Hey all, my girlfriend has a 2004 Chrysler Sebring Convertible. It has about 67k miles on it, not entirely sure being that it is not my daily driver. It is an automatic and she has been having issues getting it into drive after backing it out of a parking spot, it basically holds in reverse. It has happened twice around me, once when she was backing out and I was jumping into my car, and she couldn't get it to go into drive, I jumped into it, popped it into neutral, and back into drive, and it worked fine. Well, this past weekend, I drove it and it did it again, stays in reverse when the selector is placed into drive. Popped it into neutral, and back to drive, and it worked fine, except for one issue that I'll talk about in a minute. Tonight, she calls me and tells me it won't go into drive at all, only reverse. She parked it and said the heck with it. I'm trying to set up an appointment with the mechanic to look at it, but am trying to figure out whats going on.

This weekend it started having an issue downshifting, feels like at about 25 that the whole tranny is dropping out of it, but then runs fine upshifting. Now, I had this issue in my 98 explorer, and it was a fluid issue.

My question is, could this issue with it hanging in reverse be a fluid issue, or is it something bigger. Seems kinda low on mileage for a tranny rebuild, of course, so did the explorer (84k, normal of that transmission and motor set, come to find out). What do you guys know about it? I'm lost when it comes to chryslers.

 

Yes, it could well be a fluid / filter issue. That is a decent place to start.

If possible, be there when they drain the fluid so you can look at it. If it has a lot of metal fines (dark tiny pieces of metal suspended in fluid.) when they first start draining you have a lot of wear and additional service may be needed. (Honestly, I think that it is likely.)

It sounds to me like you have some sort of debris in the control valving of the tranny. A "Power-Flush" would be more effective if you're going to get lucky and be able to fix it without a major repair.

Also, if they pull the tranny pan, look in the bottom. Most have a magnet there to attract those metal fines out of the fluid. It's ok for them to be covered with gooey metal stuff, but nothing with any measurable size should be there. If there is you are looking at a rebuild.

 

well, unfortunately her mechanic has told her to take it to a local dealership, and well, she's gotta have it towed, we go to different colleges and she's about an hour away, and I can't get down there tomorrow when they look at it. Thats the one thing that sucks about being away from home, can't easily get it to our mechanics. I got a feeling that it's a major tranny issue, about 15k miles ago she had a problem with it slipping out of gear. Come to find out it had developed a leak around the pan seal and had no fluid in it, i'm sure that she either she burned something up or grinded it. We'll hear the verdict tomorrow because there is no way I can make it down to look. I did pull the tranny stick this weekend, and the fluid was still red/burgandy and I didn't see any flakes in it, so it could be the valve hanging open, I've seen that issue before, but not with sticking in reverse.