[Bernie665]

Hi all. I have a strange problem that I hope somebody may have heard of. my 02 caravan feels as if the trans is stuck in forward and reverse while running. while it is running you cannot even push it in neautral as it feels locked up, but when it is shut off it rolls fine in neautral. when at idle, if you put in forward or reverse you can feel it slip in gear but it will only move if you rev the snot out of it and then it jumps and stops. I'm in the proccess of getting a scanner to where the van is to check codes.

I recently had the trans go into limp mode & it ended up being solenoid # 3 in the pack, so the entire pack was replaced back in august. and thank you all for the info on this site.!

 

[A.j. Schreiber]

hows the fluid level doing?

 

[valiant67]

I'd suspect the solenoid again. This issue has been posted before and I can't recall for certain that it was the solenoid but I think it was.

 

[ImperialCrown]

Welcome to Allpar. Has it been OK since August? Fluid level and condition OK and is ATF+4? This doesn't sound good when multiple clutches may be engaged.
You may be able to pull up fault codes in the odometer display. Look under 'Late-90's and newer cars':
http://www.allpar.com/fix/codes.html

They may even show up in the instrument cluster self-test:
http://youtu.be/_RQwJLC-syA

 

[Bernie665]

Thanks for the replies. I was able to scan it and the only code found was p1494. and since the check engine light has been on, I'm assuming it is another issue. tomorrow I will try doing it per the video and see if anything else comes up. I pulled the input sensor & the magnet had alot of metal shavings on it. would anyone know if any of the solenoid switches operate park in the trans? the more I mess with it the more it feels like its stuck in park while trying to move at the same time, so I'm wondering if another individual solenoid is stuck open or closed.

Also I saw something about a PSP switch. is this just a neautral switch or could it be another electronic gremlin?

and to answer your questions, in august I replaced the input & output sensors, the solenoid pack & I replaced the pan gasket & filter, using ATF+4 fluid. the van has run flawlessly until now. thanks again.

 

[ImperialCrown]

P1491 is a PCM radiator fan circuit fault code and not related to the transaxle issue. The TCM code(s) may show on the cluster test.
Park is strictly mechanical, no electric switches, actuators, solenoids or hydraulics involved.
A lot of metal shavings on the sensor magnetic tip do not bode well for this unit. It may be locked-up. Was there junk in the pan bottom when you did the service last August?

 

[Bernie665]

Thank you ImperialCrown. unfortunatley, there was alot of junk in the pan in august. the van had been shifting just fine after the fix, but its starting to sound like its toast. I am going to try the cluster test tomorrow & if its a no go I guess its time for a new ride. I will most likely replace the trans but not in this cold weather as my garage is not heated BRR!!