QuestionQUESTION: My husband owns a 1992 Chrysler Lebaron Sedan. He has been having problems with it lately. It wants to cut off when he goes faster than 35 mph. We took it a mechanic here in town and was told it was the solenoid for the transmission but also was told it could be the valve body needs cleaning. My husband is unable to find where the valve body is located. Can you help him?
ANSWER: Hi Liz,
There is an inconsistency in what you were told, and because you didn't mention which engine/transmission is in the car I can't tell you for certain. There are two possible engine types: a four cylinder or a six cylinder, and thus two types of transmissions. So let me know which you have because the solenoid(s) are involved in the 6 cylinder trans, but the valve body is involved in the 4.
Also, please describe specifically what wants to "cut off when he goes faster than 35 mph"? does it seem to be the engine? or is the engine ok but the trans begins to slip?, or?
Roland
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Roland -
Here is the scoop on the car:
1992 Chrysler Lebaron Sedan
3.0 Ltr, 6 Cylinder
4 speed overdrive transmission
We bought this car from a used car dealer in Feb '08. Seemed to run good at the time. My husband did a minor tune-up on the car (replaced, spark plugs, wires, distributor cap and filers) when he was replacing the air filter he noticed oil in the filter compartment. Took it to another local mechanic & found out the engine was bad. Replaced the engine with a good used one. After some time the car wasn't running good, thought it was bad gas. He put several bottles of fuel inj cleaner in, seemed to help then got bad again. This time changed the fuel filter, ran good for awhile. Now this is what it has been doing for about 1-2 mths. It seems to idle fine at light but when he takes off and gets to around 35mph the engine seems to want to stall. He is unable to go any faster than 35 (unless he is coming off a hill) It is very hard for him to describe what it does, he says it seems to buck really bad. If he lets off the gas almost not giving it any, he can get past 35. If he is going up hill it just keeps losing speed. The transmission seems to be shifting fine. It is almost like there is no fuel getting to the engine. He also said that when he stops to get gas, he can hardly get the car to go at all.
Also, the last mechanic that worked on the car said there were some diagnostic codes that came up. The codes were: #37 & #21. My husband does not know what they mean. Can you tell him this also?
Any help would be appreciated, since we both are pretty frustrated with this vehicle.
Liz
AnswerHi Liz,
As far as I can tell if the readouts both came from the diagnostic connection under the hood (which only reads the engine computer) then the 21 means that the heated oxygen sensor on the exhaust manifold is not working (either because of damaged wires or it is worn out). That sensor should be replaced. It looks like a spark plug and is easy to replace if he will soak its threads overnight to loosen them up. He needs to be careful not to damage the threads or to break the wire connections at the tip of the new sensor. It should come with a grease to use on the threads so it doesn't lock up in the future. Tighten to about the same torque (by feel since you have to have a special socket to use a torque wrench on it. I think he will need a 22 mm box end wrench to remove the old one. and a 22 mm open end to put in the new one).
The 37 code is applicable to only to the 4 cyl. engine/transmission, and so if it came out of the same connector in the engine compartment then this is a false code. However, if he took that code from the blue diagnostic socket that is under the dash, then that would be a readout of your trans and would suggest cleaning the valve body, which involves opening the box on the side of the trans. So before doing anything, I would find out from which socket he got that reading.
The last possibility for your present problem of no power going up hills or at higher speeds is that the catalytic converter is partially blocked due to a malpositioning of the "honeycomb" inside of it. That can be tested by a good independent non-franchise muffler shop. That is typically what causes no high rpm performance if there are no other relevant codes. So do the oxygen sensor first, then see if it still exists and if so check the catalytic converter.
Once the honeycomb breaks loose you can't do anything about it except replace the converter. It doesn't have a fault code so you have to test is by means of gas flow meters inserted into the pipes.
Roland
