my wife called to say the van would not move and she heard metal grinding sounds from the engine area. she got it towed home, and when i got home, i pulled the trans pan to find a TON of little needle bearings all over the bottom of the pan, and quite a number were chopped in half or otherwise crushed. we had it replaced with a rebuilt for 750.00 at a local reputable trans repair shop.

the trans shop said they deal with quite a few older Chrysler transmission problems. i looked in their parking lot and there were several other Chrysler vans of the same model there too.

i did more research online and found out how common trans failures are on this series van from 1996 to early 2000s I'm quite surprised there aren't more complaints about it here.