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2008 Patriot transmission hunting issue

4K views 16 replies 6 participants last post by  kadetklapp 
#1 ·
Bought my '08 Patty back in March. It's just turned 51,000 miles. While overall I'm happy with our purchase, the vehicle has a couple of drawbacks, mainly, poor fuel efficiency especially when you consider how little power it generates. Anyway, recently I noticed when driving that say, if you take off from a stop light or pull out of our driveway and get up to about 30 mph, the Jeep shifts normally, and then when I hit 30 and let off the gas, it begins "hunting" and then winds down in third gear, sort of like on a manual transmission where you would coast in second or third gear without pressing in the clutch. It feels very strange. The only other automatic vehicle I've experienced this in was a Chevy Caprice and minutes later the transmission crapped out.

My wife says when she drives on the interstate to work, it's hunting constantly and lacks power. I unhooked the battery, thinking it needed to "re-learn" it's new owners, but no dice. Before I waste my time at the dealership, anyone had this issue?
 
#2 ·
The next thing I'd do is go get the codes run for free at a major auto parts store. It kinda sounds like a servo is hanging up in the trans or it could be a programming problem caused by some electrical issue.
 
#6 ·
Yes I'm aware, I was just using the term to describe where the trans was "at" when these issues were occurring.

I believe it is failing. It's getting continuously worse and gas mileage is in the toilet. I will not take it to the dealer until it grenades.
 
#8 ·
I have a '10 Riot with 23k...it's experiencing the "hunting" as well at the same speed. It drives me crazy while in traffic. I talked to a Jeep mechanic and they said it probably needs to "re-learn". Makes me want to disconnect the battery and turn on learning mode.
 
#11 ·
It's not going to cost me a dime, the thing is under warranty.

As far as "relearning" I've tried that with no success. I did find out that the stupid thing will erase your presets three or four times AFTER hooking the battery back up for some reason though.

May try and get rid of the turd here soon.
 
#13 ·
My Stealership told me that was "how the CVT transmission works". I argued that the whole vehicle should not LURCH, and he kept going back to the same rhetoric telling me that I should not let off the gas unless I'm going to "Immediately" push on the brake.

They've "reprogrammed" mine several times with no success. I'm tired of taking the vehicle in over and over only to have it work properly for a couple days before reverting back. :thumbdown:

I've begun using the Auto-stick for the time being. :rofl:

Though to be fair...the vehicle was in an accident, passenger side was swiped.
 
#15 ·
I'm trying to run it in low RPM's, so the hunting / lurching seems less evident. Shifting around 2K...but without a clutch, it's easily forgotten. "Why am I at 4,000 RPM's? Oh yea!" :D

For the most part I'm following the instructions of my stealership in keeping the throttle engaged. It does make a difference, but I thought that adaptive transmissions were supposed to adapt to us...not the other way around. :brickwall
 
#16 ·
It's a mutual thing. You have to adapt to the style of the CVT if you're used to a conventional automatic. I generally take mine up to 3K, sometimes more, and let it settle in to the right gear.
 
#17 ·
It gets even stranger-

On several occasions the last couple of weeks the Jeep will get "stuck" in first "gear" on the wife. I thought she was bumping the autostick on, but she about got killed in an intersection because of it. Then it did it to me last night. No one was even close to touching the shifter.

Then yesterday she got on the interstate and got into traffic. She heard "DING DING" from the chime module and the Jeep started acting funny. Nothing came up on the cluster but she pulled over and cycled thru the menu looking for whatever it was dinging about. She shut the Jeep off and started it back up and took off. Hasn't done it again.

This thing is weird.
 
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