Dodge Durango Doesn’t Drive or Show Gear on Dash

Actually, you have hit the nail on the head, though you probably don’t know it. You said your 2000 Durango will start and run but it won’t go anywhere and that there’s no display in the LCD display on the dash. That’s what gave a major clue about your Durango’s problem. The other clue was the shorting wires at the transmission pressure sensor. You replaced the wires and connector, as well as the sensor, but you did not go far enough.

You should have obtained an OBD-II diagnostic tester and run a full series of tests to see where other problems might lie. Granted, the generic OBD-II testers that are out there will only point to general areas because they use very generic software drivers. Unless you have access to a Dodge ODB-II tester and up-to-date manufacturer-backed software, then generalities are all that is possible. Specifics are generated by the Dodge-backed ODB-II diagnostic tester.

Once you have obtained your diagnostic results and you have printed them out, look at them closely to see what might be going on with the Engine Control Module (ECM). I am willing to bet you a candy bar that you won’t see any results for the ECM. Indeed, you might see error codes that point to a problem with the ECM, but that’s about as specific as it will get.

The reason is this (it relates to the problems you identified earlier with sensors) at some point your Durango must have experienced a major electricity spike running through every major system. It might have been generated by a static electricity spark (lighting, for example) nearby or it might have been generated when a wire connected to the ECM shorted and took out the module.

Without the software that it pushes out to electronic parts like the display, there is nothing to provide the various control modules and systems with instructions and so your Durango is effectively left high-and-dry.

For example, if there is no PRNDL display in the LCD on the dash, the Transmission Control Module (TCM) that takes its instructions from the display as to gearing and movement has no driver software telling it what to do. The result is the transmission won’t work.

You see, in drive-by-wire systems like your Durango’s transmission even if you can shift into a gear, how is the TCM supposed to tell what gear it might be?

That’s the problem and the only solution is replacing the ECM with a brand-new one from the box. At the same time, your SUV needs to be reprogrammed so that all of the libraries that it depends on for its functionality can be accessed. As it is now, you just have an SUV that can’t get from A to B because it doesn’t know which gear you want to access and whether you want to do it frontways or backwards. The cost for this will be in the range of $1,250, depending on where you obtain your new TCM (salvage yards can help) and how much the software load will be.