Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) Transmission increases rpm for a second

[RKrueger]

Hi guys,

This is sort of an update, I posted a couple of weeks earlier.

Based on advice of a bad ground from TDR folks, I went to my dealer, talked to the mechanic and showed him the postings on the problem. He found (I believe) 7 identified grounds on this truck, and he removed, cleaned, crimped and inspected each one.

For the next week, not one incident occurred (it was happening daily). Then, this last Saturday, it happened 8 times within about 15 miles, even at lower speeds now around 50 - 55, so the speed range of the problem is increasing. Then, yesterday (Sunday), I drove it another 40 miles, not one incident. This is really an unpredictable, hard to replicate, problem.

I heard that two other guys solved their problem with two separate methods, one replaced the Throttler Position Sensor, the other had their PCM reflashed.

I called my dealer to get a price on doing this today in an effort to be pro-active. One of the TDR members suggested a device by DTT regarding noise, but while I haven't ruled it out, I would rather fix the cause of the EMI.

It's difficult to leave it at the dealer, as they could drive it for days and not see the problem, just as I did. And rightfully so, they can't fix what they don't observe happening themselves.

So I'm back to get some advice from someone who has had this same problem and fixed it. I'm concerned that it may cause damage to the transmission eventually, and this is a new 2002 transmission that was just put in a year ago.

As they say, I'm open to suggestions at this juncture.

 

[SnoKing]

Get the DTT filter. SNOKING

 

[RKrueger]

There were several members who did this, and while the problem was eliminated temporarily, it did return. Normally, EMI is caused by poor grounding, loss of a shielded connection, poor contacts causing arcing, etc. Installing an RF filter traps some of this noise, but does not fix the original cause of the problem. Because I did not have this problem for 98,000 miles, some electrical component has degraded, and because degradation always increases, never decreases, the cause of this noise, if that is indeed the problem, will increase beyond the original engineered capacity of the filter.

 

[tractorface]

The filter will work. Have you recently disconnected the batteries?? Try resetting the APPS. You'll be golden for awhile. The filter will keep the problem gone. Don't forget to reset the APPS every time you disconnect the batteries. Do a search on the subject for specific instructions on how. For some reason the dealerships are often clueless about this common problem.

The PCM is extremely sensitive and is unlocking/locking the converter based on the input signal from the APPS.

To my knowledge the APPS is a very $$$ part.

There are other methods as well but much more time consuming than above.

 

[RKrueger]

Well, I just got off the phone with the dealer again. This thing is so infrequent, it's useless to leave it with them, as they could also drive it for a week and not have it happen. Apparently there was a similar noise issue with the Throttle Position Sensor on pre-99 models, but I don't have one of these on mine, it's now called a "Accelerator pedal position sensor", and is a different part.

I hate doing it, but I'll give that DTT filter a try. If it works, IMO it's only a patch, and the true source of the problem will still be there, and likely getting increasingly worse as time goes on.

It will be awhile obviously, but I will return with the results.



Thanks,

Robert

 

[Stefan Kondolay]

We know this is electrical noise as we chased this problem in our own personal race car for a full year and that involved completely re-wiring the car and adding brand new batteries. We finally figured it out on the car and ended up winning the division this year.



How this applies to the Dodge truck is :



You already have noise filters in your Dodge they are the batteries. From there your ground straps are spread out throughout the entire vehicle. So in order to find your source of tha electrical noise it can involve re-wiring the entire truck if you really want to get to the source as it would involve going through every single ground strap, and dont forget your alternator. The noise filter just cuts your work down. And you are right it is in reality a band aid as to get to the actual source could take a good tech hundreds of hours trying to find the true source. The noise filter we have is especially designed for the Dodge truck to work with the Dodge APPS. It literally saves you many,many hours and money. We saw guys putting in new batteries, new alternators, new APPS , very expenisive items and still not solve their problems.