3.7 Auto tough going into drive

[yippee]

Hello all. Drove the Jeep to work today. Was at work all day, then I got in it to come home this evening. Upon starting the Jeep, backing out of my parking spot and putting the transmission into 'drive' I noticed it was hard to put into drive. Like pretty hesitant. Checked the ****** fluid, looks to be at the correct level, looks nice and pink. This was the first time I have noticed this problem, and it's pretty noticeable. I haven't had this issue at all up until now, and it has me a little concerned. It is a 2005 Jeep Liberty Limited 3.7 Auto 2wd, roughly 140k miles. It runs and drives fine, once in gear it seems to shift and run the gears fine. It's just hard going into the drive gear. It isn't impossible but it is pretty stiff going into gear. It was dark by time I made it home, so I haven't checked under it or anything to see if anything is out of place. Just thought I would post here and see if anyone had any ideas for me. Like I said, it's pretty hesitant going into gear, so I'd like to find out what's going on. Lay it on me, I'm listening.

 

[JeepinJarhead03]

was it the vehicle behavior that was "stiff going into gear" or the shift lever itself that was stiff?

it may be a simple misaligment with the shift cable or some sort of obstruction *dead mouse or what have you*


if it was the shift lever, it may be mud or some obstruction on the side of the transmission , or the cable/button actuator inside the vehicle under the shifter cover

might be prudent to take a quick dive under and see if you see any signs of mud or whatever on the drivers side of the transmission particularly around the transmission linkage or if it looks like its been hit or is crusty

let us know we'll try to guide you in the right direction

 

[JeepJeepster]

Mine has done this a few times. One time it didnt go into reverse until I gave it some gas which made a nice thud.

That was several years ago. Hasn't done it since.

 

[dude1116]

Mine does this whenever it gets cold. Has done this with two transmissions. For what it's worth my trans is not in good shape.

 

[yippee]

Thank you all for the responses so far. I have some time off work today, so I'll definitely crawl under the Jeep and take a peek around and see if I can find any obvious obstructions or anything. It's hard to say if it is more on the shifter side vs transmission side (and I don't want to commit too far one way or the other and overlook the other option). If I had to gander a guess, I would say it feels more like the gear selector inside is having a hard time going into drive. But again, I can't say for sure, so I don't want to commit too far one way or the other. I also noticed today, when trying to go into drive from neutral, that there is an audible 'creak' sound while trying to put the lever into drive. I took a video, not sure if this helps anything or not. I was hoping it would pick up the creak (which I'm not sure if it did), and maybe give you a chance to see what it is doing in hopes you might have a better idea with a visual. This is also my first time posting a video, so hopefully it works. And lastly, I had to resize the video to be able to send it from my phone, so it did diminish the video quality (so I am sorry about that).

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