Good afternoon. Sorry for such a long post, but I want to introduce myself and ask my first Ram Forum question. I retired after 28 years in the USCG, 14 as enlisted (Machinery Technician) and 14 years as an officer (Naval Engineer). I live in Houma, LA and currently work as a Gov't contract employee watching the USCG's newest fleet of ships being built. I am a huge (old) Mercedes enthusiast having owned and worked on about a dozen 60s thru 90s gas & diesel models. Currently I have a 1975 450SL, 1984 300D (turbo-diesel sedan) and my wife's daily driver, a 1993 300CE (gas, coupe). I have two car rules I like to follow - never have a car payment and never pay a mechanic for something I can do myself.
I've never owned a truck before, although throughout my construction-worker days and then my USCG years, I have driven and towed with dozens of truck. This past November, I decided to take the plunge and after a few months of searching, found the perfect truck for me - it is a plain white 2008 Ram 1500 SLT, 4.7L, single cab. It was a one owner truck that was a graduation gift for the PO, who drove it thru four year of college and then to his job as a Nurse at the Regional Med Center. It was never wrecked and aside from the filthy driver's seat and dirty engine compartment was in good shape. The price was right at $6,500 and the mileage was in my target area at 107K. It is totally stock and I have no desire to change that. So far I have cleaned up the engine-bay, bought a professional interior/exterior detail, given it an oil change w/Mobil1 5W30 and just this weekend serviced the transmission (both filters and 8.5 qts of Castrol ATF+4). I also installed a pair of step bars, mostly for my better-half, who is 4' 11".
Now for my 1st question - Saturday, I went to the Dodge dealer for tranny filters and found the parts dept. closed. But I ended up in a conversation with two gentlemen from either sales or service and they strongly recommended against servicing the transmission due to such high mileage. I informed them that the Dodge manual calls for a 120K mile service interval, the truck has 111K now and it's not yet been done, so why would I ignore Dodge's own recommended service interval? I asked if they were believers in the "lifetime-fluid" myth and they said "no, it's not that. But with such high mileage, if it's shifting okay now, you shouldn't touch it; it is likely to develop problems if you service it."
Well Sunday, I changed out the fluid and filters and VERY carefully refilled it, drove it, re-checked and refilled. It feels the same now as it did prior to the change, which is what I expected. Those guys really had me on the fence about doing the tranny service, but I've serviced transmissions dozens of times, some of them in the 250K to 350K mile range and never had any issues. Of course some of them were old Benz trannys. I hope this isn't a testament to the reliability of Dodge transmissions. What is the prevailing thought in the Ram Forum world?
Earl F. Allen, (USCG Ret)
I've never owned a truck before, although throughout my construction-worker days and then my USCG years, I have driven and towed with dozens of truck. This past November, I decided to take the plunge and after a few months of searching, found the perfect truck for me - it is a plain white 2008 Ram 1500 SLT, 4.7L, single cab. It was a one owner truck that was a graduation gift for the PO, who drove it thru four year of college and then to his job as a Nurse at the Regional Med Center. It was never wrecked and aside from the filthy driver's seat and dirty engine compartment was in good shape. The price was right at $6,500 and the mileage was in my target area at 107K. It is totally stock and I have no desire to change that. So far I have cleaned up the engine-bay, bought a professional interior/exterior detail, given it an oil change w/Mobil1 5W30 and just this weekend serviced the transmission (both filters and 8.5 qts of Castrol ATF+4). I also installed a pair of step bars, mostly for my better-half, who is 4' 11".
Now for my 1st question - Saturday, I went to the Dodge dealer for tranny filters and found the parts dept. closed. But I ended up in a conversation with two gentlemen from either sales or service and they strongly recommended against servicing the transmission due to such high mileage. I informed them that the Dodge manual calls for a 120K mile service interval, the truck has 111K now and it's not yet been done, so why would I ignore Dodge's own recommended service interval? I asked if they were believers in the "lifetime-fluid" myth and they said "no, it's not that. But with such high mileage, if it's shifting okay now, you shouldn't touch it; it is likely to develop problems if you service it."
Well Sunday, I changed out the fluid and filters and VERY carefully refilled it, drove it, re-checked and refilled. It feels the same now as it did prior to the change, which is what I expected. Those guys really had me on the fence about doing the tranny service, but I've serviced transmissions dozens of times, some of them in the 250K to 350K mile range and never had any issues. Of course some of them were old Benz trannys. I hope this isn't a testament to the reliability of Dodge transmissions. What is the prevailing thought in the Ram Forum world?
Earl F. Allen, (USCG Ret)
and welcome to the fam
