Chrysler Repair: 2002 Concorde: speed sensor causing stall/lockup in 2nd?, input sensor, independent shop

Question
I have an 02 Concorde. Occasionally it will stall from a dead stop but more often it sputters as I approach a stop sign or light. Once I stop if it does not stall it will not shift fro 2nd to 3rd after accelerating. I will be doing 25-30MPH at 3500 RPMs. It goes away if I pull over and turn the car off for a few seconds and restart it. Ive been told it is the speen sensor. If this si the case is this something I can replace myself. Where is it located? If not than please help. thanks in advance for your time.

Answer
Hi Richard,
Yes, this could be the output speed sensor but I would expect to see the speedometer indication to be flakey also if that were the cause. But you could find out by having the memory of the trans controller readout for the presence of fault codes. You can get that done for free at many Autozone Parts stores, or for around $40 at an independent shop on a "special". The failure to shift out of second is called 'limp-in mode' and it is designed to keep the trans from futher damage when it has detected a fault. And it means there will be some 4-digit code stored that will point you toward the reason. Let me know code and we can compare what they told you against the manual. If it is the sensor it is easy to replace. It is located just to the rear of the veritcal  shifter rod on the driver's side of the transmission, and is a mirror image of the input sensor which is just in front of the same rod. It is merely threaded in to the side of the transmission case so it is not a difficult replacement.  Because it cost a little under $100 you would probably want to confirm that it is the problem via the fault code readout before you buy it.
Roland