'07 Montana transmission issue

[Nordic]

A friend of mine has an '07 Montana with 152 000 kilometres (94400 miles), when he places the shifter to "drive" nothing happens, if he puts it into 1st or 2nd it works normally in those gears but he gets no 3rd or overdrive. The transmission oil is clean and no burnt smell. He has had the transmission serviced in the past and definitely no abuse operation. What could be wrong here? As one would expect the average transmission shop will only offer their version of "rebuild" with guarantee. I understand where they come from wanting to prevent other failure from any other issue for which they could be wrongfully blamed of not standing behind their work IF they were to proceed with a pinpointed partial repair. I am tempted to think that this may be a relatively simple fix. Thanks for some insights on this transmission.

 

[melsg5]

it could be an issue with a shift solenoid. You need a shop capable of running diagnostics on the transmission.

 

[Nordic]

Thanks for your input... as it turns out my friend sold his van cheap to someone today but this is valuable information as I have an '08 Montana myself and this would be good help for me as well in the event of trans. trouble.