Chrysler Repair: 96 cirrus transmission, wire insulation, chrysler cirrus

Question
Hi Kevin,

I have a 96 Chrysler Cirrus   2.5  with the auto o/d tranny.

The situation is that when I leave the house in the morning or work in the afternoon when the engine is "cold" i have jumped on the highway and driven 2 hours, with no issues. However a half hour of city driving, it goes into limp mode. Shutting it off or restart does not work to resolve it, or should say when it does, it will be for only a moment, then back to limp mode. Until I leave it sit, it cools off, then it will work fine. Keep in mind here, the engine does not over heat, when I say warm, I mean normal operating range.

I saw the other techs post (Rolland) about checking the TCM codes. I took the car to a local chain here in Florida (not a dealer) and they could not get my cat to "talk " to their computer. Rolland also indicated in his response that it may be the incorrect fluid used. I am wondering in my case if that might be a likely cause as I get no "limpmode" when car is cold. Maybe when fluid gets warmer?  Also I had unverified information that there may be a short in the wiring harness that only shows up when the wire insulation becomes warm and more pliable.

I do not want to go in the wrong direction  here and cause a larger problem or expense. Even after reading rollands post I see that my situation was not exactly the same. Could you give me a direction to go here?  Sorry I can not give you the codes that were stored as I explained above.

Thank you.

Answer
Hi Rick,
Let me suggest another way to start on the fault code search: turn the ignition key "on-off-on-off-on and leave on" doing that in 5 seconds or less elapsed time. Then watch the check engine light, which remains 'on', to see it begin to flash, pause, flash, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause. Then repeat to be sure of an accurate set of flash counts. The group the counts in pairs in the order of appearance to form the 2-digit codes that are from the OBD-I system that was still available in '96. If one of the codes is 45 that confirms that you do have a fault code from the transmission that is stored in that controller but the problem is how to get it to read out.
I would go to a shop that has an OBD-II reader that will mate with the socket under the dash by the steering column and which can read codes from the trans controller which are 4-digit numbers. The trans codes are in the 0700's series. That will be the best way to go about getting a handle on the problem. Let me know if you get any codes that are relevant and we can go from there.
Roland
PS I am answering because Kevin opted to send it to the pool where I would see it and answer you.
Also note that you will always get a code 55 as the last one, because that means "end of readout".


I plan on changing the transmission fluid and getting the codes read this week. Thank you Rolland for this starting point. I will let you know the results and give you the codes.   Thanks again,   
Rick


You are welcome, I will await the results of the code readout.