Car Shows Neutral When I Put it in Park

For the last few years, there have been more and more reports of transmission electronics going off into Never-NeverLand and ending up showing one gear when a vehicle is in another. This seems to have been true of Fiat Chrysler Autos vehicles of which RAM is one.

Granted, a 2004 RAM is at the front end of the failure train because as sophisticated as transmission control computers and engine control computers were back then, they are even more so today. Indeed, there is a type of transmission known as the monostable device. Essentially, it is a big switch that you click back and forth to choose the next gear. On some vehicles, if you switch too quickly then you can mess up the transission control computer, causing the vehicle to go into the wrong gear and stay there. Now, it is possible that is what happened to your RAM. However, I don’t think it is too likely.

A more realistic explanation is also electronic and involves a pair of shift relay packs. A pair is all that is needed to control which gear your RAM is in. Now if one half of one device has gone and a half of the other device has gone then it is very possible for your RAM to operate in the way it has. I would begin my work there and go on as I suspect you will find it in this particular electronic chain.