing to help out people like me that are Do-It-Yourselfers but are just getting our feet wet. Thank you everyone that helped me save a lot of money on this issue. It is your giving nature that inspired me to write all this, as hopefully a light at the end of a tranny repair tunnel. Thanks for reading!
--SYMPHONIC
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