2007 Won't move when I press on Throttle

I have a second-hand 2007 3500 Dodge branded sprinter, 110K miles (it's my moving/chore truck, much better than a pickup). I have started seeing a strange problem with it, and figured I'd poll the collective knowledge here - I've tried searching the forums for similar problems, haven't seen anything like this.

When the beast is cold, especially when it's been sitting for few days, I can start it up (starts fine); the motor revs fine when in neutral, but if I switch it into drive and hit the throttle, nothing happens. Specifically, I can press the throttle to the floor, and the RPMs do not immediately start climbing, nor does the beastie move. If I hold the throttle to the floor, the RPMs will start climbing (very, very slowly) after about 15 seconds, and after about 30 sec or so the beast will start moving - if it's on level ground. If there's any kind of uphill incline, it might take a minute or so for the RPMs to climb sufficiently to start it moving.

After it has started moving (and this is barely moving, much slower than walking speed), the RPMs will gradually climb until it gets into the 1200-1500 range, at which point it sort of wakes up and starts moving will a little more authority.

After it gets moving, RPMs will gradually climb (along with speed) until about 20 mph, at which point everything sort of wakes up and it starts responding to the throttle and accelerating normally. After it has gone through the wake-up period, it seems to get over the problem (mostly).

Once the beast has warmed up, the problem has mostly gone away, although I have experienced this with the beast loaded and sitting at a stop light after warm-up. Although the wait period is much shorter there, there is still enough of a lag that pulling out in front of traffic can be a hair-raising event.

Transmission fluid has been checked and is nominal (I thought maybe it was the torque converter, but that doesn't explain the lack of throttle response). Transmission works fine and shifts normally when warmed up. Mileage is nominal (right at 20MPG empty), so it doesn't seem to be a slipping transmission (again, no throttle response).

The dealer sees no problem codes on the diagnostic monitor; I have a plug-in ODB2 monitor and it seems happy as well.

Any suggestions? This issue terrifies my wife (who loves driving this thing, enough that she wants to pick up a new crew van sometime in the next year), and for good reason - the intermittent not responding to the throttle at lights is always in the back of your mind. The intermittent lack of response is very infrequent - not more than 5 times in 10K miles, but often enough...

I'm guessing this is something electronic (motor or transmission control), but those modules are expensive enough that I don't want to just start replacing them.

Thanks..........
(2007 Red Dodge 3500 cargo van, 110K miles, mostly self-maintained...)

Only advice I can offer, is I took my 2007 in for a transmission fluid change at 50K. Prior to that it was running PERFECT. At the time I still used Dodge since it was a Dodge., but had long since been dumped by Mercedes. I got it back and it ran as you describe, and didn't run right till warmed up. WTH, I just changed the fluid. I put up with it for 20K miles and suspected the Dodge dealer putting in some Dodge Junk Tranny fluid, so I went to Mercedes to have it changed AGAIN, only 20K miles later.
I noticed the difference IMMEDIATELY after picking it up. The vehicle ran as it did when new , smooth, nice shifting, no weird hang ups.
So as I assumed it was bad tranny fluid. So knowing your fluid is at the right level means nothing. It needs to be the right product at the right level.
By the way, that was the LAST TIME I went to Dodge for service.

Getting no RPM response when flooring it is less a transmission issue and more a throttle position sensor issue, or shifter position fault?
why you get no codes is also weird

Do you have a check engine light? It sounds to me like your dpf/cat converter is starting to get clogged with soot.

kendall69 said:

Only advice I can offer, is I took my 2007 in for a transmission fluid change at 50K. Prior to that it was running PERFECT. At the time I still used Dodge since it was a Dodge., but had long since been dumped by Mercedes. I got it back and it ran as you describe, and didn't run right till warmed up. WTH, I just changed the fluid. I put up with it for 20K miles and suspected the Dodge dealer putting in some Dodge Junk Tranny fluid, so I went to Mercedes to have it changed AGAIN, only 20K miles later.
I noticed the difference IMMEDIATELY after picking it up. The vehicle ran as it did when new , smooth, nice shifting, no weird hang ups.
So as I assumed it was bad tranny fluid. So knowing your fluid is at the right level means nothing. It needs to be the right product at the right level.
By the way, that was the LAST TIME I went to Dodge for service.

Click to expand...

Interesting. If this happened with Dodge using the wrong fluid (which is very likely), then it would have been their go-to Mopar ATF+4 formula (thick fluid at 40°C and 100°C on this PDF.)

If the OP wants a competitively-priced fluid to switch to, he can try Maxlife Dex/Merc ATF (significantly thinner at 40°C and 100°C than the mopar fluid in this PDF). The Maxlife fluid is what many indy mercedes mechanics use for the 5g tronic aka NAG-1 transmission.

Anyway, the extra cold viscosity of the Dodge fluid over the correct thinner fluid would explain why the transmission needed to 'warm up' to run right in your (Kendall's) experience.

Sounds like a conductor plate (electrics kit) issue inside of the transmission or the lock-up clutch for the torque converter. The safest bet would be to drive it until a fault sets but there may already be a fault. Are you sure that the dealer ran a complete quick test and checked ETC (EGS) rather than just entering the CDI module directly to search for throttle faults? Most hand-held scanner will not check this module and the dealer has to either target it or run a complete quick test.

No check engine light, and I should say that the dealer didn't mention any diagnostic codes when I was in (Dodge dealer, and I asked), and my ODB2 dongle didn't show any - which, from reading this forum, may be meaningless.
Since the beast is second-hand (bought with 100K miles on it), I don't know what the transmission fluid history is - so I may just change it to make sure - unless someone knows a way to verify Mercedes fluid while it's in the transmission?

ManOnTheHill said:

unless someone knows a way to verify Mercedes fluid while it's in the transmission?

Click to expand...

Nope, there's no way to know what's in there. Nearly all ATFs are dyed red; we cannot visually discern small differences in viscosity when its drained out, and even a $30 used oil analysis from a lab won't tell you much as old fluid doesn't have the same specs as fresh fluid.

I agree, changing the fluid is the best as the first course of action, especially given that there's no history of it being changed before, and when there's an unknown/unresolved issue, its best to try the cheap(er) fixes first and then see if that sorts things out before doing more drastic things like replacing expensive control modules.

It would be very helpful if you can actually scan the EGS because this is where you would see the faults related to the conductor plate (has speed sensors on each of the drums in the transmission). Usually the problem with the conductor plates is that metal shavings build up on top of the gear speed sensors. When the shavings accumulate, the sensor starts to the that it is constantly activated. Depending on the sensor, it can do weird things. A key symptom of the 2/3 sensor is a total loss of power at early acceleration. Sometimes this happens as a result of a fluid change, probably because the incoming fluid shuffles around metal particles which had settled out in random places.

If at all possible, get a complete quick-test scan and see if they can give you the learned adaptation values for the shift solenoids.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll make an appointment to get a complete scan and get the fluid changed at the same time (I may make the fluid change contingent upon the scan results, but probably won't).

Sounds like you have a failed torque converter. At a stop perform a stall test. One foot on the brake and one on the throttle. If the engine will not build above 1000 rpm then it is a bad torque converter.

In short No
Engine isn't developing enough umph!
Engine should stall at 2000 to 2200 r/m.
Dennis

Torque converter lockup clutch is shot ! , take it to a dealer & they will be able to activate and check correct actual values of the clutch. Fault happens mainly when cold & does not throw any
dtc.

ManOnTheHill said:

I have a second-hand 2007 3500 Dodge branded sprinter, 110K miles (it's my moving/chore truck, much better than a pickup). I have started seeing a strange problem with it, and figured I'd poll the collective knowledge here - I've tried searching the forums for similar problems, haven't seen anything like this.

When the beast is cold, especially when it's been sitting for few days, I can start it up (starts fine); the motor revs fine when in neutral, but if I switch it into drive and hit the throttle, nothing happens. Specifically, I can press the throttle to the floor, and the RPMs do not immediately start climbing, nor does the beastie move. If I hold the throttle to the floor, the RPMs will start climbing (very, very slowly) after about 15 seconds, and after about 30 sec or so the beast will start moving - if it's on level ground. If there's any kind of uphill incline, it might take a minute or so for the RPMs to climb sufficiently to start it moving.

After it has started moving (and this is barely moving, much slower than walking speed), the RPMs will gradually climb until it gets into the 1200-1500 range, at which point it sort of wakes up and starts moving will a little more authority.

After it gets moving, RPMs will gradually climb (along with speed) until about 20 mph, at which point everything sort of wakes up and it starts responding to the throttle and accelerating normally. After it has gone through the wake-up period, it seems to get over the problem (mostly).

Once the beast has warmed up, the problem has mostly gone away, although I have experienced this with the beast loaded and sitting at a stop light after warm-up. Although the wait period is much shorter there, there is still enough of a lag that pulling out in front of traffic can be a hair-raising event.

Transmission fluid has been checked and is nominal (I thought maybe it was the torque converter, but that doesn't explain the lack of throttle response). Transmission works fine and shifts normally when warmed up. Mileage is nominal (right at 20MPG empty), so it doesn't seem to be a slipping transmission (again, no throttle response).

The dealer sees no problem codes on the diagnostic monitor; I have a plug-in ODB2 monitor and it seems happy as well.

Any suggestions? This issue terrifies my wife (who loves driving this thing, enough that she wants to pick up a new crew van sometime in the next year), and for good reason - the intermittent not responding to the throttle at lights is always in the back of your mind. The intermittent lack of response is very infrequent - not more than 5 times in 10K miles, but often enough...

I'm guessing this is something electronic (motor or transmission control), but those modules are expensive enough that I don't want to just start replacing them.

Thanks..........
(2007 Red Dodge 3500 cargo van, 110K miles, mostly self-maintained...)

Click to expand...

I am having the exact same issue on my my 2008 sprinter 2500 with 513000 Kms and I would love to hear what the remedy ended up being if you did find it.
The symptoms are the exact same as your whole post describes exactly!

I am thinking, like some of the other posters mentioned, the transmission speed sensors being dirty/cover with shavings after the flushing is the most likely cause.
I bought the van at 508k for very cheap because of the mileage and it was in limp mode. I tried various things off the bat including flushing the transmission. In the end the limp mode was caused by a faulty swirl flap motor actuator. This made the sprinter have power but I never really experienced the van NOT have the no throttle at stand still problem so I didnt really have a history to make sense of it.
Reading this now makes me think that the no throttle response thing is related to the flushing (which I had done by a local garage).

did you try cleaning these sensors? Does anyone know if the are accessible without tearing apart the trans?

thanks all for the input
Alex

ManOnTheHill said:

I have a second-hand 2007 3500 Dodge branded sprinter, 110K miles (it's my moving/chore truck, much better than a pickup). I have started seeing a strange problem with it, and figured I'd poll the collective knowledge here - I've tried searching the forums for similar problems, haven't seen anything like this.

When the beast is cold, especially when it's been sitting for few days, I can start it up (starts fine); the motor revs fine when in neutral, but if I switch it into drive and hit the throttle, nothing happens. Specifically, I can press the throttle to the floor, and the RPMs do not immediately start climbing, nor does the beastie move. If I hold the throttle to the floor, the RPMs will start climbing (very, very slowly) after about 15 seconds, and after about 30 sec or so the beast will start moving - if it's on level ground. If there's any kind of uphill incline, it might take a minute or so for the RPMs to climb sufficiently to start it moving.

After it has started moving (and this is barely moving, much slower than walking speed), the RPMs will gradually climb until it gets into the 1200-1500 range, at which point it sort of wakes up and starts moving will a little more authority.

After it gets moving, RPMs will gradually climb (along with speed) until about 20 mph, at which point everything sort of wakes up and it starts responding to the throttle and accelerating normally. After it has gone through the wake-up period, it seems to get over the problem (mostly).

Once the beast has warmed up, the problem has mostly gone away, although I have experienced this with the beast loaded and sitting at a stop light after warm-up. Although the wait period is much shorter there, there is still enough of a lag that pulling out in front of traffic can be a hair-raising event.

Transmission fluid has been checked and is nominal (I thought maybe it was the torque converter, but that doesn't explain the lack of throttle response). Transmission works fine and shifts normally when warmed up. Mileage is nominal (right at 20MPG empty), so it doesn't seem to be a slipping transmission (again, no throttle response).

The dealer sees no problem codes on the diagnostic monitor; I have a plug-in ODB2 monitor and it seems happy as well.

Any suggestions? This issue terrifies my wife (who loves driving this thing, enough that she wants to pick up a new crew van sometime in the next year), and for good reason - the intermittent not responding to the throttle at lights is always in the back of your mind. The intermittent lack of response is very infrequent - not more than 5 times in 10K miles, but often enough...

I'm guessing this is something electronic (motor or transmission control), but those modules are expensive enough that I don't want to just start replacing them.

Thanks..........
(2007 Red Dodge 3500 cargo van, 110K miles, mostly self-maintained...)

Click to expand...

I'm surprised no-one has suggested checking the transmission fluid level. I have experience this and my mechanic, (Zoran at San Jose Sprinter Service ‭+1 (408) 693-6577‬ https://www.sanjosesprinterrepair.com) said, "When parked on an incline the fluid level is away from the sump and it takes a few minutes to build pressure. I would suggest checking the transmission fluid level. It's not a problem just let it warm up for a few minutes before you shift into drive."I have followed his advice it will only be a problem if I park facing up hill and need to leave in an extreme hurry. I try to plan ahead if I know I will need to make a quick get away I park facing down hill or on a level spot. I received my transmission fluid level measuring kit just today. I will be parking on a very level spot and following the instructions to check my transmission fluid level soon.