Automatic Shifting does not stay long in 3rd gear. What is the cause?

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  Mr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481

  April 2015

  I've heard a lot of complaints about this. Most owners seem to think it's a result of driving habits (very light foot on the gas) and that the driver has to either be more aggressive on the gas pedal or manually shift or manual downshift in order for the car's computer to relearn a different shift curve. Worth a try. You might also check with the dealer to see if there are any TCM re-flash recommendations from the factory.

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  dmsmoke261 Member Posts: 2

  April 2015 edited April 2015

  Thanks for your response. The dealer mechanic said, "Everything looks fine to me, but it'll cost you $125 for me to properly diagnose it."
  
  I have read about Jeep's "learning" to shift based on how you drive. One suggestion to get it to relearn was to disconnect the battery and depress the brake pedal for 10 minutes to drain the capacitors. Drive it, giving special attention to the shift points you desire. However, I have not read about any one's success with this method.
  
  Seems like there is a lot of guessing about what is wrong and how it can be corrected.

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  nostopin Member Posts: 1

  April 2015

  I have an 04 liberty. my complaint about the thing is it wants to shift to the next gear when it shouldn't.  It happens my entire 1hr commute over a mountain (well... half anyway).  I'll start up the hill and it will downshift and Rev out to about 2500. After about 500ft it shifts up and boggs down to about 1500, then almost instantly shifts into overdrive at about 1000rpm. it stays in overdrive indefinitely,  lugging and jerking like it's going to stall.  I have to basically floor it to get it to downshift.  when it does, it's good for about 2000ft, then repeat. I'll have to try the battery trick. I feel like I am going to burn up the tranny shifting do much.  It's free and worth a try

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  thecardoc3 Member Posts: 5,747

  May 2015

  Most vehicles have a switch that you can operate to disable the overdrive for such conditions.

  dmsmoke261 said:

  Thanks for your response. The dealer mechanic said, "Everything looks fine to me, but it'll cost you $125 for me to properly diagnose it."
  
  Seems like there is a lot of guessing about what is wrong and how it can be corrected.

  Unless a tech gets to spend time truly investigating the symptom, guessing is all that anyone can do. There could be a flash update for the software in your PCM/TCM but until a tech pulls the calibration ID from the module you really would not know if it applies or not. Erratic shift complaints (either early or late) could be the result of engine operation and a tech must be able to recognize if the engine isn't performing correctly and whether or not the transmission behavior is just a function of the driver learning to work around some other symptom. There are also relearn routines performed with the factory scan tool available that go way beyond simply trying to clear memories with a battery disconnect. Which by the way, clearing the long term memories and especially resetting all of the adaptives (clutch volume learn) serves to hide valuable information that could assist a technician in diagnosing an issue easier.
  
  

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