Hello All,
My sister has a 2003 Intrepid ES with just over 45k miles on it. It has
the larger v6 engine and auto transmission.
The car runs great, the V6 has a lot of power and torque. The transmission
seems to have a weird / randomly occurring issue. When starting up from a
stop the trans will sometimes not make it into gear? If you shift the car
manually into 2nd or 3rd it goes just fine. Shift it into Drive and you can
drive around just happily. It may not do it again for a week, it may do it
at the next light.
Fluid levels are good and have a nice bright red coloring. She brought it
to her local Dodge dealer. They flushed the trans fluid. The dealer did NOT
change the trans filter because they claim 'you don't need to change the
transmission filter'.

Nothing has made a difference so far. Is the filter getting clogged or is
the hydraulic pump going out?

Please let me know as I want some ideas before submitting to the gouging of
a transmission shoppe.

Thanks,
Carl N.

Find another dealer, or a REPUTABLE independent service shop.
The factory maintenance schedule says to change the fluid AND FILTER.
BTW, you should use the second maintenance schedule detailed
in the owner's manual. The one labeled "Schedule B," or for "Severe
Service."

I took it to another shoppe yesterday. They said it was the speed sensor
that was failing. Supposedly it's a fairly common failure on these cars.

I'll let you know what happens once they change the sensor.

-Carl N.