I had a peculiar thing happen yesterday. After my daughters softball tournament, we loaded up the truck to head out. When I put my truck in drive it felt like it was in third gear. At first I thought I had the E-brake on. I slip it in neutral and allow the tc to fill up. I was backed onto a slight incline. Finally after fiddling with the drive selector I threw it in low and it took off. What happened? I drove it to work today. No problem.

Brian
Missouri

 

My das 2002 wouyld do that if it set more than a week. I believe someone here said there was TC valve that allowed the fluid to drain out of the TC and you would have to allow it to fill back up. I dont know if that is whats going on with yours tho. Does the fluid smell strange or is it discolored?

 

Fluid is healthy. I hope it was just a fluke!

Brian
Missouri

 

Probably. After mine sits overnight, she's a little sluggish until the trans warms up some and gets some fluid in it.

 

A transmission can also go into what I believe is called "limp mode" where it starts in a gear higher than first. If you do a search on this site you will find more info on that. From the sound of things though, I would lean more toward the torque converter issue that is mentioned in an earlier post.

 

TQ drain back would have had a complaint of "neutral when shifting into drive". My opinion is that your trans may have been in "limp mode" and you were actually trying to leave from a standstill in second gear. I replace alot of gov psi transducer and solenoid assemblies for this prob. Have it scanned and see if a dtc set in the jtec controller relating to a gov psi issue. If you can change a trans filter, you can change the above mentioned parts. Both parts run about $180 if I remember correctly.

 

Like stated in previous post it was probably in Limp Mode and starting
out in 3rd gear. If you have to much line pressure it will cause that.
Do a Search at www.dieseltrans.com.