Transmission Operation And Shift Scheduling At Various Oil Temperatures.

WARNING: This page is about a different car, the 2004 Dodge Grand Caravan, 2004 Dodge Caravan, and 2004 Chrysler Town & Country. However, it is still accessible from the selected car via links, so may be relevant.

The transmission covered in this service information has unique shift schedules depending on the temperature of the transmission oil. The shift schedule is modified to extend the life of the transmission while operating under extreme conditions.

The oil temperature is measured with a Temperature Sensor on the transmission. The Temperature Sensor is an integral component of the Transmission Range Sensor (TRS). If the Temperature Sensor is faulty, the transmission will default to a calculated oil temperature. Oil temperature will then be calculated through a complex heat transfer equation using engine coolant temperature, battery/ambient temperature, and engine off time. These inputs are received from the PCI bus periodically and used to initialize the oil temperature at start up. Once the engine is started, the control module updates the transmission oil temperature based on torque converter slip speed, vehicle speed, gear, and engine coolant temperature to determine an estimated oil temperature during vehicle operation. Vehicles using calculated oil temperature, are reasonably accurate, during normal operation. However, if a transmission is overfilled, a transmission oil cooler becomes restricted, or if a customer drives aggressively in low gear, the calculated oil temperature will be inaccurate. Consequently the shift schedule selected may be inappropriate for the current conditions.