Just after rolling past 282,000 miles this morning while cruising along NC-86 N on my way into Danville VA for a job, the RPM suddenly surged from ~1800 to over 3000 and back with no apparent change in speed. About 5 minutes later it did it again. Then about 5 miles from the job site, it did it a 3rd time but this time, since I was pulling up a slight hill, I could feel the D slowing down and giving it gas didn't keep me going until it dropped down into 1st.
From that point until I reached the job site, although it did shift into 2nd once or twice, I basically only had 1st gear creaping along at 25 mph (and when I tested it after arriving on-site, reverse still worked.)
I was able to complete the job quickly (just had to swap out a DSL modem) and continued another 3.8 miles to the nearest Dodge dealership, dropped off the D, picked up a rental, and headed back to NC hoping I wouldn't run into the nasty weather coming our way (my luck held for that part as it hasn't even started to snow here yet!)
I got a call from Jerry at the dealership right as I got home (1.5 hr drive) and he said the overdrive unit blew out? which of course sucked crap into the rest of the tranny and basically trashed the whole thing. So, after a good long road life, it's finally time for me to get a new tranny. They'll call me later with a more specific quote, but he said it usually runs ~$3800 for a tranny + labor.
Ah well, it's not like I wasn't expecting this to happen eventually and I can certainly afford the cost. Besides, it's still way cheaper than going out and buying a newer vehicle with monthly payments, higher insurance, higher vehicle taxes etc., etc.
From that point until I reached the job site, although it did shift into 2nd once or twice, I basically only had 1st gear creaping along at 25 mph (and when I tested it after arriving on-site, reverse still worked.)
I was able to complete the job quickly (just had to swap out a DSL modem) and continued another 3.8 miles to the nearest Dodge dealership, dropped off the D, picked up a rental, and headed back to NC hoping I wouldn't run into the nasty weather coming our way (my luck held for that part as it hasn't even started to snow here yet!)
I got a call from Jerry at the dealership right as I got home (1.5 hr drive) and he said the overdrive unit blew out? which of course sucked crap into the rest of the tranny and basically trashed the whole thing. So, after a good long road life, it's finally time for me to get a new tranny. They'll call me later with a more specific quote, but he said it usually runs ~$3800 for a tranny + labor.
Ah well, it's not like I wasn't expecting this to happen eventually and I can certainly afford the cost. Besides, it's still way cheaper than going out and buying a newer vehicle with monthly payments, higher insurance, higher vehicle taxes etc., etc.
