2017 with 8 speed. Gear slip ? Knock when letting off gas

Addicted2fishing · Nov 20, 2017

2017 RAM 1500 hemi

So not sure if I’m over thinking this but I love noticed my transmission acting weird or what I perceive as weird. While accelerating it Alamo’s sounds like it’s slipping into gear. It’s not a noticeable gear change. Almost like it’s switching to seamlessly. Also, when letting off the gas in town it’ll down shift hard and have a noticeable knock. Maybe it’s my driving style. Not too sure.

The best way I can describe it would be riding a clutch on a standard vehicle and giving lots of gas while slowly letting off the clutch. It’s grabbing the upshift just gradually of that makes sense LOL.

Anyone here experience that sort of thing ?

I can try and make a video later this week.

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chrisbh17 · Nov 20, 2017

Ive experienced a little extra "kick" in the pants on mine but I think thats the standard 2 to 1 downshift complaint (some people feel its too aggressive)

I have not experience what else you are mentioning.

My quick try advice would be to use the Gear +/- buttons to enable ERS, which will show you what gear you are in on the EVIC. And watch the gear numbers change while you are driving to see when you experience the issue. Its very possible its just a regular upshift....the 8 speed seems VERY smooth and fluid in its shifting, so its hard to tell if its slipping or actually upshifting.

Addicted2fishing · Nov 20, 2017

chrisbh17 said:
Ive experienced a little extra "kick" in the pants on mine but I think thats the standard 2 to 1 downshift complaint (some people feel its too aggressive)

I have not experience what else you are mentioning.

My quick try advice would be to use the Gear +/- buttons to enable ERS, which will show you what gear you are in on the EVIC. And watch the gear numbers change while you are driving to see when you experience the issue. Its very possible its just a regular upshift....the 8 speed seems VERY smooth and fluid in its shifting, so its hard to tell if its slipping or actually upshifting.

Yeah exactly! I notice the down shift when I’m slowing down. With the exhaust it almost sounds like a standard trans sometimes. If I’m coming up to a light it sounds like I’m downshifting with obvious burble and backfires. As for the upshifting I completely agree the 8 speed is super smooth and thus why I’m having a hard time pin pointing the potential issue. Instead of shifting gears it’s almost like it’s hanging on to the previous gear and slowly engaging the next one.

As for the downshifting sometimes not always I’ll let off the gas and it’ll clunk. Not the same as the aggressive downshifting described. If I’m accelerating from a light for instance and someone in front goes to turn into a plaza I’ll let off the gas from accelerating quickly and that’s when I usually get a clunk. Again, not sure if I’m just being overly critical or this is normal. I don’t remember my 2016 with penta doing this.....

I’m due for my first oil change soon and will be mentioning a couple of my issues. This being one of them. I’m pretty sure I’ve read somewhere sometimes the shift points need to be updated on the ECU

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EVc96bKA · Nov 20, 2017

This sounds like a common complaint on a lot of them (including mine). When you first out it in drive, us the gear + button and select 8. Then go for a drive. This will turn off the MDS. If you notice it is acting better, you are one of thousands that are getting annoyed with the Eco MDS system.

If you don't notice a difference, it it could be a tranny issue or an differential problem. But we will explore those later.

Addicted2fishing · Nov 20, 2017

What’s the ERS? And if I shift the gear to 8 it’ll just stay in 8? The couple times I’ve used the triptonic feature it wouldn’t switch gears without me actually hitting the +\- button

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tsielski · Nov 20, 2017

I just turn the MDS off every time I start the truck using the paddle shifters. Truck runs smoother, and I actually get better highway mileage with it off, than when leaving it on.

chrisbh17 · Nov 20, 2017

Addicted2fishing said:
What’s the ERS? And if I shift the gear to 8 it’ll just stay in 8? The couple times I’ve used the triptonic feature it wouldn’t switch gears without me actually hitting the +\- button

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Thats the ERS.

After you start the truck, use the Gear - button. At the bottom of the EVIC (next to PRND) you'll see the gear number readout. Use Gear + button to increase the number on the right, and that sets the limit of how high the transmission will shift. Set it to 8 to get full range of shifting then go for a ride.

Note when you feel the issues and see if it coincides with the gear number going up or down.

And as long as that gear number indicator is up, MDS is disabled.

BTW I too get a brief occasional "clunk" if Im slowing down to a stop and then accelerate for some reason. It happens rarely but it does happen. It sounds like u-joints to me, not that they are bad but maybe just under the correction conditions they clunk when put back under torque.

EVc96bKA · Nov 20, 2017

Yes selecting 8 will keep the truck automatically shifting up to 8 gears. All this really does is turns off your MDS which is like an Eco feature. I have had the problem you're describing on my 2015 since I turned over to 1500 miles. When I finally learned to manually select the gear range it fixed my problem. I'm assuming you're having the same thing as many people describe this.

As for the clunk, I saw somewhere on this forum where the differential housing has started rusting ever so slightly and causes it to clunk in certain conditions. I have not had a chance to explore the issue myself but the overall transmission issue was fixed once I learned to turn MDS off. I have better gas mileage and more power. Amazing how ****** that MDS is on these trucks.

Addicted2fishing · Nov 20, 2017

Wow. Didn’t know this stuff! Thanks guys! So if I select 8 on the manual shifting it’ll still act as a automatic and downshift for me? Or am I simply taking over the transmission to override the MDS? To be Honest the MDS is annoying and I find if it’s in ECO mode and I accelerate gently my current MPG use goes way up because the 4 have to work harder to move my truck. I really notice the MDS because my flow master noise maker. I was by a guy that the MDS will cause damage although I’m reluctant to believe that as this has been around for quite some time now

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tsielski · Nov 20, 2017

The way I do it is once the truck is started, shift into drive, and with my foot on the brake, press the - toggle so "1" displays as the gear, then repeatedly press the +, and as the numbers move up to 8 and I'm done. The trans will still shift normally, your MDS will be turned off, and as an added bonus, you will be able to see what gear the trans is in as it shifts up and down.

Addicted2fishing · Nov 20, 2017

tsielski said:
The way I do it is once the truck is started, shift into drive, and with my foot on the brake, press the - toggle so "1" displays as the gear, then repeatedly press the +, and as the numbers move up to 8 and I'm done. The trans will still shift normally, your MDS will be turned off, and as an added bonus, you will be able to see what gear the trans is in as it shifts up and down.

Thanks a lot [emoji106]. I’m gonna try on my buddies big horn on the way home from work [emoji6]

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tsielski · Nov 20, 2017

Only down side to this is when you stop and go into reverse and back to drive, it negates that process and it will have to be repeated to re-disable the MDS

Addicted2fishing · Nov 22, 2017

Ok so while stopped with foot on brakes I put it to 1. Moved all the to 8. Drove around and the gears never changed. Or at least never changed on the display

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crazykid1994 · Nov 22, 2017

Addicted2fishing said:
Ok so while stopped with foot on brakes I put it to 1. Moved all the to 8. Drove around and the gears never changed. Or at least never changed on the display

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My truck the gear on the display does not change. It would be a dog trying to start rolling in 8th gear though. It still shifts through gears just limits to whatever you have set on the display. About half the time taking off after slowing down without fully stopping my truck hesitates getting into gear then feels like it slams hard into the gear. Almost like dropping the clutch kinda slam. Doesn’t do it after a full stop. I’ve never paid attention to speed when it does it so I don’t know if it’s specific to a certain gear or not

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2017 with 8 speed. Gear slip ? Knock when letting off gas

Addicted2fishing

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chrisbh17

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tsielski

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