On the 99, chances are the plastic solenoids that control the shifting are on their last legs. Had the same problem with my 97. Accoring to the dealer in NJ I bought my parts from, it is the biggest problem they have with those transmissions. It is made worse by the tremendous amount of heat generated in the engine compartment, and you should put an auxiallary transmission cooler in the vehicle. They only came as standard equipment on the ones with a towing package. Also, and I know there is a lot of debate about this, but he said the only fluid that should ever be put in the chrysler trannys is the chrysler ATF+4. It is backwards comapatable with the older fluids and trannys. SUPPOSEDLY, it is formulated differently then all other brands and the oters cause deterioration in the tranny. Like I said, I know there is a lot of debate about that. Also, I replace my tranny with a factory rebuilt as opposed to a dealer rebuilt, because they do a complete rebuild as opposed to the dealer rebuilts that just replace the obviously deffective/worn/broken parts.
I put the factory rebuilt tranny, the additional fluid cooler in front of the radiator, and only use the Chrys atf+4 and have not had any of the reccuring problems that I keep reading about everywhere. Sorry I know nothing at all about the dakotas
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