2008 Dodge Caliber SE 2.0L Jatco JF011E
My Caliber has been making a whining noise for a long time upon any amount of acceleration or decelerations. I am a broke college student so I opted to hope for the best, I squeezed roughly 30,000 miles out of the transmission and multiple long distance road trips before it finally failed. I was on my way to Amarillo from Oklahoma City when I arrived in Amarillo the transmission started to make a cyclic noise almost like the sound of a wheel bearing going out. Then it started making grinding noises. I opted to attempt to make it back from Amarillo in it as the noise went away at higher speeds, halfway through the trip all power was lost, the accelerator was all the pushed in and the engine did not rev and the transmission received no power. I pulled over restarted the car and it allowed me to make it roughly ½ mile before doing this again. The check engine light illuminated and I had the vehicle towed back to Oklahoma.
I went ahead and pulled a CVT same model (Jatco JF011e) from a 2008 Dodge Caliber in a pull a part yard. Went ahead and spent a couple days to trade them out. Got everything hooked back up and started the car. There was no power upon attempting to accelerate. At roughly 12mph I would heat the engine spool up and then I would feel power being added to the transmission and it would let me drive normally. However anytime I would drop below 12mph it would take an incredible amount of time to accelerate back past the 12mph mark. Check engine light came back. Also there was no whine like I had heard from my old transmission.
Next I figured I left the ROM chip in my old transmission which I discovered had to stay with the vehicle. Went ahead and switched those out and no change in the vehicles performance.
Next I got an OBD II reader and pulled the codes, got roughly 9 codes some of them where repeats between the different modules. One was a position sensor for the air intake fixed that and code disappeared.
A multitude of other codes that I can’t remember where also present, to include P0777 (Solenoid B stuck on). I took the solenoids from my old transmission and replaced the ones in the new transmission and replaced the filter inside the pan. Erased the codes from the vehicle and the vehicle ran great, better than it had in a long time. However about 3 miles into the test drive with speeds exceeding 45mph I got to a red light and when I went to leave the red light I was back to having no power in the 0-12mph range. As soon as the speed got above 12mph the engine would spool up and I would have a working vehicle again. The check engine light came back this time with only two codes P0777 and P0700. Every time I let the vehicle sit and then erase the codes it drives fin for the first 3 miles then the engine light comes back and no power in the 0-12mph. The only codes to be present are P0700 and P0777.
I have tested all the solenoid with a multimeter and got 6.7 ohms the PCS, SPCS, and LCS solenoid (all within the 3-9 ohms that is their recommended specs. The LSS had 29 ohms on both the new and old solenoid. The recommended is 10-15ohms. I also tested this on a third transmission and got 29ohms again, perhaps the service manual is wrong? Interestingly enough when I went to pull the valve body after one of the failed test drives I let it cool off sufficiently however as I was holding the valve body I noticed the LSS solenoid was extremely hot, it actually burned me, yet the oil and the rest of the components where not even close to hot anymore. I have also inspected the wires from the valve body through all the way to the point where it goes into the vehicle and have not seen any signs of wear or any bare wires, I even went so far as to remove the protective covering to see the entire wire bundle. I also tested the internal wires of the valve body and those all appear normal and match electrical testing specs. I even tried cleaning my old valve bod and swapping and have had no change to the situation.
The only thing left I know I can check is the TCM might be out? If that’s not it then I sincerely have run out of ideas. If I do pull a TCM I will most likely pull the TCM from the same vehicle I pulled the transmission. I know this is a long post but any help would truly be appreciated.
My Caliber has been making a whining noise for a long time upon any amount of acceleration or decelerations. I am a broke college student so I opted to hope for the best, I squeezed roughly 30,000 miles out of the transmission and multiple long distance road trips before it finally failed. I was on my way to Amarillo from Oklahoma City when I arrived in Amarillo the transmission started to make a cyclic noise almost like the sound of a wheel bearing going out. Then it started making grinding noises. I opted to attempt to make it back from Amarillo in it as the noise went away at higher speeds, halfway through the trip all power was lost, the accelerator was all the pushed in and the engine did not rev and the transmission received no power. I pulled over restarted the car and it allowed me to make it roughly ½ mile before doing this again. The check engine light illuminated and I had the vehicle towed back to Oklahoma.
I went ahead and pulled a CVT same model (Jatco JF011e) from a 2008 Dodge Caliber in a pull a part yard. Went ahead and spent a couple days to trade them out. Got everything hooked back up and started the car. There was no power upon attempting to accelerate. At roughly 12mph I would heat the engine spool up and then I would feel power being added to the transmission and it would let me drive normally. However anytime I would drop below 12mph it would take an incredible amount of time to accelerate back past the 12mph mark. Check engine light came back. Also there was no whine like I had heard from my old transmission.
Next I figured I left the ROM chip in my old transmission which I discovered had to stay with the vehicle. Went ahead and switched those out and no change in the vehicles performance.
Next I got an OBD II reader and pulled the codes, got roughly 9 codes some of them where repeats between the different modules. One was a position sensor for the air intake fixed that and code disappeared.
A multitude of other codes that I can’t remember where also present, to include P0777 (Solenoid B stuck on). I took the solenoids from my old transmission and replaced the ones in the new transmission and replaced the filter inside the pan. Erased the codes from the vehicle and the vehicle ran great, better than it had in a long time. However about 3 miles into the test drive with speeds exceeding 45mph I got to a red light and when I went to leave the red light I was back to having no power in the 0-12mph range. As soon as the speed got above 12mph the engine would spool up and I would have a working vehicle again. The check engine light came back this time with only two codes P0777 and P0700. Every time I let the vehicle sit and then erase the codes it drives fin for the first 3 miles then the engine light comes back and no power in the 0-12mph. The only codes to be present are P0700 and P0777.
I have tested all the solenoid with a multimeter and got 6.7 ohms the PCS, SPCS, and LCS solenoid (all within the 3-9 ohms that is their recommended specs. The LSS had 29 ohms on both the new and old solenoid. The recommended is 10-15ohms. I also tested this on a third transmission and got 29ohms again, perhaps the service manual is wrong? Interestingly enough when I went to pull the valve body after one of the failed test drives I let it cool off sufficiently however as I was holding the valve body I noticed the LSS solenoid was extremely hot, it actually burned me, yet the oil and the rest of the components where not even close to hot anymore. I have also inspected the wires from the valve body through all the way to the point where it goes into the vehicle and have not seen any signs of wear or any bare wires, I even went so far as to remove the protective covering to see the entire wire bundle. I also tested the internal wires of the valve body and those all appear normal and match electrical testing specs. I even tried cleaning my old valve bod and swapping and have had no change to the situation.
The only thing left I know I can check is the TCM might be out? If that’s not it then I sincerely have run out of ideas. If I do pull a TCM I will most likely pull the TCM from the same vehicle I pulled the transmission. I know this is a long post but any help would truly be appreciated.