Chrysler Repair: 2003 Transmission wont power the car, 4 digit numbers, manual roland

Question
My car was going down the road and then just lost every gear with no warning. The fluid is fine. it wasn't low at all. Every now and then it will kick into reverse but not stay there. It will not even kick into any other gear. What can the problem possibly be?

Answer
Hi Crystal,
If you have the V-6 engine then you have an "electronic" transmission. That means there is a transmission computer that operates the gear shifting and also has a self-diagnostic capability. There are so many possibilities you would want to avail yourself of the self-diagnostic feature.  You can find out by reading its memory whether it has diagnosed the problem and stored the reason as a fault code number. Try to turning the ignition key "on-off-on-off-on and leave on" doing that in 5 seconds or less elapsed time. Then watch the odometer window to see if the miles reading disappears and instead some 4-digit numbers appear. If so let me know what they are. There is not a certainty that the key approach will work, and if it doesn't then I would have the car towed to an independent transmission shop, a local only one, not part of a franchise. Ask them to do the readout with a fault code reader that plugs into a socket under the dash. Ask them what numbers came out, what is the name of the code, what each code means, what they recommend doing, and for how many $. Then write back and we can compare their recommendation against the Chrysler shop manual.
Roland
PS Use the thank/rate tab below to respond quickly where there is a comment section. If you have a 4 cyl engine then you have a trans that doesn't have a computer and the shop will have to test it with other tools to find out what is wrong.