My van won't shift out of 1st gear, rev, neu, works but 3rd and low won't engage when physically shifted.

There are a couple of obvious possibilities. Linkage and/or the bands need adjusting. Both require a certain amount of expertise. The linkage get old, stretch and no longer engage when the shift knob is moved. If you have a couple hundred thousand miles on your van it could be the bands are out of adjustment. If you can find an honest transmission shop they could inspect it and make the determination. Unfortunately most transmission places will put it on the lift, drain the fluid out and show you all the metal fillings that have collected for the last month and tell you your tranny is shot. They do have to pay the rent after all. Depending on the make and model sometimes low fluid can cause strange behavior as well. But low fluid indicates a leak and to replace seals involves tearing the transmission out and apart.. Again they have to pay the rent. To do that they rebuild transmissions. If you need a seal they will want to rebuild your transmission. Fact is the kits to rebuild most transmissions cost under $100.00. Pulling them out and tearing them down takes hours and skill. So, they charge you $2500.00 labor and $500.00 in parts. Which is why so many folks buy used transmissions and have any ol mechanic swap them. You can often buy a whole running car with a good transmission for a fraction of rebuilding one. Swapping them is a serious repair but any mechanic can do it. Good luck and HAPPY MOTORING!

You vehicle has no adjustments for the bands or much of anything else. You are probably stuck in 'Limp Home' mode which means it's time to pull the unit and rebuild it. Any reputable shop would recognize the symptoms instantly and offer to rebuild it. Unfortunately this is not considered as a very robust unit and what you're experiencing is normal for most owners although there are some that get surprising mileage out of them. Since this is such a weak unit and you now have a decision to make, adding to your grief by purchasing a used unit is rife with potential nightmares, as you already have a used unit; why buy another unknown and used unit? If you don't mind taking the used unit out for another used unit you get from a junkyard - I guess you could eventually find a better (albeit used) unit that may or may not survive a day, a week or somewhat longer. FWIW: I owned a transmission shop, worked in others and did so for over 47 years before I retired a couple of years ago. Send from my Nexus7.

Before you go into a costly repair, you might try replacing your INPUT SPEED SENSOR which tells your van when to shift. It costs around $20 and is easy to replace.

It's usually 1 of 2 things in and out pot sensors $20 each auto parts store and/or transmission shift selonoid. $85 on amazon

Speed sensors also send a signal to the speedo/odometer, and since no mention of an inop speedometer was raised, that may be a red herring. When one hears hoofbeats, don't assume zebras. Face it, anything more than 60k miles is a gift on these units. They just don't live very long and the symptoms as stated usually indicate a rebuild with the adaptive strategy in theTCM/ ECU reset to factory parameters. The biggest design flaw is that there is NO direct drive condition for this transmission. They are either in underdrive OR overdrive all the time with planetary gears working constantly. This is a tremendous disadvantage to longevity and reliability. Add in the electronic adaptive strategy of the TCM/ECU constantly compensating for the unit slowly dying as it's driven and when it eventually fails, it is quite by surprise and usually at the most inopportune time. One will get PARK, REVERSE, SECOND and lots of neutrals at that point. That's the BIG CLUE. Sooooooo, as originally requested by the OP, the most obvious thing to do is find a trustworthy, non-nationally recognized facility with their team of lawyers to deny your claim against shoddy rebuilds (HINT - Starts with: "AA"). One should find a transmission shop by getting a service performed a long time before trouble, for two reasons: 1. Your transmission needs service (but not a flush) BEFORE it exhibits imminent failure symptons or needs to come in on a tow truck. 2. You'll find a shop with a good attitude, personable mechanics and a technician who will talk to you other than trying to grab your 401k or Social Seurity check away from you. I would usually see a new customer the first time, with them asking for a transmission service after the unit is already failing - sometimes for a total lack of service - some because they got used too much when they were new. Either way, I never was angry with an untrained new customer: after all i could never get mad at someone slapping me in the face with $$$. I always made sure that after rapport was established between me and the customer, that I'd take them into confidence and tell them how to not need a premature rebuild in the future and in my shop. That said: SOME units would fail like clockwork anyway, and this MOPAR K-car derived unit was in the latter category.

1996 Caravan won't shift sometimes out of 2nd gear. I read your post about this and just want to make sure of a few things. I have same issue sometimes. Only way to fix, is turn van off, and restart, and it will usually fix it, but it's getting worse. I brought to a ship and he put on his machine and he said I need "a new controller, and solenoid". WHen he says controller, is that the tcm you mentioned in your post? He wants $1,000 for install with parts. I just want to buy the right stuff and fix it will a friend of mine. Please advise.

I don't remember any way of changing operations for this unit by a restart of the engine. The TCM/ECM can be a risky call by a shop because of the big ticket so I'd get two or three more shops to take a look,,and btw, you'll get an attitude check of them when you ask them for a look-see. Tell you what though, have a shop give an estimate on paper, which should be free in this economy (which I did all the time anyway) just to see what they think. Diagnosing a problem over the ethernet and me with no hands-on your vehicle can be tricky. I tend to not trust any shop that I cannot visit person-to-person, and as I know that transmissions are full of technical voodoo to a customer, you've still got to eventually trust someone if you cannot do it yourself.

I have a 2003 Caravan. It would not shift out of first and and have reverse. I could stop the vehicle, place in park and shut down engine. It would solve the problem and I would have all gears again. When left over a long period of time it again it would not shift out of first. I repeated the procedure , place in park shut down engine, wait a minute and restart and have all gears again. It now has gotten worse and sometimes the stop restart procedure would not work.

I had this same issue and I did some shopping around a found a place that has worked on these vehicles quite a bit. I paid $490 with tax. Here is what was done to fix the stuck gear randomly at times.... 1) Diagnostic code 22 & 28, $35 2) New solenoid, $205 (I think they got it from the dealer) part # 05140429aa 3) B-102 Transmission filter kit $21.50 4) Wolf's Head ATV fluid, 4 quarts I think, $21 4) 3 hours labor to replace sold pack and service transmission, $180 labor total $490 with tax. I didn't have the time to do it myself, and my shop gave a 1 year warranty, which most will do.

looked at a lot of possibilities,,, transmission ground and relay issues, gonna try them first. Vehicle has 351,000 on it and was great till the inner fender on drivers side cam lose and snow cam in, ...looking at this site helped...https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=EF3Qb2rbAx4

There are 2 speed sensors on the tranny. Replace both and it should work. ...if not replace the shift selenoid. Most likly the speed sensors

Much appreciated Jbjb777. will be changing on the weekend. Do you happen to have a pic of where the speed sensors are on the tranny ??

well it was not any of the two speed sensors.... now to try the TCM

Funny thing I have a 2013 Dodge Caravan I lease it I'm a cab driver same situation with the transmission the funny thing is it's the motor mount not sure how much it cost to replace cuz I didn't have to pay for it but it took them about 20 minutes to fix same thing when I turn off the engine put it in park started to back up put it back in drive it works for a while lol......

The TCM rots and exposes the components inside.. I got a used one from the wreckers and the outer aluminum is good. All works fine now. And a tip, input and out put sensors have an effect on speedometer and automatic door locks at 30 km/hr. If these are not affected, sensors are good ...

My 1996 dodge caravan won't go pass 4th gear it stay stuck would any of you guys know what's it from

My Dodge Caravan 2010 got into Limp Mode and not shifting out of second gear. Could not get any error code on OBD2. Any suggestions plz

I had same problem (can't drive over 40 mph) of my 2010 Grand Caravan, I solve this problem by switch to premium gasoline. It really works for me.

Yankee boy is an idiot. That transmission doesnt even havr bands in it. I wished people would keep there trap shut when they do not know anything about nothing. Take your transmission to a qualifird technician . its not a lawn mower engine.

I had the same problem. Replaced the 2 speed sensors and motor and transmission mounts because they were broken. Fixed my issue... I have 245,000 miles. 2004 Dodge Grand Caravan. No need for the new transmission the mechanics were trying to sell me.

Part numbers for speed sensors??? links?? Are they expensive???

They say it's best to buy oem parts for the speed sensors so I purchased them directly from the Dodge dealer both parts $100... I had a friend do the work for me but it only took him about an hour to change out both. The motor and transmission mounts, you can buy a four pack online through different merchants for about $60 and up... Try ebay, there are more selections but I try to buy from a company closest to my location. But have someone check your motor mounts out, yours may not need replacement. When my van was acting up, I was also having a loud clunk noise when I would shift into gear and reverse, the van would shake, because loose/broken motor mounts.

I was having trouble with my 2007 Dodge Caravan - kept jamming into 2nd and wouldn't up-shift. After much effort and aggravation I changed out the input speed sensor (after I had already changed out the shift solenoid), and "voilà", IT WORKED! The best part was that the part cost me $18.01 and took 10 minutes to change.

Yankeyboy is yanking your chain prolly cuz mama is payin his basement rent, Now back to reality, ....I have a 2001 Dodge Caravan with 129k and the 3pd. Auto went into Limp-Mode, Everybody that was a Shadetree mechanic said it needed a Rebuild, This was a Well maintained Fleet vehicle and by all appearances was factual. Long story short these particular Dodge/Chrysler vehicles have sensitive Transmission Modules (TCM) that can appear to be defective when in fact it can be something as simple as an Over/Under charging Alternator or a bad Ground, OR running a Dashcam thru your Powerport/Cigarette lighter, Weird i know but youd be surprised & amazed this is a true story, In addition do your research before giving up your hard earned cash, Good luck and happy motoring...

Yes, very true, thank you... I also had a bad ground replaced... My Nitro Nellie runs awesome!!! So AWESOME, I can not get rid of her and all my kids are grown!!! But I'll tell you one thing, I will NEVER take my van to an auto repair shop certified or not, ALL BAD!!!

Hi does the 2008 Caravan comes with a SVT transmission like the Dodge Caliber?

CVT sorry