Transmission problems? or "breaking in" ?

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ottoman

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Hi guys,

i've got a 2013 RCSB SLT 4x4 5.7 8 Spd

it's built in mexico in 07/13

I picked it up on Xmas day. (so almost 2 weeks)

I've got 550 miles on it now, and for the most part have been babying and breakin it... although officially there is none required, I figured I'd err on the side of caution. light acceleration, shifting at 2,000 rpm, top speed no more than 70mph

before I go griping to the dealer and they give me the "its breaking in" speech I wanted to ask you guys your opinions...


Minor glitches

I have NEVER seen the ECO mode light come on, and its not a function I can enable/disable in my Dash/cluster.. I've looked several times.. I can even post pics of the settings menu where it's supposed to be and it's not there... I swear I'm not crazy.. (I get about 16MPG cruising at 60-70mph on the highway) some ppl claim their MPG improved significantly when their motors loosened up.



my UConnect version is 13.43.7 (the latest as far as I know) if that makes a diff. which stopped working properly yesterday and was staying on. I had to factory reset it through the Engineering menu to get it to behave. still no eco mode either..

ppl say the Drone and vibration is quite obvious. but I'm not sure I'm feeling it.


so to my REAL problem and concerns..

TRANSMISSION WOES


1.) the transmission seems to be slipping between 1st and 2nd gear Sometimes..
especially with very light throttle applications.. 10% ish
you'll take off fine in first.. it will try to shift near 2000 rpm, rpm will rise your head bobs forward, and then a second or 2 later it'll grab the gear...
and you go back in your seat again...

2nd and up is fine..

2.) sometimes the car feels like its fuel starving and losing all power

usually happens at very low speed 2-3mph rollin.. like you went over a speed bump for example.. and then you Dip into the throttle like 40-50%

the Truck will fall flat on its face, rpm will just drop like the engine cut out.. and then a second or 2 later it'll just "wake up" and then come alive and start accelerating normally like nothing happend...

it once did this while i was trying to merge and I stepped out of the shoulder and thought I'd use my 400hp to reach freeway speeds quickly... instead I felt like I got hit with an EMP pulse.. and was half expecting someone to rear end me before it came alive again...


3.) sometimes the shifts are butter smooth and imperceptible and you have to watch the Tach for the change... then other then the 1st gear slips... sometimes other gears shift hard or shift slow and "clunky" it's like the transmission has mood swings...



4.) Engine braking... my truck engine brakes ALOT... my old 2500 was like a locomotive it would just roll forever... this new one is like driving stick... and you leave it in gear vs clutching in.. when I'm coasting the speed plummets... when I put it into neutral i can feel it the engine braking reduce... is this normal behavior for the 8spd?

my previous truck is also a Ram an 04 2500 RCLB and it absolute barebones... and it's 4Spd Auto hasn't missed a beat

I'm starting to get angry and fustrated with my new truck.. and after reading some of the threads on the forum has made me feel worse.. :(


do you guys think these are Torque Converter issues?

I'm about ready to give it an Italian Tune up and start ripping through the gears and redlining it in the first 5... kicking down at high speeds etc...
and see if that makes a difference


suggestions, adivce is appreciated!
 

NYCruiser

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These trucks are adaptive and learn over time based on your driving. I think you are babying it too much because its new.

Mine was like that too for the the first few hundred miles. I was not liking it. As I started driving it more "normally", it has improved drastically. At about 1k miles now, it is shifting a little harder and finding the right gears most of the time.

Not sure about the eco mode. That has always worked on mine.
 
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ottoman

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It gets better!

So I took ppls advice saying im grannying the truck too much and I should flog it.

I found an open quiet road and floored it a few times up and down rolling start and from a stand still.. I turned off traction and put it in tow haul mode.

Even under hard accel I still felt like the tranny would slip or shift hard with a delay..

I noticed a burning smell after that. Some where between the smell of burning tires and burning clutch. I thought it was from perhaps a coating burning off...


But the smell didnt go away. And the tow haul light was off and then the check engine light came on....

I headed straight for the dealer. At a traffic light I noticed the D on the gauge cluster and rotary gauge flashing. And the truck wouldn't drive! It was free revving like I was in neutral... I shut off the truck and fired her back up. CEL stayed on but it was drivable.


I dropped it off at the dealer and they will check it in the morning.

I tried the key dance to pull the codes myself but couldn't get it to work....


Well so much for the italian tune up :****sweak:
 

apepe0738

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The ECO light can be turned on through the radio if you have the Uconnect 5.0 or 8.4A/N...
 

Rockgt302

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My 14 was a little harsh at first and I had a smell like a lit match. I just turned 1k on it and all seems fine so far, fingers crossed.
 

Brakelate

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This is very unique. Sounds a bit like the Torque Converter issue going around.

I know you SHOULDN'T have to do this, but did you check all the fluids when you first took delivery of the truck?

I am always paranoid, and also find it fun to spend time learning my way around my new vehicle to crawl in, under and around it and find out where everything is, and make sure everything is up to ***** before I just start driving it. This is REALLY crazy, but I even popped the lid off my airbox to make sure a air filter was in the new truck! Lol.

It sounds to me like it was very low on transmission fluid, or the torque converter is faulty. :jnono:

I sure hope it didn't drive off the lot missing a few quarts.

Trust no one. Re-check all the things (within your comfort zone) yourself.

Sounds like they owe you a new -and very expensive- transmission.

On the brighter side, once in and done right, it should provide years and years of faithful hassle free service. I know they are apples and oranges, and it goes a very short way in making you feel any better about your situation, but my '07 1500 4x4 5.7 is nearing 100k and it's trans fluid looks and smells like brand new.

I still check the fluids on the new Power Wagon, every other fill up. Or more frequently when towing just to catch things before a little problem becomes a BIG problem. It takes little effort and is a good distraction in this busy life.


Hope it is minor. Please keep us posted on how it turns out. Thankfully it sounds like a One-in-a-million issue. Sadly, it was your number that came up.

Hang in there. Though, I know it is hard to keep something that is soured from the start.


*EDIT: Check this thread and see if it sounds like your issue. http://www.ramforum.com/f38/trans_mds_issue-21171/
 
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ottoman

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Thanks for the kind words and a useful post..

Fluid level did cross my mind during the past couple weeks actually. But I didn't actually dig under the hood to look for the dipstick. Partially laziness and partially the poor weather. And as you said with a new vehicle that goes through a PDI I shouldn't have to do a QC allover again. Perhaps I have too much faith in the dealer. Ironically this is the first new vehicle ive ever purchased...

I did check the temps tho and they were and have been totally normal.

My fear is they will give me the "we updated and reset the codes" type of answers. And weasel out of something like a new tranny...

Out of curiosity would low fluid cause the burning smells under load?
 
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ottoman

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UPDATE:

so the truck spent the day at the dealer. They reset the codes and said the updated the transmission and test drove it. And said it was fine.

I picked it up after work and it did feel smoother and better overall.

But just before getting home there's many speed bumps in my area. And one of the dreaded problems reared its ugly head.

When slowing down to say 10 mph or so over the bump and then giving the throttle a good poke. The revs climb and when it reaches around 2k rpm the truck starts to buck and lurch and hesitate pretty violently.
After a few seconds and the rpm rises further it goes back to normal.

I tried to see if I could do it a second time and it did it AGAIN.

After a couple hundred feet. I thought maybe it was the traction kicking or something crazy.

I turned off the traction control and tried again. Same bucking and lurching. This time the CEL came on AGAIN!! And it was stuck in first gear and wouldn't shift even with the steering wheel controls.
I had to turn the truck off and on again in order to get it to shift again.

*SIGH*

Back to the dealer again tomorrow morning....
 
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ottoman

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Seems I'm Talking to myself in this thread lol


anyways


so I took the Truck this morning to the Dealer, with the CEL back on..

they were saying it was due to miss-use truck was invoking limp mode to protect itself...

I told him to clear the codes and then come with me for a ride along..


low and behold I could replicate the Falling on its face problem... and after the 3rd time, the CEL came back...

this time he agreed with me that there's deffinately an issue and they'll have to keep it to investigate...

apparently the Tranny's are sealed and dealer is not allowed to open them for 60,000 miles at least...

his guess is it's a TCM issue.. but he wont know yet...

I followed the mechanic to the shop and shoulder surfed.. this is the error that came up after my "experiment" (which was diff to the first 3 I got)


11854370616_330b6771b7_o.jpg
 

NYCruiser

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Interesting how their first reaction is that its your fault. LOL
What worried me about that 8-speed tranny was how much experience the dealer service departments would have with it.
It's probably a great tranny, but let's see how fast they can troubleshoot it.
 

powderbrad

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Incorrect ratio.

That's sounds like a fun warranty repair. Considering they're ALREADY blaming your driving style. haha, sorry.

If they F with ya, id go to a different dealer.
 

Brakelate

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Seems I'm Talking to myself in this thread lol

We are here.... quietly waiting and watching. What a mess.

What a bummer.

Keep us posted. *You might let it slip that you are on a major RAM forumboard and discussing this issue, and your experience with the Service Department and the brand name overall and see how they react.
 

rustydagger

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Definitely. My 2012 6 speed is at the dealer getting a new tranny. They've had it since December 9th and still have it. I'm getting ticked. 21k miles

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
 
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ottoman

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UPDATE:

suspicions seem to be that it's the Valve Body causing the issue...

none available in stock.. ETA unknown...

they will check with other dealerships around.. but I doubt they'll find it there either...
 
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ottoman

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so I picked the truck up today after 11 days..

Changing the Valve Body didn't do it..

in the end they went whole 9 yards,

they took a truck off the lot and swapped the whole damn thing out

Torque Convertor, Tranny, TCM etc...

seems to be ok now, but I went straight to work and didn't have much time to try it..


Its about time cuz I have a Mopar Bed Rug sitting in my living room I've been dying to install!



question is should I break in the Tranny for 600-700 miles? or is it not required?
 

NYCruiser

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Wow. Kudo's to that dealer for going the distance and not making you wait any longer. Hopefully that is the end of that problem.

I didn't do anything special to break my tranny in, but I did drive the truck nice and easy first 500 miles because engine and everything else was breaking in.

Downside to that is the tranny shifted funny for the next 500 miles because it "learned" my breaking in driving style. LOL
 

parkersdad

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so I picked the truck up today after 11 days..

Changing the Valve Body didn't do it..

in the end they went whole 9 yards,

they took a truck off the lot and swapped the whole damn thing out

Torque Convertor, Tranny, TCM etc...

seems to be ok now, but I went straight to work and didn't have much time to try it..


Its about time cuz I have a Mopar Bed Rug sitting in my living room I've been dying to install!



question is should I break in the Tranny for 600-700 miles? or is it not required?


I'm glad your truck is fixed that is annoying. I'm also glad that you have a great dealer. My Ram dealer in town is great also. That is why I have Bought five Chrysler vehicles from them.
 

smiley

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I have found that no matter how many dealers try to mess up my truck Dodge still helps me out and takes care of things. Dealers can be great or they can be terrible seems there is no middle ground.


$miley
 
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