Hi all,
Alone on the road the other day, I gave the SRT a short hard acceleration from about 45 to 70km/h. I let off the peddle completely at 70 and seemed to catch the transmission going up a gear, and needing to switching down again.
I heard a clunk from the front of the car, timed with the change down (or it could have been up, I can't recall), and the car went out of gear completely - so I was coasting.
I coasted to the side of the road, and with the engine still on, changed into park, and then back into drive. Everything went back to normal - gearing worked, although a minor bit slow on the gear changes. After turning off the engine at my destination, the car drove fine after that.
Any clues as to what happened, and whether I should get the transmission checked - if that's what it was?

 

I am going to assume you have an auto. If you have a scanner, see if there are any codes in the transmission controller. I would also get the car warm and make sure you have enough transmission fluid for the auto to work. Very possibly on the gear change by letting off the torque convertor, you did not have enough pressure to make the gear change. Of course this all speculation based on the written testimony.

 

I have had this happen on two different crossfires,, it goes into limp mode ,, it does that if you push it too hard .. I push both my V6
and my V8 I even had it happen in the middle of a 1/4 mile run on the track, if the transmission input thinks yes thinks something is wrong
it will go into limp mode,, nothing to worry about unless it does it all the time, mine in the last 15 or so years has done that maybe 6 times
i pull over turn off the motor restart and back to normal ,, most of the time is if u r n a corner and kick it down or up,, it goes into limp mode.
jim

 

It does sound like it was a simple miss of the torque converter, as you hypothesize. I don't know when the car had its transmission fluid and filter changed. It may never have. It might pay for me to get it done?

 

Thank you Jim, that's reassuring feedback. That was exactly what happened to me; I accelerated hard out of a corner, flat to floor, and almost immediately let go of the accelerator cause it got to the speed limit faster than I expected. That's when the auto gear change attempted to shift down, I think, and went clunk and disengaged.

So I won't worry. Phew!

 

As Jim wrote regarding his own story about the transmission going into limp mode, his experience is better than my speculation. I will say it might be worthwhile to have your filter and transmission fluid changed.

 

U do not need to change your tranny fluid unless you are pulling a trailer , which ,,, we don't or you run 100 mph
everyday for at least 2 hours,,which ,,, we don't My first crossfire i had 391 runs down the 1/4 ,, and at 30000 miles
swapped in my first V8,, then ran another 416 runs down the 1/4 mile and said to Rudy i need a stronger transmission he said no you don't ..
Rudy i said i have right at 600hp @ the rear wheels,, he said your car is running the stock driveshaft and axles,and rear end
and the transmission is a stock V8 and stronger than anything in your car except the engine,
He then said you could have put in a limited transmission ungraded to the blue tops and the clutches used in the v8
and it would be like a V8 transmission,, but we upgraded to a (1000) hp tranny, still never broke anything,, now Rudr did
one night he was in Fl and wanted to drive my car down the track ran great in the 10's but he said on the way back
to the pits something made a lot of noise, it was the rubber that holds the center bearing on the drive shaft, so it does not flop around.
yep we towed it home next day put a new center bearing, had one from needswings, as said jim take this as you will need it
Now on my 4th crossfire, ( 1 with 195000 miles on it) yes on that one we opened the tranny (srt-6 tranny) changed the filter replaced
a few parts put a V8 in it and it ran11.10 on it's first run, so changings the tranny fluid is up to you the filter yes at 100000 miles. hope this helps
jim