Transmission Help!!!

Hoping to receive some much needed insight and opinions on what is going on with my 545rfe transmission.

I am experiencing an intermittent grinding, vibrating like symptom when in 4th or 5th gear, mostly on transitioning upshifts/downshifts. Lock-up feels loose, the slightest throttle response, or subtle grade change will kick it out of lock-up. This happens at city speeds (50-60km/hr) and as well at some highway speeds (75-85km/hr). If I am driving 100+km/hr it'll stay in lock-up no problem. Also, when accelerating to highway speeds, the transmission will not hold 4th gear with a light throttle even though I am accelerating. It wants to shift into lock-up, the rpms drop like it's going to shift and then it doesn't, the rpms surge and then I'm back into forth and I basically have to let off the gas to let the transmission figure itself out as I will most likely experience that vibration as mentioned earlier.

Some members on another forum have said the torque converter is the culprit, as some torque converters had issues in manufacturing. This issue became a star case and was known as "torque converter warble." I can not say for certain that it is this issue, which is why I am turning to you guys to hopefully steer me in the right direction with this. If you need any more information I will do my best to explain. Thank you.

The first thing I would do is drive it up to speed where you are noticing the vibrations and out the transmission in neutral and le the engine idle down. If the vibration is still there, I would look in another direction. I had a dealer try to tell me my car had a bad torque converter because the car would start to shake real bad when I would stop on the brakes. It ended up being a broken brake shoe return spring, that was dragging on the drum heating it up causing it to warp.
Also how many miles are on the trans?
These transmissions will do all kind of funky things if the filters are plugged, low or burnt fluid, or the wrong fluid or filter was used or not installed correct if it was changed. Also, if you have over 60K on it, maybe it is time for a fluid and both filters changed using oem parts.

Ram Night said:

The first thing I would do is drive it up to speed where you are noticing the vibrations and out the transmission in neutral and le the engine idle down. If the vibration is still there, I would look in another direction. I had a dealer try to tell me my car had a bad torque converter because the car would start to shake real bad when I would stop on the brakes. It ended up being a broken brake shoe return spring.
Also how many miles are on the trans? These transmissions will do all kind of funky things if the filter is plugged, low on fluid or burnt, or the wrong fluid used if it was changed.

Click to expand...

If I let off the gas, the vibration will stop.

There is 125000km on the tranmission. I was experiencing issues prior to me changing the fluid and filters about 7500km ago. I replaced them with oem mopar filters, and used Redline c+ for the tranmission fluid. I noticed no abnormalities in the fluid when I changed it, the transmission fluid does not smell burnt as of right now, and the tranny temps are all in normal operating range.

A side note: I had a transmission re-learn done, which improved nothing.

how many miles on the truck? when and often has it been serviced? could be the line speed sensor.

huntergreen said:

how many miles on the truck? when and often has it been serviced? could be the line speed sensor.

Click to expand...

125000km on it. It was serviced 7500 km ago. No codes. Transmission had a relearn done about a 1000km ago.

i reread your first post and see you didn't mention any hard shifts. the only 2 things that come to mind then is either the TC or you may have burned up a couple of clutches. the only way to diagnose for certain is to let trans guy take it for a ride. this assumes you checked for leaks and checked the the fluid level.

huntergreen said:

i reread your first post and see you didn't mention any hard shifts. the only 2 things that come to mind then is either the TC or you may have burned up a couple of clutches. the only way to diagnose for certain is to let trans guy take it for a ride. this assumes you checked for leaks and checked the the fluid level.

Click to expand...

I personally was leaning towards the torque converter or clutch pack for fourth gear (the overdrive clutch pack??) or both. Here's a hypothetical...If I lock the gear selector in 4th, and drive up to highway speeds and have no fluctuations/drops/surges in RPM through a light acceleration could I not assume (for lack of a better word - and for lack of $$$$) that there are no issues with that clutch pack? Or am I completely wrong in my assumption.

I am having somewhat similar issues but mine is stuck in 4th and won't shift out until I slow to a stop. 220k miles on mine though. Thoughts?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

220k= rebuild or new............maybe want to trade in........

crackerjack1957 said:

220k= rebuild or new............maybe want to trade in........

Click to expand...

No trade in. Engine is running strong and all suspension just done with my lift. Body is in great shape too. Trans is just the weak point. I think I might go junk yard trans


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro