2014 Ram 1500 8spd failure while towing

I have a 2014 Ram 1500 hemi, 3.92s, trailer tow options, 50,000 miles. We do recreational towing, a 21' 3,500lb pontoon boat.
So Wednesday evening we had a transmission failure on a rural highway in southern Missouri 200 miles from home and 60 miles from our destination (the lake). When pulling it hills we got a couple of loud "BANG" sounds when it tried do downshift, then the check engine light came on, shortly after we got a Trans Temp High warning message.. The trans temp gauge showed 280* before we were able to find a safe place to get off the highway.. We coasted into a parking lot. Ram customer care got a tow truck to us within an hour and it was dropped at the nearest Ram dealer that night, my father towed our boat the rest of the way to the lake with his 2017 Ram 1500 hemi 8spd (his trans temp didn't top 195 the entire tow).
Two days later (Friday) the dealer looked at it and diagnosed it with a bad valve body, they claimed they saw no overheat in the history. The dealer gave me a rental that I was not allowed to tow with.. I was at a lake with my family and my boat, my truck (bought new) which had every tow option as well as a powertrain warranty had failed, and even calling Ram customer care did not help me get a rental truck that I could tow with.
The dealer did a quick turn around which was impressive, they installed the new valve body Monday morning, along with a new filter/pan and 9 qts of new fluid, they did a short 10 mile test drive, then called to tell me it was ready to pick up.
I drove the hour from the lake up to the dealer with the rental, turned it in, got my truck back, and within 20 minutes of driving the transmission hit 212* with no load and no trailer on a 75 degree day.. I pulled over and called the service manager, asking if I should bring it back to him as I was planning to tow my boat the 260 mile trip home that afternoon.. The service manager told me "until it fails again Chrysler won't do anything". Frustrated at the answer I felt we had no choice, I continued back to the lake, hooked up my boat, loaded our luggage, and we headed out. While the truck made it home we frequently hit 230* trans temps and it never got below 217* even when coasting downhill or on very flat ground, which can't be right.

280* is hot enough to cause internal transmission damage, but how/why didn't that temp show up in their diagnosis? I really feel like the transmission should be replaced, but what are the chances of getting RAM to do that? I can honestly say that I have no confidence in the reliability of my truck right now.. and i'm on my 3rd boat & 4th truck (2nd Ram), I will no doubt be buying trucks for many years to come.. If Ram doesn't do anything for me, why would I ever buy another one?

I currently have a couple calls in to Ram Customer Care and hope to hear back from them today. Will Ram do the right thing here? I hope so, but I just thought I should share my story. Thanks for reading.

Have you taken it to your dealer and let rhem look at it. ? Think that would be my next step.

I would have them flush the cooler. Something in the cooling loop has to be wrong. I dont know the mechanics of the cooling system if it has a thermostat of any sort but still has to be clogged or malfunctioning. No reason with the truck you have that a pontoon boat is causing that much heat.

69GWC said:

Have you taken it to your dealer and let rhem look at it. ? Think that would be my next step.

Click to expand...

I just got back in town late last night so I haven't called my local dealer yet. I'm awaiting a call from Ram customer care, yesterday morning they told me they'd escalated my case to another department and I should hear back in a day or so.

WilliamS said:

I would have them flush the cooler. Something in the cooling loop has to be wrong. I dont know the mechanics of the cooling system if it has a thermostat of any sort but still has to be clogged or malfunctioning. No reason with the truck you have that a pontoon boat is causing that much heat.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the input. Before they replaced the valve body I did ask the servicing dealer if they'd flush the ATF lines since 280* heat is caused by clutch slippage and he said "that's not on the Chrysler repair flowchart for this repair".

Boat freak said:

Thanks for the input. Before they replaced the valve body I did ask the servicing dealer if they'd flush the ATF lines since 280* heat is caused by clutch slippage and he said "that's not on the Chrysler repair flowchart for this repair".

Click to expand...

Lol, imo flushing the cooler should just be standard when doing transmission work.

69GWC said:

Lol, imo flushing the cooler should just be standard when doing transmission work.

Click to expand...

Completely agree.

Flushing, no. Drain and fill, yes.

Flushing should be reserved for more serious cases.

Boat freak said:

Thanks for the input. Before they replaced the valve body I did ask the servicing dealer if they'd flush the ATF lines since 280* heat is caused by clutch slippage and he said "that's not on the Chrysler repair flowchart for this repair".

Click to expand...

I feel that there aren't anymore mechanics working at dealerships. It's like anyone can work back there. All they need to do is hook up the car up to a computer or follow a flowchart. No need to check the obvious.

I heard back from Ram customer care yesterday afternoon, they say there is nothing they can do at this point because the dealers are independently owned and operated, they say the fix was done according to Chrysler's procedure and if i'm not satisfied with it I can take it to another dealer for a 2nd opinion. Dealers around here are slow as snot, I'm not going to be without my truck for a couple days with no loaner to drive and since there are no codes I can't see a dealer doing anything for me. Also, they closed my case and offered me free oil changes. I basically told them that I guess i'll either just wait until the transmission dies again while towing which will be a major inconvenience (again), or i'll trade it in on another brand, either way i'm not keeping it past the 100,000 mile powertrain warranty and i'll never buy another Chrysler product.

time to start beating on it to blow the transmission.....

DannyMK2 said:

time to start beating on it to blow the transmission.....

Click to expand...

Yep, figuring I can borrow a friend's 8,000lb construction trailer and go for a drive on some hilly roads.

Why not just go trade it in now then. Something else can go with it maybe, just dump the truck and cut your losses.

Luke

I'm with Luke -
Start looking now - the next time
It blows it could be bad and totally screw up a vacation, or mess up a scheduled event.
If you don't want to trade it then pony up for a tranny flush at a trusted shop and see if that helps- if it doesn't then I personally would trade it in.

Believe me, I've been looking all over for replacements. I'm thinking of moving to a gas 3/4 ton.. I've yet to find anything that isn't outrageously expensive so I'll probably need to wait until the end of the year to get something with a good year end discount. I bought this truck new for around $32k and really don't want to spend much more than that and have a few thousand in equity to put down. I'm fine with a base model 2500 but still need a crew cab 4wd.

Used 3/4 tons that haven't been abused seem really hard to find.

Boat freak said:

Used 3/4 tons that haven't been abused seem really hard to find.

Click to expand...

You're absolutely right.
Used trucks in general that haven't been abused are hard to find.
One of the main reasons I'm a big proponent of buying new as opposed to "slightly used" when it comes to trucks.

Not a fan of inheriting other people's problems.

This next holiday would be the day to shop- I got my 14 6.4 mega 2500 Big horn for 39k otd. It stickerd for 54k. Only gripe with my 6.4 is the gears. 373 is A **** gear for these truck needs to be 4:10s and a 4:88 option.- But for the price I paid I can't ***** to much.

dRAMbuie said:

One of the main reasons I'm a big proponent of buying new as opposed to "slightly used" when it comes to trucks.

Not a fan of inheriting other people's problems.

Click to expand...

You mean like the OP's truck....

I had the idea of going slightly used when looking for an HD but sobered up real quick. If you are going HD you are increasing your chances of getting a truck that was beaten on.

Deals are out there for the taking on new Rams.

I think there is an issue in the torque converter related to the solenoid that locks out the torque converter in 8th gear. I am getting excessive heat in the transmission without any load or towing and driving on flat ground. The truck is at the 3rd dealer right now. The previous dealers said to me and I quote, "no code, too bad for you! We wont do anything!"

When I get on the interstate, the transmission temperature will stop at 192 for about 5 minutes, then climb to around 245 in about 15 minutes. As soon as i get off the interstate on side roads, temp drops to 190 and doesn't budge, until i get back on the interstate, then its back to 245!

My fuel mileage has dropped from 24 mpg on the interstate to 16 mpg.

Tell that to the dealer and they say "WOW, never seen that before" or "are you getting an engine code? NO? Awe, that's too bad"

I have deleted the shutters and it hasn't changed the cooling.