Greetings all,
I'm new to the list, and am sorry if this has been covered before and beat
to death. <g>
I did search the archives, but could not find this, so here goes...
(A bit of pre-question rambling first)
First, please no "You shouda' got a V8". I know, and am seriously
thinking of doing just that, but...
I just returned from a 4,000+ mile trip in the new Dakota, and am
a bit dis-satisfied with the over all performance of this unit. Most
of my normal daily driving is at an altitude of 200 feet, and the trip
was into the Southwest, where altitudes of 4,000 to 6,000 feet were
normal. To say this altitude turned the Dakota into a land turtle is
an understatement. Any hill on the freeway at all caused the tranny to
kick out of OD and wind up to 3500+ RPM, then back to OD, then back
up, etc. Finally, upon any hill, I just gave up and punched the OD
switch and let it wind up the hill at 3500+ RPM. I thought I was
driving a Geo Metro the way I had to take these hills.
OK - here's the question - The wife's car is a Taurus, and the OD
trans never locks up the torque converter until there is no load - on
the straight and level. Any time a load is encountered, the torque
converter unlocks, and this car can climb most hills in OD, with the
torque converter unlocked. (3.0 L V6) Once on the flats, it locks up
again.
What's up with this Dakota trans? It locks up the torque converter no
matter the load, and the only time it unlocks is when you floor it,
and then it kicks out of OD. Feels like a little 4 banger. It makes no
sense to me to lock the converter up. What's the point of the torque
converter if it's locked up with no regards to load. It looks to me
like the lock up is speed sensitive, about 42 MPH.
I disconnected the battery in New Mexico, but it did not help a bit.
Is this the way all Chrysler autos work? Is there a chip that fixes
this?
TIA for any help on this. Maybe a V8 is on the horizon.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:14:22 EDT