Truck problem. What was wrong, and did it really get better?

[micky]

I borrowed a pickup to take junk to the dump, and it's been working fine for 2 days. Today, on my second trip to recycling, on the Xway, it lost power, and I was slowing down. I pulled to the shoulder and let it idle. Automatic transmission, I noticed that I'd probably been in 2nd for 5 miles. Is that likely to cause this problem? (FWIW I couldn't see the gear indicator from where I was sitting, and it was tricky to get it to engage in any gear.)

The engine temp, oil pressure were normal. I followed the shoulder to the exit, about 4 miles before I would have gotten off, and I was able to go 30mph but probably no more. Stopped at a 7-11 and bought transmission fluid, but I coudln't find the under-hood release (only the in-car release.) I also couldn't find the 4-way flasher or the windshield washer!!

It about a 2001 Dodge RAM 1500 V8 Magnum Laramie SLT with, oops, 250,000 miles.

I was stopped at the 7-11 for 10 or 15 minutes and when I got going again, the truck seemed to run fine. No opportunity to go more than

40mph, but it did accelerate from 10 to 35 while going uphill. That seems pretty good.

So

I haven't googled yet, but how do you open the hood on this truck?

I needed the wiper to get rid of the big blob from the cicada, but I can do that manually. Before the car trouble, at about 20 mph, another cicada hit me right in the eye!

[micky]

Amazing, there was a video on just opening the hood. I had found the handle but it didn't seem to move at all. I'll push harder.

Not so easy to find these for a 2001 in google.

[danny burstein]

[snip]

sounds like the transmission went into what's called "limp home mode". That happens when a whole bunch of possible things go wrong, so it locks itself into second gear so that you can get off the highway and, well, limp to a repair shop.

Sometimes these things are a momentary hiccup, which, once they reset, are a-ok for the duration.

Other times, though....

There are lots of diagnostics to check out what happened. They might, or might not, give you the answer...

[micky]

I thought we were such good friends.

It said on it, roughly, not for use in GM cars later than 2005 or Fords later than 2006, or for cars that need F-type xmisssion flued or 2 or 3 other types I wasn't sure of. But I don't think Chrysler products from

2001 or earlier were in there.

If I were not low on fluid , I would not have bought it at all, but since I coudldh't open the hoood, the fluid was really meant for when I got home, or stuck on the street before I got home. I was 2 miles from home.

Now I'm not in a rush, I'll check some more.

Since I posted, I've been napping. Woke up at 5am again today.

[micky]

Good idea. I thought about when driving home, but then forgot about it.

I did see a video on a 2016 version, where the button was a red triangle, right in the middle of the dash. Why someone would need a video to find that, I dont' know.

[micky]

I have a medium-prices (at the DIY level) code reader. I don't remember it saying anything about transmission codes. But they're read using the same connector, iiuc.

Yes, here we are, for example.

Well, it supposed to rain for the next 34 hours, but I guess I can do this in the rain. At least it won't be hot.

I'm glad I didn't leave my code reader in my car, which I left at my friend's house when I took his truck.

[micky]

I knew the term limp mode, but I had forgtten it when I needed it most.

Very useful for googling:

Limp mode is actually a safety measure that prevents the Dodge Ram 1500 from being driven if its computer detects a fault in the transmission. ... To get the Dodge Ram 1500 out of limp mode you need to stop and shift to park. Turn the car off and wait 30 seconds, now turn it back on and it will be out of limp mode.

I thought about turning the car off even when on the Xway and I guess I mistakenly decided not to. Once I got to the exit a quarter mile away, I could have done it there too, but by this time I'm thinking, Hey, 30 mph. Not bad.

How do I get my truck out of limp mode? Restart Engine

If your vehicle goes in limp mode while driving, find a safe place to stop and restart the engine. Allow the car to stay completly off for at least one minute before you restart it. In many cases, this will reset the limp mode and allow the vehicle to operate normally.Mar 10, 2020

So it's no surprise it did better after the 7-11. I made sure to get a receipt for the xmission oil. So even if I don't need fluid, I"m not going to expect a small business like that to give me my money back (so I won't be disappointed) but I think the'll exchange it for food or something.

[micky]

I got it.

What does manualslib get out of this? I asked about this several months ago and people who replied said there was advertising, even if I didn't remember it. So this itme I paid attention and there is no advertising. At the same time another url is selling the paper manual for $29 to 34. So why does manualslib do this? I get a lot of manuals from them.

The 4-way flasher is a button atop the steering column. Okay.

The windshield wipers are on the same stalk as the turn signals. I looked there but I was driving at the time. I don't think the markings were clear.

[hubops]

I've known more-than-one person who actually bought a second Dodge Caravan after having numerous transmission problems with the first one .. and even if the warranty or extended warranty covered the repair - there's still the un-reliability factor ; plus the long lay-up for repairs and multiple service / diagnosis visits .. All for an automatic transmission - that ~ all other car makers have managed to make - reliable if not robust. I once considered an entry-level Dodge Journey ~ 7 years ago - when they were on sale - decent option package ; very good price ; nice to drive ; but I came to my senses and took a pass - - it oozed cheapness and had 2 or 3 really annoying features that I couldn't bring myself to overlook .. plus a dismal resale value. John T.

[Clare Snyder]

Dismal resale value works for me - means I don't have to pay much when I buy them "experienced" with most of the bugs ironed out of them

[Jim Joyce]

My first thought, reading this so far, is that it's a fuel issue. Clogged fuel filter, contaminated fuel, plugged fuel line, water in the fuel, something like that. The fuel pump isn't ruled out yet, either.

An engine that starts and idles without any issues, but runs out of power at higher RPM, screams fuel to me.

I don't fully understand that. If the Xway is the freeway, I assume you'd have noticed that the engine was running at a higher RPM than normal. Even so, I wouldn't expect 2nd gear (with an auto trans) would cause any lasting issues. If the engine was starved for fuel, the higher RPM caused by running in 2nd gear might have made things more noticeable.

Transmission fluid for THIS vehicle? Why? Is this related to the cryptic statement above about it being tricky to get it into gear? I assumed that was because you had the cab area full of crap to be recycled.

Others are far more qualified than me, but it still sounds like a fuel issue to me.

Hmm, it also has no windshield. What a truck.

[micky]

Maybe.

Yes. They don't call them freeways here. They're all free except there is one toll on I-95 in Cecil County.

The truck makes a lot of noise. It might have been making more than usual, but I didn't notice.

Because that's the only thing I'm competent to do to fix a transmission

I only had 5 lightbulbs, old batteries, and a cell phone in the cab. ;-)

Found them!

LOL. It came in the window. I doubt that eyelids can work quickly enough so I think it bounced off my eyeball. I don't like things touching my eyeball, but it didn't seem to do any harm.

I appreciate your detailed answer. I have to go to a covid screening test on Sunday, 20 miles total, so I'll know by then if it is running well or not. Returning the truck Sunday or Monday.

[trader_4]

Interesting theory, but on the vehicles I've seen where that happened, it doesn't happen without warning indicators on the dash that are almost impossible to ignore. Eg flashing indicator lights, messages, etc. And Micky did say that he couldn't see the gear shift indicator and it was difficult to get it into any gear...... IDK what happens if you have a modern vehicle in 2nd and drive it for miles at highway speed. But I would think you'd have to be going fast enough that it would become very noticeable that the engine was revving abnormally high long before anything bad could happen.

Whatever it was, sounds like he got very lucky and hopefully it's OK. Or at least OK long enough for him to return it to his buddy. Reminds me of the time years ago a college buddy borrowed my Fiat Spyder and drove to the Poconos with it. He came back late at night, much later than expected. Said the car was running terrible. Turned out to be a blown head gasket. I then remembered a couple years earlier when we were driving my car back from CA and crossing the Rockies. He was driving, I woke up to complaints that the car was slowing down, struggling. He had it in 4th gear going up a massive hill. I figure he likely did another round of that in the Poconos. I had taught him how to drive a stick when we were in college and I remember when he finally could at least drive around town he told me how I had explained how it all works wrong. Today he's a plastic surgeon.

Does Micky really want to know? What you do in this situation? To start with, there are two scenarios. One is that he had it in drive or the correct gear position and something just happened. The other is he had it in second on the highway for miles and that caused whatever it was. Probably no further investigation beyond checking the fluid is needed, unless there are more issues. Then there is whether to tell his buddy or not. My buddy told me, I still wound up paying for the head gasket job.....

[trader_4]

Were there warning lights turned on, warning messages on the dash? The modern vehicles I'm familiar with, they don't go into limp mode without setting obvious warnings on the dash. For that matter, modern vehicles would likely put up some kind of warning if you had it in second and were driving too fast on the highway.

[trader_4]

It's certainly possible that it's something unrelated. But if he did have it in 2nd, driving at highway speeds and now it's back to normal, my first suspicion is it's related. Also, while I agree that fuel starvation due to a clogged filter could definitely cause a loss of power at highway speeds, sometimes it works the opposite way. My MB diesel had a problem where it would run fine at highway speed but was running rough on the verge of stalling when idling. Had me perplexed, but I started with the simple stuff. I replaced the fuel filters and that's what it was. It had a mechanical fuel pump and apparently at low RPM it could not move enough fuel through the filter, but at higher RPM even though more fuel was required, the pump could deliver it. Most cars now have electric pumps though, so that kind of thing may not be able to happen anymore.

Maybe he was hanging out the window, steering with his feet?

[Tekkie©]

On Fri, 11 Jun 2021 06:42:45 -0700 (PDT), trader_4 posted for all of us to digest...

It's Micky nuff said.

[micky]

Tricky to get into gear just relates to the shift lever. I had to put it in exactly the right spot. Sometimes it seemed right according to my arm, but I'd have to push it just a little higher** to go into Drive. Reverse too was like that. **Shift is on the steering column. I had to lean forward to see the indicator.

I had found the right under-hood release. Just had to push the hood down a bit to be able to push it. Hood stays up on its own, but was hard to push shut. The corners near the windshield are bent before I got the truck. I don't know how that could happen.

My friend uses it to haul things including loads of dirt, plus I think he has or borrows a horse trailer that he pulls sometimes. I think he transports rescue horses occasionally.

[micky]

I don't think so. I dont think there is a provision for messages at all.

Is 2001 modern?

[hubops]

I watched High Plains Drifter this aft. ... it had horses. John T.

[Clare Snyder]

Sounds like a "no inspection" state - and a Junker truck. Must have looked right "at home" at the scrapyard - - -